If you are booking, request a window table.  A little hard to find being two flights upstairs but that just improves the view of the Thames.  The acoustics are not great and the window tables also have the advantage of being quieter.  It was funny to glimpse Mini Patel in the kitchen, having seen him on TV, cooking on Great British Menu.  Like Frog in East London, dishes are brought by cooks from the kitchen.  Useful if you have questions about the dishes but less handy if you just want to ask for more water.

We arrived very hungry so ordered the red pepper and walnut dip with crisp bread, knowing that a pre-prepared dish would appear quickly.  We were not that impressed be the design of this dish.  It contained cumin and quite a lot of smoked paprika so the freshness of the roasted red peppers was lost.  Also the sour dough melba toast was drenched in olive oil.  Tasty actually, but quite messy to eat.  I would have preferred a dip that was flavored more like a romesco than a muhumarra, with some acidity and the freshness of parsley.  I did appreciate it being served at room temperature rather than fridge cold.

Mains on the other hand were excellent.  My companion's lamb pie was very pretty, very meaty and with little fat.  It came with a salad dressed in a nutty vinaigrette and deep fried lamb chunks.  A quenelle of wild garliic pesto was a great compliment.  The lamb jus was intriguiging with a tiny hint of aniseed in the background.  I had a very well trimmed and well sourced ribeye steak.  It was trimmed so well that even served rare I only needed to trim off one vein of fat running through the centre.  The accompanying oxtail and bone marrow sauce was rich and had been sweetened with port.

We had two sides.  The roast hispi cabbage with crisp shards of prosciutto and a light coating of cheese and mustard sauce was brilliant.  Some of the best cabbage I have eaten.  Fries were not great, being a little soft and greasy rather than crisp.  Fried at too low a temperature.  However the accompanying hollandaise was quite masterful being more acidic than usual, which made a good foil for fries.  In fact, all of the sauces were masterful.  On a second visit I would order their organic sourdough instead of fries for mopping up the delicious sauces.

With a pleasant house red of Sicilian Nero D'Avola for a reasonable £21, our bill would have been £83 at full price including service and a 1% charitable donation.  They are soft launching the new menu until Saturday April 28, 2018 with food discounted at 50%.  Go to the Offers section of the Hot Dinners website for instructions on how to get the discount.

When the sun is out, a table at Blueprint Café overlooking the Thames is a glorious spot to enjoy a meal. And it’s been my experience that the café’s Head Chef Martyn Moody’s meals are definitely enjoyable. His new Saturday brunch menu is a guaranteed weekend delight. As for the weather, there are no guarantees, but the crisp blue skied Saturday I paid a visit was gorgeous.