Home » Central » REVIEW: Oval Restaurant, The Wellesley Hotel, Knightsbridge – REVISITED. I know what you’re all thinking. How did I get my photos to look so amazing. Well it was all thanks to a good lens, the right aperture and slow shutter speed. OK so I’m lying. My photos were absolutely awful. Everything looked like a brown mess so I did the classy thing and begged the Wellesley for some snazzy snaps and look what they came back with – arguably the best you’ll ever see on TheFoodaholic. I’ll admit not all the food looked exactly as pictured here, it wasn’t always consistently pristine plated, but it was very close. Everything looked just as pretty as it does here. I’ve already visited the Oval Restaurant at The Wellesley once before, just over a year ago now and decided to come back and see if its head chef, Michele del Monaco was still up to his old tricks of chucking out confused plates of food in the dining room, but guess what – he’s not. Perhaps the time to settle in here has given this Italian born chef a period to perfect the menus. It’s not cheap by any means, but the food is good. The only thing that’s not good here is the bread – well half of it anyway. All I ask for is some amazing focaccia laced with rosemary and drizzled with oil. Sometimes simple is best.

The Oval Restaurant is a unique eatery located in an art-deco style hotel in Knightsbridge called The Wellesley. This is partly due to the fact that the restaurant seats only 28 people and feels very intimate.

As we entered the hotel we were immediately greeted by the doorman who was just one of the staff members eagerly hoping to help us during our visit. The hotel itself felt small once inside, although the hallway threw me back into the age of the flapper girl with the sparkling, glamourous silver décor.

At the end of the hallway we were directed into a very small room which happened to be The Oval. We were the first there for Sunday lunch and whilst the room was beautiful, I did feel that the lack of guests meant the atmosphere was less buzzy compared to busier lunch locations in London.

Would I Want Seconds?

We booked a set menu deal on Bookatable which included 3 courses and a glass of champagne. Once we were seated we were offered our champagne and were given a variety of breads and oil. This pleased me as it is interesting to see what restaurant offer holders are given outside of the set menu.

The attentive staff gave us plenty of time to have a leisurely meal so once we had devoured the bread, we began our starters. There were two vegetarian options for the starter (and two for the main) and I chose the chickpea and parmesan crêpe, mushrooms, asparagus, tomato confit and quail eggs. The presentation of this dish was immaculate and I very much enjoyed it. The crepe was much thicker than I expected, the cheese was strong and delicious and the different foods in the dish complemented each other greatly.

For my main course, I chose the pumpkin and maccagno cheese pie with caponata and saffron sauce and, once again, the presentation was delicate and enticing. The pie was tasty and the saffron sauce was not overpowering. I felt that the dish could have had something else to make a larger impression on me as the starter did but, all in all, it was satisfying.

For dessert, there was no question for me in choosing the dark chocolate mousse with coffee sauce and vanilla ice cream. Beautifully displayed with a painted chocolate leaf and all the sweetness one could desire, the dish was delicious and fulfilling.

The final touch to the meal was when the waiter brought over an old wooden cigar box full of rich chocolates. Obviously after the dessert, we all felt quite full but couldn’t help ourselves when being offered something so tasty for free!

Could I Afford Seconds?

The Bookatable offer for our meal at The Oval was £35 including the champagne. Whilst obviously this is quite pricey, the meal was worth it due to the luxurious surroundings and impeccable table service. I even saw that when one of my party dropped their napkin a waiter swiftly and discreetly picked it up with a pair of tongs and replaced it with a new one, again, with a pair of tongs. This sort of service is only in the very high end restaurants so overall this meant, for me, that £35 was worth it.

Overall:

If you are looking to eat at a restaurant without the rowdiness and hustle and bustle then this one is for you. For the veggies out there it will come as a surprise that almost half of the options from the set menu are meat-free, which is so rare within the usual set menus in London. I understand that they have jazz nights here also which would make for a different evening and really fit in with the 1920's vibe of the hotel.

As we approach Valentine’s Day I would definitely recommend it as a romantic date destination due to the small, intimate room, the good quality food, the service from the staff and the general feel of being in a classy restaurant.