Indigo
One Aldwych hotel, 1 Aldwych, tel +44 (0)20 7300 0400 onealdwych.com
One Aldwych hotel has two restaurants – Axis, a basement restaurant with a stunning wall mural and the feel of an Art Deco New York restaurant, and Indigo, which is situated on the mezzanine floor.
Indigo overlooks the main bar area and shares the light from the lobby's high windows during the day, and the buzz of the bar in the evening. In fact, what might at first seem a novel solution to an odd space makes perfect sense here. At quiet times, there's an animation to Indigo, and at busy times, the clever acoustics and effective but unobtrusive air conditioning mean you never feel overwhelmed by the bar, no matter how crowded it becomes.
The food here is excellent, having been through several incarnations since the hotel opened in 1998. There's a big emphasis on seasonal – and often British – produce in all of the restaurants reviewed here, and Indigo excels in this area. For healthy eaters, or those with food intolerances, there are indications of meals suitable for vegetarians and those containing nuts, as well as (l&h), which translates as "light and healthy, for people who are following a lower calorie, fat or cholesterol diet".
In the summer menu we could choose between starters of chilled clear gazpacho with basil (v; l&h; £5.75); organic chorizo and truffled mozzarella tart with rocket salad and aged balsamic vinegar (£8.75); and crab cakes with wild rocket, sweetcorn, pear and coriander relish (£10.25). Main courses on our visit were asparagus, soft polenta, poached egg, truffle oil and shaved Pecorino (v; l&h; £15.25); pan fried fillet of seabream with gnocchi, sautéed green beans, shallots, oyster mushrooms and butter sauce (£16.95) and fillet of Scotch beef Indigo style with potato blini, asparagus, slow roasted tomatoes and red pepper hollandaise (£19.50). By the time you read this a new menu will be in operation reflecting the autumn season's ingredients.
Mention should also be made of the service, which was excellent and attentive without being at all overbearing. The wine list was short but well selected, with prices very reasonable for a five star hotel's restaurant, and again, the selection changes regularly.
Prices Pre- and post-theatre menus are available, with two courses for £16.75 or three courses for £19.75.
Opening hours Open daily for breakfast 6.30am-11am; lunch 12pm-3pm; and dinner 6pm-11.15pm (last orders).
The Portman restaurant
Portman Radisson SAS, 22 Portman Square, tel +44 (0)20 7208 6137, radissonsas.com
Former Gordon Ramsay protégé Adebola Adeshina is the reason to visit the restaurant of the Portman Radisson SAS hotel. Adeshina, though still in his twenties, spent six years working under Ramsay – starting at Aubergine – and has also worked with Marcus Wareing at Petrus in St James, the Square and the Capital Restaurant at the Capital Hotel in Knightsbridge before arriving at the Portman.
On the corner of Upper Berkeley Street and Portman Square and set back behind mature trees from the busy A41, the tall black leather seats and simple décor of white walls and wooden floors accurately reflect the unpretentious menu, in which Adeshina's signature dishes are indicated as simply being "...by Adebola Adeshina".
These include crispy lasagne; king crab with a scallop crème froth; pan fried turbot and Ackee with salt fish served with sautéed yam; grilled smoked haddock; parsley crust salt fish and Mediterranean vegetable concasse herb salad and deep fried anchovies. For dessert, dark chocolate tarte "Illy" Espresso Granito (£7.50) was the perfect finish, although the cheese trolley – with 11 varieties from the UK and Ireland – was also pretty tempting.
The regular menu changes seasonally and at the time of eating it was summer delights: oven-baked horseradish soufflé, warm goat cheese salad (£7); and poached lobster (half) in champagne and oyster broth served with homemade egg noodles, shitake mushrooms and tofu (£22).
Although Adeshina has had little contact with Ramsay for years, he admires the celebrity chef for the training he provided, adding: "He's a lot more than a chef for me. He doesn't get a lot of credit for me."
Prices Lunch is £18 for two courses or £20 for three courses. Dinner is à la carte with starters costing £8-£9.50 and mains £15-£24. The chef's six-course tasting menu costs £55.
Opening hours Open Monday to Friday for lunch 12pm-2.30pm and daily for dinner, served 6pm-10.30pm.
Bonds
Threadneedles Hotel, Threadneedles Street, tel +44 (0)20 7657 8088, theetoncollection.com/restaurants/bonds
Bonds restaurant, in the five-star boutique Threadneedles Hotel, is a superb addition to the City eating scene. The old hall with its Corinthian columns, tall windows and wood panelling has been transformed with frosted glass, long-stemmed flowers in illuminated vases, candles, pot lighting and a kitchen lit with mood colours. Prices are high, but not astronomical, and the cuisine is recognisably modern French.
My roast "hand-dived" scallops with parmesan dentelle, garlic cream and parsley coulis (£17) was delicious, the parmesan wafer adding a touch of salt to scallops of the highest quality. The main courses are a reflection of Michelin-starred executive chef Barry Tonk's ambition: roast "Anjou" pigeon with a ravioli of mushroom and foie gras. Oloroso sherry sauce and Tonka bean cappuccino isn't the sort of dish you tire of seeing on menus, while the Szechuan pepper and honey glazed "Barbary" duck breast with spiced aubergine, baby bok choi and morello cherries was a little complicated for my palate, but a dish I haven't forgotten.
The sommelier recommended well – for the scallops, a Riesling: Crossroads Classic, Hawkes Bay 2004.
Prices Lunch costs £20 for two courses or £25 for three courses. Lunch and dinner are available à la carte with starters £15-£24. The tasting menu costs £65. Champagne by the glass is £9.50-£12. There are eight white wines by the glass ranging in price from £5.50 to £8.50 for the Chablis, Domaine Billaud-Simon 2003), and eight red wines by the glass for £5.50-£11. More unusually, there are also three dessert wines by the glass at £9-£12.
Opening hours Open Monday to Friday for breakfast 6.30am-10.30am, lunch 12pm-2.30pm; dinner 6pm-10pm. Open Saturday and Sunday for breakfast 7.30am-11am, and serves tapas from 3pm onwards.
Foliage
Mandarin Oriental Hotel, 66 Knightsbridge, tel +44 (0)20 7201 3723, mandarinoriental.com
Located in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Knightsbridge, the Foliage has a menu which is masterminded by award-winning chefs David Nicholls and Chris Staines. As with Indigo, there's an emphasis on fresh seasonal ingredients, which translates into dishes such as roast scallops with new season pea and mint salad, grilled pancetta and marinated girolle vinaigrette as a starter, and roast saddle of rabbit, pithivier of wild mushrooms, asparagus, Alsace bacon and vanilla cream for main course.
As befits a five-star hotel in Knightsbridge, the interior is stunning, devised by Adam Tihany, creator of Le Cirque 2000 in Manhattan. You make your entrance though a glass walkway of 5,500 wine bottles. Clean lines and geometric shapes are combined
with soft lighting and luxurious fabrics. Dark wood chairs are upholstered in butterscotch leather blending perfectly with the rosewood panelling. The restaurant has a raised floor to ensure that every diner has a view of Hyde Park.
When I was there the menu included pan fried fillet of Gilt head bream, risotto of Jerusalem artichokes and smoked bacon, scallop and sesame brochette, garlic cream, and for dessert, hot pear and almond tart, malted milk ice cream, confit of pear and hazelnut salad.
Extra touches include fresh leaves from Hyde Park, picked each morning by staff and placed under the plates, while behind the blinds, sandwiched between giant glass wall panels, are 24,000 white silk leaves that come to life through clever lighting, their colours changing in tandem with the seasons.
Prices Lunch costs £25 for three courses or £32 for three courses plus two glasses of wine. The three-course à la carte costs £47. For dinner, a five-course tasting menu costs £70 or three courses à la carte is £50.
Opening hours Open daily for lunch 12pm-2.30pm, and dinner 7pm-10.30pm Monday-Saturday and 7pm-10pm on Sundays.
City Café
City Inn, 30 John Islip Street, tel +44 (0)20 7932 4600, citycafe.co.uk
The City Café is anything but a café, with head chef Peter Lloyd (previously at the Dorchester Hotel and Chequers restaurant at Simpson's in The Strand) working variations on its brasserie offerings so that what seems like a short menu features modern and traditional cuisine, as well as classics from the grill.
The 200-cover City Café in the heart of Westminster is a modern take on a grand hotel dining room. It has an enviable position, and manages the mix of politicians, business travellers and, at the weekend, leisure travellers and even clubbers heading to the fashionable Millbank Lounge on the first floor. There can't be many hotel restaurants that manage the balance of having one diner in turquoise
t-shirt and jeans sitting a few tables from Lord Irvine as it did the night I visited. The layout will sit single diners and has lots of booths and banquettes, and the floor to ceiling glass windows create a light and airy dining environment during the day.
There's a choice of three modern European menus: the exclusively vegetarian garden menu, the à la carte and the set price seasonal "garden" menu. There's also lots of seasonal product. The Kitchen Menu (£17.50 for two courses) changes daily. I had cabbage and roast ham soup followed by West Coast steamed mussels with bok choi, soya and shellfish broth. Those dishes low in fat and lighter in calories are indicated.
The à la carte has a mix of modern and traditional with starters such as chorizo
and red lentil soup with homemade sweet potato and rosemary bread; tiger prawn and squid linguine served with Thai asparagus and shellfish veloute; and Cornish crab and leek tart, tarragon crumble with brown crab dressing. Mains include belly of pork served with pea purée and smoked white bean sauce; tournedos of loch Duart salmon and pomme mousseline served with scrambled egg and chive butter sauce; and pan roasted fillet of Buccleuch beef served with rosti potatoes, red wine jus, watercress and pink peppercorn butter.
The "grill" section offers dishes such as roast grouse with bread sauce and rack of welsh lamb with mustard and herb crust, all served with a choice of sauces including wild mushroom and Madeira cream, tomato and mustard port, or port and red wine. Fish dishes include Dover sole, organic salmon or Canadian lobster served with béarnaise, lemon butter or salsa verde sauces.
There is a good choice of wines, including six whites and eight reds and on the summer menu, a choice of chilled Beaujolais cru.
Prices The set lunch and dinner, or Kitchen menu, costs £10 for one course, £15 for two courses or £17.50 for three courses. The à la carte has starters for £5.95-£8.50 and mains for £14.50-£21.50.
Opening hours Open for lunch 12pm-3pm Monday to Saturday, 12.30pm-3pm on Sunday; and for dinner 5.30pm-11pm daily.
Amba Bar and Grill
Radisson Edwardian Mayfair Hotel, Stratton Street, tel +44 (0)20 7915 3892, radissonedwardian.com
In various guises the Radisson Edwardian Mayfair Hotel has been around for 80 years, but the latest refurbishment, earlier this year, has now reached the lobby and many of the public areas, and has resulted in the new Amba Bar and Grill. It's a mix of Eastern and Western styles with black and amber of the leather upholstery, granite flooring and wall coverings. Tables are well spaced so it is easy to have a private conversation, and the restaurant – despite having the open kitchen in the middle – has a cool, tranquil feel.
Amber prides itself on serving seasonal British food. The menu is an interesting mix. My Scottish scallops with broad beans and a smoked tomato dressing was superb, and my guest's Scottish roast beef salad with peppers, mint, coriander and spiced dressing was delicious.
For the main course I was tempted by the cottage or fish pie but the staff encouraged me to have meat or fish from the grill. I chose the chicken with pearl barley and wild mushroom risotto. This was tasty but it was a huge portion and I was defeated by it. The seafood mixed grill was very well received.
Desserts were an equally tough choice and we sought help yet again from the enthusiastic staff. The brown bread ice cream was top of the list but we ignored the recommendation. Our order of bread and butter pudding did not leave a particular impression, the caramelised rice pudding with apple and blackberry marmalade scored full marks but, not wishing to miss out, we ordered a side portion of brown bread ice cream and were both bowled-over by the ice cream's taste and texture. Why did we not listen to the waiter?
Prices Lunch and dinner à la carte has starters costing £6.50-£12 and mains for £12.50-£18. There is no set or tasting menu.
Opening hours Open for lunch 12pm-4.30pm Monday to Friday and daily for dinner 7pm-10.30pm. Closed for lunch on Saturday and Sunday.
Chino Latino
The shared restaurant for these two sister properties – one five-star, one four-star – is an ambitious fusion establishment with clear nods to Nobu in some of its dishes (Black cod in miso with pak choi; £19), perhaps explained by the presence of former Nobu chef Jimmy Nakamura. There's also a touch of the Sanderson Hotel's Asia de Cuba, the sharing concept, which is over complicated and likely to receive a frosty reception outside Asia-Pacific.
In fact, the concept of matching an Asian restaurant with a Cuba-style bar already exists in Park Plaza hotels in Nottingham and Leeds. Here it has the addition of Mediterranean dishes, although some of the dishes still feel Asian, such as Thai curried shellfish with lobster, shrimps, scallops, vegetables and grapes (£19).
After a slow start, service was warm and professional, and the experience was augmented by the music drifting through from the bar and the classy furnishings. (The separate bar area has a resident mixologist, Bartek Borkowski, formerly cocktail specialist at Hakkasan, and live DJ at weekends.)
Prices Lunch costs £14.95 for two courses or £17.95 for three courses. Dinner is à la carte with starters for £3.50-£8 and main courses for £17-£24.
Opening hours Open for lunch 12pm-2.30pm Monday to Saturday; dinner 6pm-10.30pm Monday to Sunday; closed for Sunday lunch.
