Now that it’s finally looking a bit sunnier and more spring-like outside, and we can cast off the slough of what was an unusually long, cold and bitter winter, many of us – especially those who have been dutifully observing long periods off the wine in Dry January and Dry February – and now starting to think once again about booking some of the best tables in the capital, and beyond.
But where to head? Sometimes, you want something warming and hearty, because it’s still the early days of spring and the nights are freezing. And at other times, fresh, light and seasonal are the orders of the day. Here are some of our favourite restaurants where you’re not only guaranteed to have a stunning meal, but you’ll walk out resplendent with the joys of the season…
The Prince Arthur, Belgravia
Most restaurants that I review for the Arbuturian are relatively conventional establishments. You turn up, peruse the menu, order, are fed (hopefully well), thank the staff and then leave. Sometimes we have brilliant experiences, and at others there’s a faint feeling that something is left to be desired. But I haven’t had such a memorable time in a high-class place in aeons as a recent visit to the new Prince Arthur in Belgravia. Part pub, part high-end restaurant and part experience, it’s a welcome blast of originality and creativity in an area that can so often be sterile and predictable.
The first thing that you notice when entering is that much of the ground floor here is a pub. And not the kind of chichi gastropub that can be found nearby, where Scotch eggs cost the best part of £10 and where even the nuts are from Brazil, but a proper, old-school pub, complete with pints at the bar and big screens showing the football, as well as incongruously loud and banging music.
For a moment, I even thought we might have found the wrong place, but when the supremely assured maitre’d directed us over to a more formal part of the restaurant – there is an upstairs area, which is due to open in its own right, probably by the time you read this review – and offered us a cocktail, it became clear that this is not so much an establishment of two halves and more a daring and largely successful combination of old-school boozer and decidedly contemporary dining establishment.
The head chef here is Adam Iglesias, a veteran of establishments such as Brat and Barrafina, and the cooking here is bold, innovative and highly unusual. If you’re after pub staples, you can whistle. Instead, feast on small plates including devilled eggs with their own in-house caviar, tuna tartare on turbot dripping potatoes and cured red mullet, and then mix it up with a selection of larger items including presa Iberica, their own take on a paella that features lobster and wild mushrooms with poached egg yolk.
It’s all super, but the absolute, moreish highlight by a country mile is the side of winter tomatoes, served simply and deliciously; it’s one of the finest things I’ve ever eaten of its kind, and made me giddy with delight.
There are beers on keg, if that’s your thing, but there’s also a seriously interesting Spanish-heavy wine list, put together with skill and care by the Bulgarian sommelier. Brace yourself for some of the prices, but the Granito Vinas del Cantabrico is a smooth, Chablis-like wonder, and if you’re looking for a hearty and assertive red, you’d be hard-pressed to do any better than the splendidly named ‘El Tribut de Scala Dei’, a 2022 marvel that works superbly with fish and meat alike.
It all segues nicely into the very fine desserts – a ‘chocolate mousse’ which is actually a fondant, and a Basque cheesecake that has perhaps unnecessary cheese grated over it – and then it’s out into the Belgravia night, replete, impressed and somewhat stirred by the ambition on display here. Packed when we visited, it should develop nicely into one of the hottest openings of the year.
The Prince Arthur, 11 Pimlico Road, London, SW1W 8NA. For more information, and for bookings, please visit www.princearthurbelgravia.co.uk.
Cinnamon Kitchen City
We at the Arbuturian are big fans of Vivek Singh’s Cinnamon Club, which remains one of London’s most beloved, and iconic, Indian restaurants. Yet it’s also true that there’s a certain hushed formality to visits there, perhaps because of its being a favoured haunt of politicians and its setting in the old Westminster library.
If you’re after food every bit as excellent but in a more relaxed, buzzy setting, then head over to the City for Cinnamon Kitchen, the Cinnnamon Club’s slightly hipper sibling. (There’s also another one in Battersea.) When we visited, everything was in full swing on a busy, fun Tuesday evening. We kicked off with an excellent mango sour – as recommended by the superb manager – and then went on a guided tour through several of the restaurant’s signature dishes.
Small plate starters of chilli paneer, spiced squid and chicken leg tikka all give a valuable overview of what the restaurant’s doing – portion sizes are perfectly judged, being neither so large as to be overwhelming nor too small to be satisfying. Washed down with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc, it’s a fine curtain-raiser before the more sophisticated and carnivorous delights of tandoori venison rump and smoked Kentish saddle of lamb, which display the restaurant’s dedication to provenance and seasonality.
We become slightly giddy with the sides and order two kinds of naan – garlic and the house speciality of chicken tikka and cheese – as well as black lentils and a roast corn kachumber. But somehow, aided by an excellent Tempranillo, we make it through a truly delicious meal.
Desserts are far from the usual afterthought in these establishments- the banana tarte tatin is as good as I can remember having anywhere, and as it’s Shrove Tuesday, it would have been rude not to have had the date pancake. It all made for a rousing send-off to a fine meal that was priced kindly given the setting and quality of what we ate and drank, and proves, as if it were necessary, that Mr Singh is an exceptional man in all regards.
Cinnamon Kitchen, 9 Devonshire Square, London EC2M 4YL. For more information, and for bookings, please visit www.cinnamon-kitchen.com.
The Woodsman, Stratford-upon-Avon
The chef-patron Mike Robinson, perhaps best known for his Michelin-starred Fulham pub The Harwood Arms, is a man who can do the most extraordinary things with game, as he has been demonstrating in his Stratford-upon-Avon outpost for the past few years.
In a town largely aimed at theatregoers and tourists, he’s managed to keep the consistency of this particular restaurant going, now under executive chef Greg Newman. Seasonality and provenance are vastly important, whether it’s day boat fish from Cornwall, the wood-cooked dishes in the restaurant or – in this most venison-friendly of establishments – deer taken from the Cotswolds.
If you begin your meal with a selection of snacks, including mutton croquettes and seaweed hash browns with cod’s roe, it’s a pretty good curtain-raiser for what’s going to come next. (This is most certainly a restaurant to visit when you’re hungry.) Starters of wild rabbit raviolo and that most decadent of things, a homemade crumpet festooned with snails and bone marrow, are not only divine but genuinely original. Accompanied either by a glass of Riesling or a stellar Old Fashioned, it’s the stuff of legend.
However, somehow, the mains manage to outdo it. The ‘dirty mash’ here, which mixes rich, buttery potato with shredded venison and deer-infused gravy, is one of the signature dishes and so you’d want to order food that’s the right accompaniment for it, and so the slow-cooked pork belly and crispy pig’s head is the perfect match, but obviously you’re not going to come here and not order the venison, it being the signature dish, and so the pave of Bathurst deer, served with potato and braised neck terrine, is the stuff of legend.
A warning – you will almost certainly be full at this point. But if you’re a solid trencherman (or trencherwoman), then the poached rhubarb with rice pudding and iced tea jelly is a must for dessert. Everything about the Woodsman is like Robinson himself – generous, full-spirited and hearty. And if you’re a venison fan, I can’t think of anywhere better to eat it.
The Woodsman, 4 Chapel St, Stratford-upon-Avon CV37 6HA. For more information, and for bookings, please visit www.thewoodsmanrestaurant.co.uk.
