Murano

First time dining at Murano, we went for my mum's birthday. We went early evening and got off to a slightly unfortunate start when sat next to a table of well refreshed hedge fund managers who'd been out celebrating their work Christmas lunch, and probably spending part of a bonus that is around 10 times as much as my annual earnings! They were fortunately packed off shortly afterwards reducing the noise level by about 80%.

The first thing that strikes you about Murano, other than the hedgies noise, is that it’s grown up – I’m nearly 40 and for most of the evening I was the youngest customer there. It’s also a stunningly dull room – everything is beige and the combination of subdued lighting and slightly too warm heating wasn't conducive to a great atmosphere. All of which makes it sound like I hated it; but I certainly didn't.

Service is generally lovely, polite and effective – though they did seem to have a few initial problems with the drinks order and the bill took one request and one Paddington Bear style hard stare to make appear, but other than that it all worked as you'd hope, so perhaps they've sorted out the gripe lots of other reviews on this site seem to have had.

Food was wonderful, though given the chefs name, the Michelin star and the cost (circa £110 per head for 3 courses, water, wine and a drink before starting) perhaps you've got a right to expect something special, though there are other venues with similar qualities that fail to deliver.

I started with pumpkin tortelli, sage butter and crushed amaretti; pasta is frequently, unless you're eating it in Italy, heavy going, but this was light and delicate, warm autumn flavours. This was followed by halibut, bread purée, pear compote, white onion fondue and scallop velouté – the fish was wonderfully firm, cooked to perfection and the range of accompaniments gave everything a warm sweet twist, the only slight oddity being the white onion, which could easily have been omitted without spoiling anything. To finish chocolate ganache, chestnut parfait, artichoke sorbet and mint – I admit I was jealous when others soufflé with caramel and fresh mint chantilly arrived but then I tasted the chestnut parfait and, if I weren't an atheist, I would have believed I'd discovered heaven.

I enjoyed Murano, great food, good service and value for money is reasonable, though the atmosphere needs something different. I'm not sure it would be ideal for a date, but for your mum's birthday it's great and I'd happily recommend it; though, given I paid the bill, it might be a once a year treat!

Dinner was fantastic,went. For a 40th birthday treat and was not let down, service was very good and the front of house team were very attentive. Starters were all sublime and all the guests were really impressed with this course. Venison main was for me just the best but others had the monkfish that was also very good. Souffles for dessert topped off a great meal, wine list was a bit pricey, but overall a great special evening with fantastic food. To top it off a visit from Angela made the evening!!!

So Angela Hartnett is a jolly old soul, it was nice to see her at front of house before service started, all smiles from the staff and everything looked in place for a great evening. The service looked wobbly from the beginning but we ignored it. Aperitifs took an age (we were the second table to arrive), we received the same ‘amuse bouche’ three times by three different waiters, the ‘Antipasto’ (actually two cold cuts) arrived 30 seconds before the first course and it went further downhill from there. The sommelier was competent but the waiters seemed clueless, dirty plates were left, wine glasses drained and redundant, dessert wine with no dessert. Quite astonishing from what is a Michelin Star restaurant with such an accomplished Chef at the helm. Perhaps this was just an off-night but given the ticket price, I would recommend giving this place a wide berth until more positive reviews appear.

Food was good but the service was really disappointing for such an expensive restaurant.

We arrived to find that they didn't have our booking (despite me getting an SMS from them and an e-mail confirmation) – I had to faff around for 10 minutes with my Blackberry to find the confirmation to prove I genuinely did have a reservation. All this was very embarrassing for us and our guests and the staff seemed like they couldn't have cared less that my wife was upset by it all.
A complimentary drink would have been nice as a token gesture but all we got was a half-hearted apology.

What should have been a great evening was completely ruined and when we declined to pay the discretionary service charge because of this, the sommelier made it very clear he wasn't happy and he was actually extremely rude.

We loved Angela's restaurant at The Connaught but unfortunately we won't be returning to Murano.

I lunched at Murano on a Saturday with a friend, for his birthday. It’s a beautiful room, with well-spaced tables and fantastic lighting. We sat at the top of the restaurant, with a view of the kitchen through a large window – when we arrived, they apologised to us for sitting us there, but we thought it one of the best tables – not least because we could see that Angela Hartnett was cooking that day, which we got very over-excited about.

And we were right to be. It isn’t often you have a faultless dining experience, but this was truly it. The food was absolutely sublime – in particular the quail raviolo that I had as a starter. The little extra touches – the arancini and delicious salami that came before the first course; the intensely flavoured sorbets that came before pudding (special mention for the basil one); and the fantastic breads, all meant that this excelled any of the other Michelin starred restaurants I've eaten in in London – including the Square, which has been my favourite for some years.

The service was very charming and I'd also like to specially commend the Sommelier, who gave us a great recommendation for a white, which was exactly the same price as the one we told him we were thinking of – a very tactful response, we thought.

I’ll definitely be going back.

One of the best restaurants I have visited. The food and wines were exceptional. Not being on a budget, we left the choice of wines entirely to the sommelier, who didn't disappoint. We did not ask for the price of the wines and were pleasantly surprised by the final bill. of £149 per head for a party of 4. This included Belinis to start, a bottle of white and red wine and a superb pudding wine to accompany a fantastic apricot oufflé. Not cheap at £149 per head for a party of 4,.but worth every penny. The staff were charming and humerous, but not servile in any way. The decor was pleasantly restful. Definitely will return, perhaps to try their set lunch at £30 per person.

Having booked well in advance, to find all we could get was a 9:30 reservation on a Friday night, we still decided to go. Had heard such positive things about Murano…what's the difference if one eats a bit later than usual?We were celebrating a colleague's engagement, and wanted it to be special.

Arrrived at 9:25, to be told our table “wasn't quite ready” yet.

30 minutes later it still wasn't ready.

Finally shown to a table at 10:25, (!!) famished, and as I was the host, struggled not to let the staff know just how unprofessional I thought it was. ( And certainly no 'gosh we're sorry would you like a glass of something on us?' in evidence…)

Indifferent apologies from the staff. The food was lovely, if a bit rich. But inevitably, we were left eating it in a restaurant devoid of anyone else (all the other more timely seated people had left long ago!!). This would not have been so bad – (could hear each other talk), except for the staff hovering too obviously impatient for us to be gone as well.

-Very expensive. But unless the service gets its act together, not worth it.

Food : 8. Experience : 0.

It may be a big gamble for Angela Hartnett taking on Murano herself, but with food this good, I really hope that she succeeds. She certainly deserves to flourish here, with a free hand to run the kitchen as she pleases.

The restaurant itself is all muted pastels: beiges, creams and that non-entity of a colour: magnolia. The atmosphere too is muted and hushed, maybe so as to allow the hedge fund billionaire clientele to hear what their nieces, some of whom were young enough to please Berlusconi, have to say, without the need to resort to their ear trumpets.

We settled for the a la carte menu, rather than the lovely looking set menu that comes complete with matching wines should one wish. Tasting menus are good for two reasons: firstly, they allow the chef to show of his (or indeed here, her) skills; and secondly they take away the element of choice. Now choice is generally a good thing: would I choose to support Arsenal? Of course; which fan of fine footballing skills would think of doing anything else? Would I cover myself in honey and run through an apiary? No. Well, not unless it was for Angelina Jolie. The trouble with Murano is that the menu contains so many of my kind of dishes that making a choice reduces me to Robbie the Robert, fused into a state of incapacity, unable to decide between the myriad right answers.

We pondered this dilemma over a glass of passion fruit bellini and some excellent amuse bouche (surely there is an Italian word for this? Divertire bocca perhaps?). Indeed, so excellent were they that, having seen us devour the first plate, the attentive waiter immediately replenished the parmesan balls with a far healthier portion. The waiting is attentive without being overbearing, the sommelier (again, surely there is an Italian word for this too?) guided us through the wine tome and the head waiter did that really annoying thing of taking everyone’s order without writing it down. And getting it place-perfect.

Finally decide we did, and none of the dishes was anything other than excellent: the pumpkin tortellini was smooth, rich and sweet, with the pasta perfectly al dente and the crumbled amaretti biscuits working far better than it sounds as though it should; the grilled red mullet was a sizeable dish, replete with a smear of basil puree; and the sweetbreads cooked to perfection.

A main course of chicken wings with halibut was an odd, but excellent, combination and the beef fillet a nice slab, cooked as asked atop a mound of berlotti beans. The beef was apparently Casterbridge beef. Now I am no Hardy scholar, but I thought that he made the place up? Whatever, it was lovely: maybe it had been hung for the last 130 years.

Following on from the pre-desert sorbets, the desert-deserts were again all lovely: we were warned that the tiramisu was nothing like we would ever have had before, and the waiter was right. All the ingredients were there (chocolate, mascarpone, coffee, cream etc), but the whole had been deconstructed, with each main flavour having its own place on the plate, leaving you to reconstruct or have separately.

With all the superlatives (the food, the service etc) there are downsides/niggles/downright silliness: the atmosphere, as noted above, is not really there and do you really need three foot high decanters to pour the wine? Yes all very trendy and all that, but the poor pourer practically had to stand at the next table to deliver the wine. These are as mere nothings to the prices. Yes this is Mayfair, yes we had a couple of bottles of wine between us and a cocktail each and yes I know that there are always those little add-ons that add up, but how a £60 per head menu for four of us came to over £160 a head is beyond me. Gawd knows how much it would have been had we been trying to impress our nieces.

Oh yes, Murano is very good – it's very good indeed. Don't be put off by the Ramsay family moniker – like Atherton at Maze, this definitely is the home of Hartnett rather than the angry craggy-faced headliner. Also, try and look past the strangely staid and emotionless dining room – this really is the Deatheater of decor – it's truly extraordinary how how they've manged to suck all the life out of the room. Get beyond it, sit down, salivate over the menu, then prepare for a treat.

Becuase this is excellent, yet refreshingly “simple” cooking. You don't need a dictionary to translate every second menu option – you'll just need a few extra belt holes becuase if you manage to avoid hitting the full 3 courses then you've a stronger will than I.

From the pre-starter of excellent Italian hams and cheeses, past the tuna carpaccio with pork belly, up and over the duck with beetroot gnocchi and right through to the stunning pistachio souffle, this was a food journey I'd willingly take over and over again. Genuinely fantastic food. Wines were good but definitely weighted towards the fatter walleted patrons.

All this place needs is for Angela Hartnett to impress her personality on the dining room as well as the food and there won't be many better places to visit in London.

I must highly recommend Murano, that's the restaurant and not the small glass blowing island near to Venice although please don't misunderstand me, that's a pretty place to visit too – for glass. The food's better though at London's Murano restaurant.
Yes, it may be part of the ubiquitous Gordon Ramsay group and yes, we'd all love the excellent restaurants that we adore to be small, independent entities but, Murano must take some beating.
My husband is, as those who know him will attest, a generous spirit. He's also ever so slightly barmy and when those two personality traits collide, it can be a very dangerous and hazardous combo. I say that because he invited a group friends to a lavish dinner at this Michelin starred restaurant to celebrate both our birthdays. How often have you had a invitation like that?
We were lucky to get our table for eight at Murano because they don't really do tables for eight. Gordon Ramsay restaurants apparently think that a table for more than six people is horribly vulgar. They don't say that overtly but I'm told it's just that those ‘in the know’ know.
Our table was a great. A big round one at the rear of the restaurant although we were just opposite the door to the kitchen but, as we were eight and the conversation was flowing, it's didn't disturb us. Anyway, it was nice to glance into the kitchen from time to time. No shouting, no flying saucepans, no Gordon-type theatricals in evidence here. Perhaps it's because the chef is a lady. It's Angela Hartnett's restaurant and she's doing a brilliant job. The menu is fabulous with a great choice and even a full vegetarian menu as an option which was music to our ears as two of our guests were non-meat eaters. With the fish choices on the main menu and the added bonus of the vegetarian menu, they had more choice than they are used to. They actually got a bit over-excited.
I started with Scottish sea scallops served with apple and cucumber salsa, pata negra, pumpkin purée, and candied walnuts which was quite simply drop dead delicious and followed that with a perfectly cooked Gressingham duck breast to die for, served with parsley root purée, creamed Savoy cabbage and confit leg. The portions were small but perfectly formed leaving room for dessert – the best bit. I chose a Plum crémeux and spiced caramel parfait with a feuillantine crunch and roasted plum which was perfect – until I clapped my beady-greedy eyes on the pistachio soufflé with hot chocolate sauce (that another of our party had opted for) which was even more perfect. I've never seen such a quintessentially voluptuous, impeccable soufflé in my entire life and, hovering menacingly with my spoon, I barely waited to be invited before plunging in for a taste. It was utterly spectacular and I wished I ordered it too – along with the Plum crémeux! It was that delicious, I could have eaten both.
Other highlights included well, everything. I could go on in detail about the white onion risotto, Scottish venison loin, Winter vegetable sald or line caught sea bass but suffice it to say, our whole party was agreed that it was some of the best food we'd eaten in London in recent memory.
If I was to be an icky-bicky bit picky, I'd have to say that the wine list is über expensive. My advice, stick to Italian wines as the French wines on their list are second-mortgage worthy. The service was also a tad slow although all of the staff were very friendly without being intrusive or in any way snotty. It didn't matter to us as we were up for a whole evening out but our table was booked for 8pm and we eventually rolled out at just before midnight. At just under four hours, it was a long dinner. In their defence, it was the night before Valentine's day so they were running a special eight course Valentine menu alongside of their à la carte and the restaurant was full to capacity.
It's not cheap and not somewhere to go everyday but for a special occasion and for Mayfair, it's not extortionately, ludicrously expensive either. The dinner menu is priced at £60 per head for three courses, the only supplement being an £8 charge for cheese (which I don't fully understand). We didn't stint ourselves. We started with a bottle of Prosecco and followed that by a bottle or two of white and three or four bottles of red. With all of that, we felt we'd had good value.
Murano offers a set lunch at £27 per head. If you like lunching, that'd be a real bargain. And if you want company, I'm free!

Wonderful meal at Murano. It was our wedding anniversary and it was a great meal. We went for the tasting menu and every course was cooked perfectly. Standout dishes were risotto , pumpkin pasta, John Dory and sea bass. But the most wonderful moments came with dessert – a blissful lemon tart and amazing chocolate souffle. Service was impeccable and friendly.
The decor was a bit bland and didn't seem to grab the opportunity of using more Murano glass.
A terrific meal.
Geoff.

Went to Murano tonight. Dreary decor,lippy staff and complex menu that had no rhythm. I ordered the mozzarella and tomato to start. It was served on a giant plate. The food was lost on it. It was about 4cm in diameter. Three mouthfuls later gone. next I had the mushrooms on toast from their veggie menu. Revolting. Had a look at the desert menu but again too complex nothing seemed to go. I asked for a fruit salad which was very nice. Little chocs were served with the coffees but they tasted sour or off.
Anyway would not go back ,over rated and lacked atmosphere. We were told to be at resto at 7pm and out at 9pm. We asked waitress if she would take a photo of our tabe and she responded that will cost you another ten pounds. We said we'd heard the restaurant had one an award and she replied she'd make sure we'd be charged more. I don't think it's very classy when waiters/waitresses think they're your mates.
Anyway thumbs down to Murano. All I can say is I ate a better meal in a locally family run trattoria in Murano only a few weeks ago!!!

When I booked our table at Murano I was warned that it would be turned in 2 and a half hours, and if necessary coffee would be served in the bar. This always puts a bad taste in the mouth before you have entered the door, however after our experience I fail to understand how they can carry out this policy. ‘The bar’ consisted of one table with just enough room for 4 people to sit around it, and after ordering the tasting menu it took them 4 and a half hours to serve it all to us! The food was indeed as good as expected from Angela, and unusually the tasting menu had choices on 4 of the courses, which was very welcome. However, the bug bear of the evening was the price of the wine, and the lack of choice. Yes a long list, but very little outside Italy and France and all with huge mark ups. £50 for a very average NZ Sauvignon, please! Also annoyingly on the night we attended it seemed that a large proportion of the wines were out of stock, with no similar alternatives available. Despite excellent food, at a price you would expect to pay to Mr Ramsay, we left feeling as if we had been fleeced.

PS The loos do have mirrored doors, but they are in fact labelled if you look closely!

Angela H certainly knows her stuff and likes to lead from the front. She was on the serving hatch all night this week when we enjoyed excellent if expensive food there on Monday evening. Unfortunately I didn't feel very well the next day and can only hope this had nothing to do with her habit of tasting every dish with a spoon. Now clearly this is great in terms of quality control but tasting EVERY DISH, HERSELF with the SAME SPOON? All I can say is we better hope she hasn't got swine flu or something worse.

So my very respectful tasting tip for Angela would be use lots of spoons or to rinse and dry the single spoon between tastes. This would be better than the current system which seems to involve an occasional wipe of the spoon on the back of her apron.

Apart from this the food and wine were excellent and the service good and I got over my stomach issues within 24 hours.

Was taken to Murano last night for my birthday. Boy what a treat! I am still thinking of the langostine risotto this morning. The food, every bit of it, was excellent. As I said my risotto was historic(sorry michael winner) with zucchini and its flowers also added. We then had the veal chop for two which was carved at our table, and so mouthwateringly soft and tasty. It was served with gnocchi and white asperagus. Wonderful. We had a chocolate souffle, and a rhubarb tasting which I literally scrapped the plate clean. Service was friendly, charming and professional-absolutely could not fault it. The only rub-the wine list. I had looked on line before we went, and as the previous reviews comment, it has way too many overpriced wines, and not enough good value ones. Anything in the 75-90 quid range was sold out-what's that telling you Angela, and so we went with a wonderful Volnay, but at 135 you wonder if they aren't taking the piss just a bit. Not everyone wants to spend 2-400 quid on a bottle of wine

By all means GO TO MURANO, just maybe have a look at the wine list before hand to see if you can find a value there somewhere.

What is it about Gordon Ramsey and his heavy handed approach to dining ? We booked Murano for a table at 7pm. On the day of the booking we were told they needed the table back at 9:30-that was no problem. On the day of the meal they called us to confirm that they needed the table back by 9:30-again no problem. We promptly arrived at 7pm for our 7pm booking. The first thing that was said as we entered the dining room was “ we need the table back by 9:30”. I am not exaggerating.There was no “Good evening- no nothing”. As far as I am concerned, if I arrive on time to a restaurant ,when they get the table back becomes their responsibility not mine. I felt as welcome as a nun at an orgy with that greeting. I certainly did not feel like a valued customer. CChurn and burn was more like it.
We then sat down when a waitress came over and asked if we needed help with the menu-we didn't but she wouldn't take no for an answer and proceeded to explain that the starters were on the left hand side and mains on the right. Well duh!!! When this happened all the bad memories of Ramsey's heavy handed service of past restaurants came flooding back. Once at Aubergine, the french waiter told my very british husband without being asked ,that a poulet was a baby chicken-I thought my husband was going to belt him. Why does Ramsey treat his customers like idiots? I also despise the overly friendly service. I want service to be there in a discreet fashion like Le Gavrouche-I do not want to “chat” with the staff. I have come to eat with my family not them. The food however was sublime. It would have to be.

I didn't know quite what to expect of this restaurant but my experience could not have been better. We were led to the back of the restaurant and my first thought was that we were being tucked away at a lesser table – but to my delight we were seated with a fantastic view into the kitchen and were thrilled to watch the chefs at work – including Angela. To our amazement our 3 course set menu expanded into a 6 course extravaganza as we were brought nibbles including a large platter of Parma ham and 8 (yes eight!) flavour of sorbet to sample. Both of our menu choices were delicious. My only regret is not choosing cheese instead of dessert – the choice of 30 cheeses looked fantastic when the couple next to us had it brought to them…but by then I couldn't manage another mouthful. The waitress was more like a cheese sommelier (if there is such a thing) as she was incredibly knowledgable about each and every cheese on offer.

I was visiting London on a bit of a spur of the moment gourmet 48 hours (I also managed to fit in dinner at Nobu and lunch the next day at Babylon) but Murano won hands down.

All in all a fabulous experience – can't wait to go back.

I dined at Angela's new joint for an ‘a la carte’ luncheon priced at £55 for three courses, and I was pleased to see that the transition from The Connaught to this smart location seems to have gone very smoothly on all fronts. The decor is a tad bland, or what an interior designer might call modern-minimalist-Art Deco-chic, but I liked it. It follows the slick modern formula that many top restaurants are now adopting.

The food, inspired by Angela’s Welsh-Italian roots, was excellent, though my partner’s starter of squid ink tagliolini was overpowered by lemon and chilli. My starter of quail agnolotti with a white onion puree, truffle and Savoy cabbage was nothing short of perfect.

For a main I had roasted halibut with a potato galette, wild mushroom duxelle and cep veloute, which again was executed perfectly. To accompany all of this, we chose a reasonably priced Rioja that went down very well indeed.

Service was predictably smooth, though beware of their mirrored toilets; apparently there is a gents loo and a ladies loo, but there are no symbols on the mirrored doors to indicate this. I won’t tell you how I found this out, but let’s just say that I still have nightmares about it.

In all it was a great meal and lived up to expectations. It may not be anything out of the ordinary or pushing any culinary boundaries, but like most of Ramsay’s haute cuisine restaurants, they do classic cooking very well indeed. Don't expect to be dazzled, just expect to be pleased.

Murano offers a set lunch menu at £25 for three courses, and I shall be returning here later in the year with the chaps from The Arbuturian to give it another run.

I went with high hopes for this latest outpost in the Ramsey empire but was rather underwhelmed. The food is well-executed, sophisticated and slick, but lacked wow-factor apart one scallop dish that I tried. Whilst other Ramsey restaurants excel at the end of meal petits-four arms-race of ever more interesting nibbles, the macaroons and other items delivered to table here were either unpleasant or just dull. My tip would be just to pinch the ones from Hospital Road.
Decor is plush but plain and I would not choose it to impress a guest. If they were not aware of the awe in which Angela Hartnett is held, the experience might not make much of an impression.
Service was very attentive and we were looked after well from start to finish. Staff were obviously well drilled and courteous.

Dinner for 4, Thursday night…The Decor of Murano is tasteful, the staff are friendly but service could be more discreet – I don't want to have a conversation with the waiter/waitress on every visit to the table. The food was tasty but my main course of red mullet was over cooked. The Sommelier made some excellent recommendations on both bottles of wine but again, I really didn't want to spend 15 mins talking to him about it! If you haven't been, I would suggest a visit as Angela runs a tight kitchen and my guests and I had a great night – but I wouldn't go back a second time due to poor value for money.

Pretty room, but stuffed full of suits. Staff very professional but very robotic: smile more, guys! Good for client entertaining but very 'Ramsay': you feel like you could be eating in any of the big man's restaurants.