Giaconda Dining Room

What a terrific place: nothing fancy, but a small, cosy, mediterranean-food-inspired place, set close enough to Soho to be known, but far enough off the restaurant track not to be outrageously expensive or overcrowded.

The (summer midweek) evening that we went, it was full, which means a maximum of about 30 covers. Tables are close together, so conspiratorial conversation is hard, although joy of joys, no canned music to contend with. Only places that are totally comfortable with the atmosphere that their dinners will create are bold enough to get away with this. Good for the Giaconda.

The menu is remarkably long for what looks as though there is only one person in front of the stove: the back wall of the restaurant is a wall of wine with a gap in the middle, allowing a view through to the tiny kitchen. The food is simple enough: in our group of four, we had the daily soup special (a rich crab bisque), the risotto of the day (summer truffle) and the crispy pigs trotter. The latter was not, as we had hoped, a whole trotter, but a wobbly square of glutinous trotter meat, toped off with a crispy crust of parmesan, atop soft boiled eggs and some salad leaves. Really rather good.

Mains too hit the spot: the duck confit was beautifully crispy (and came with a simple watercress salad); the steak was as rare as asked for, with good (skin-on) chips; steak tartare perfectly acceptable; and the the ham hock hash, a sort of ham-patty, crumbed and topped with anchovy and fried egg. Again, all really rather good.

The wine list too is in keeping with the food: lots of interesting, regional wines at seriously good prices, although with the odd higher priced example (Chasse Spleen 1989 at £103, about double retail). We had a Bergerac Blanc and a very passable Chinon, both in the mid-twenties.

Service is friendly, in that died-blond, Eastern European way that is taking over in London, and the bill was, for this part of town and this quality of food, exceptionally reasonable.

The restaurant's tag line of “we aren't flashy or grand and that suits us just fine”, sums Giaconda up perfectly. Don't go here expecting foams, smears or anything remotely trendy, but do go for fine, honest cooking, a good atmosphere and fair prices.

This may well be a brilliant restaurant but unfortunately they are utterly incompetent at taking reservations. Despite speaking to them three times in one day, upon arrival they had no recollection of our reservation, with excuses ranging from 'our staff can't speak English very well' to ‘you clearly have booked another restaurant’, to eventually bare faced lies. Rude, unhelpful, unapologetic. Food looked really good, shame about the simplest of things. Spoilt our evening, angry, disappointed, will never return.

Went here recently for lunch. It has a small, unimposing front. Once we walked inside, my first reaction was that it was quite buzzy and I am glad I had booked a table. We were greeted immediately by the friendly but efficiently busy waitress and asked to choose any of the three 2-seater tables that were left. Once seated, I glanced around the room to see an interesting mix of business types, lunching ladies and work friends who don't mind paying for a nice lunch. Not that it is expensive here, just a better standard than the usual chain type places. The room itself is quite small, but the tables aren't too close together. The decor is smart, with dark woods, nicely laid tables and cabinets of wine at the back.

A pleasant surprise was the carafe of sparkling water placed on the table, and a small plate of olives, as well as an extra dish for the pips, that were decent quality (it's a pet peeve of mine to be given tasteless olives).

The menu offers an interesting mix of dishes, and we were informed of daily specials also. One odd thing was there were three or so dishes that were in their own little group in between the starters and the mains. I presumed these were ‘medium’ size dishes that could be ordered either way.

As we had limited time, we just ordered one course. I had went for the duck confit with small roasted potatoes and watercress salad, my companion had the fish soup (which was Starter size, but a reasonably sized portion). The duck was delicious and tender, though the skin could have been a little crispier (caused no doubt by the slight sauce the potatoes were done in). A sizable portion, I thought it was good value. My friend thought her fish soup was delicious, though she did mention she prefers the croutons on the side so you can judge for yourself how long they sit in the soup and not let them go too soggy. It had a nice thick consistency and was bursting with fishy, saffrony flavour.

I convinced my friend to have a glass of wine, and she was pleasantly surprised that the amount wasn't too much (there's a first!). She commented it was nice to see a restaurant serve a sensible sized glass of wine with lunch. The wine list seemed quite good, though leaned heavily towards French wines. I was disappointed to not see more Australian wines on the list, considering the chef is from there (as am I). There a number of wines by the glass.

So overall I had a very pleasant lunch. I am looking forward to going back to try some of the other dishes…and maybe a dessert next time, some of which looked delicious. It is nice to find a well run place that has a nice buzzy atmosphere, is stylish, serves good food and isn't overpriced. Recommended.