Bow Wine Vaults

Push through the bright, refurbished ground-floor wine bar & you’ll find a softer, more intimate ambience in the comfortable basement dining room, with gentle pinks & framed artworks adding plenty of visual interest. It’s comfy, too: upholstered banquettes absorb both noise & bottoms. Starters could be goats’ cheese nicoise salad or smoked haddock & asparagus pancakes with hollandaise gratin; mains are the likes of grilled langoustine on lemon couscous salad or honey-glazed duck breast with polenta cake & fromage frais. Food is the same both upstairs & down; in fine weather the tables in the pretty, historic lane outside are among the City’s most seductive alfresco spots.