Brinkley's

BoatLady ( 30s, Female, South Chelsea )

This is drinking/dining for grown-ups with grown-up salaries in Chelsea. The atmosphere is friendly and lively, with a slight end-of-term feeling, a survivors' camaraderie, a kind of if you've made it here then you're “in the club”, you're “one of us” welcome. Sadly, if you sit down to a meal in the back here the food will not match up to the atmosphere or the prices charged. Black linguine was overcooked (albeit with lovely scallops), my chocolate brownie good (but difficult to get wrong), the cheeseplate my 2 friends shared looked a bit stingy. OK we had a couple of bottles of decent Pinot Noir between the 3 of us but still the £60 bill each was a shock for what we'd had. Waitresses are efficient although I suspect they are picked primarily on their abilities to flirt with the older, male clientele, skills which were much in evidence last night.
I'd recommend coming here for a few quiet drinks, staying in the bar to munch a starter size nibble which you'll need to soak up some of the slightly louder drinks which inevitably followed the quiet drinks, and stumbling out into the night at the point you realise you won't remember the conversation you're having at the bar with the hedge-fund manager/trustafarian/Dad in the morning anyway. This approach has worked well for me in the past, better than the disappointing dining experience of last night.