Union Cafe

It never fails. We've eaten at the Union Cafe four or five times over as many years: it is a wonderful, relaxed, pleasant place to spend an evening. It could easily bear a first date, or a meeting of friends, or a work dinner which won't be dreary, and that's a hard spectrum to serve well. Ideal for a West End rendezvous (half way between Baker St and Bond St tubes), closeted on a corner of crooked, pleasing Marylebone Lane, opposite the tiny untouched Golden Eagle pub. You foregather for a pint, and look around at the nearby restaurants, like Entrecote or the Golden Hind or Caffe Caldesi, and then you ponder the Lebanese and Persian and Chinese pleasures within a few minutes walk … and somehow you are dragged back to the Union Cafe. A clean, uncluttered dining room, with good elbow room around the modern wooden tables. The counter and kitchen sit in an L-shape at one end of the room, but do not dominate. The room is on a street-corner, and so benefits from windows along its length and then breadth, giving a run of very pleasant tables for two at one side of the room. A wine list which is perhaps unparalleled in London for value: Cloudy Bay for £25, Cune Imperial Gran Reserva 1998 (what a wine!) for £33.50, Domaines Ott rose at around £30: these are first-class wines which would normally sit in the forties and fifites, if they were offered. The Fiefs de Lagrange 2000 (St Julien) is a very serious second-wine claret from a wonderful year: for a very special occasion £50 is actually a true bargain. At the other end of the spectrum, the low and mid-teens-priced wines are very good: someone really cares about this list. Its consistency and sheer smarts are enough to take you to Marylebone on their own. But if you are so lured, then the food will also reward. Modern European/British with a couple of Asian dashes among the starters, and some North African tinges in the main dishes. It is pretty simple, and it's well-cooked. It's not wow-special, it's not haute cuisine: it's just decent, fresh and well-presented. At a recent dinner we ranged across the Union Burger rossini (foie gras on the burger), roast rack of lamb with harissa and teboulah, a flawless tuna nicoise (perfectly seared tuna with melting boiled egg, and beans the way they should always turn out, and never do), and veal escalope. The roasted cod and sea bass lost out this time, but could have been selected with equally good results, judging by past meals. Watch out: the main portions are large (and the starters compensatingly small). One duff note — dull bread, regulation french white, and not very fresh. But that's a little cavil about a proper meal. It takes a fair bit to cause me to write a review after a dinner, but I think the Union Cafe is a quiet gem of a place. Good for couples all the way to parties (they did fifteen of us with great aplomb once), this restaurant deserves some unforced praise. To end with the people: the waiting staff and managers we have known have generally been efficient, helpful, and even charming, and they don't push you or fuss. Go, and have a good time: you can do a lot, lot worse for a lot more money.

We eat in the Union Cafe often and so we find the service excellent as the staff have got to know us. I agree about the acoustics, it can be a bit noisy at times. In fact they have recently put cushions on the chairs and the sound is a little better. It's great to be able to see into the kitchen – which is incredibly calm even when the restaurant is full.

The food is excellent, with some wonderful standbys… a great burger, fantastic sausage and mash, but they also have a constantly changing menu which means there is always something to take your fancy. If you do go and they have the Calamari with chilli dip do try it, it is the best, the calamari is very thinly cut and the batter is as light as a feather.

Their wine list is well put together and excellent value for the centre of London.

They have recently been opening for Sunday Brunch which is definitely well worth a try, although they close at 4pm. Also I really do recommend you book as the Sunday Brunch has been really busy the past couple of times we visited. Great Bloody Marys!