Brunello at the Baglioni Hotel

Plump ‘easy’ chairs, thick black-velvet curtains & giant black chandeliers – nothing about Brunello is particularly understated. Mind you, this luxury restaurant within the Baglioni Hotel opposite Hyde Park was not designed as a cut-price refuelling point; instead, it offers high-end Italian cooking at eye-watering prices. A starter of culatello ham served with red-wine pears & Sardinian bread is a mere £25, while a main of fillet steak with morels & fondant potato clocks in just shy of £40 – a night out at Brunello can really stack up. Luckily the results almost warrant the wallet-busting price tags, witness soft homemade foccacia with cherry tomatoes or rich, deeply flavoured oxtail ravioli. Service is attentive & mellifluous, while the wine list covers some of Italy’s lesser-known grapes, including the restaurant’s namesake – a ruby-red cousin of Sangiovese.