The Zetter Restaurant & Rooms at The Zetter Hotel

Lunch at the Zetter is always enjoyable – partly because of the food, which is reliably good, partly due to the friendly service, and partly because it feels a bit like dining inside a bright Picasso painting, with the quirky, abstract designs that are etched on the restaurant walls and the daylight that floods in through its huge windows.

The menu used to be Italian-focused when the restaurant first-opened, but these days it has more of a general Mediterranean feel. I had one of my favourite dishes to start, the garlic roasted prawns with pork belly and chorizo, which seems to be a signature of the house as it’s often on the menu (I’m pleased to say!). Packed with flavour, the sausage and pork work together with the freshness of the prawns, making a sweet yet salty and deliciously intense dish. For main I had the lamb chops with Imam Biyaldi. The chops were a bit on the hefty side for me (which is probably a personal thing as I saw a table of businessmen devouring them down to the bone across the room), but they were really tasty and worked with the fragrant Middle Eastern flavours of the Biyaldi. My friend had the crab salad, which she described as “summer on a plate” and the black bream, which was served simply to let the delicate flavour of the fish come through. We drank a nice, fresh A Mano Rosato.

With only a little room left for dessert, I went for the rhubarb sorbet, which was subtle and light, but with a pure hit of rhubarb. My friend, who is fond of sweet things, went for the rich and creamy dulce de leche crème brulee, which she refused to share! So I can only conclude that she liked it. A lot.

I have liked and eaten at Zetter since it first opened. Four of us ate there last night. It was a stunningly nice evening and the setting of the restaurant with its large windows and terrace were shown to best effect. The people who work at Zetter have for me always been the strong point – managers are always efficient friendly and not sub-servient (or, on the other hand, snotty). The waiting staff can be very eccentric and last night's Frenchman was no exception, but was funny, not over-familiar and did us all a good turn in persuading us to have a “Dulce de Leche Creme Brullee with banana split ice-cream” which was simply fantastic (especially the ice cream which tasted really fresh and subtle). The starters can be a bit mean – especially the little pot of chicken liver and foie gras – but are enjoyable even if not stunning, for example the asparagus and poached egg (yawn). The mains we found to score high on taste (3 of us had the rib-eye) though not so high on texture. The chips on the side were very limp – definitely not cooked by anyone who acutally eats chips, we thought. The wine was interesting (Portuguese Petit Verdot) with tons of cherry flavours but at £30 -odd, steeply priced. The list does offer cheaper alternatives though. The atmosphere was very conducive to a fun evening and we all liked the experience and I will go back. As long as Zetter is seen in context (as one of the best overall offerings in Clerkenwell), in my experience it never fails to satisfy. One gripe: the well water is a clever gimmick but should be given away free or at not more than £1 per bottle.