TomTom's Reviews

Vinoteca has a slightly raffish charm fostered by knockabout wooden tables and blackboards scrawled with the names of the current vins du jour. This sets the tone for a relaxed and informal occasion. But don’t be fooled into thinking the food is anything but informed. Vinoteca’s kitchen is certainly on good form at the moment, with an emphasis on full throttle flavour rather than fancy presentation. Char-grilled squid, chilli and mint gremolata delivers delicious respectful flacour with just the righ amount of pep with tomatoes adding a pleasant herbaceous character. Lamb, olive and aubergine ragu with terrific parmesan gnocchi and oregano was yielding and rich and completely moreish. A paradigm of the modern wine bar.

Great new restaurant. Loved the main dining room – light, airy, attractive. Stylish & buzzy, glamorous without being over-the-top. Classic menu, well executed. I had a delicate but really tasty souffle suisse and delicious suckling pig (marred a touch by the crackling being a too dry). Didn't have room for puds – but they looked good, too! Reasonable prices (not the expected 20% Conran premium). Well trained staff, though a touch overbearing initially and a bit self-conscious. Overall impression, though, very good.

You can’t get away from the feeling that you’re eating in an ex banking hall but if you need to talk without neighbouring clatter and eavesdropping then this fits the bill well. Prices seem to be a touch lower. Perfectly decent food, but not spellbinding.

The Ivy has always been good at delivering comfort food classics (calves’ liver, burgers & fishcakes) and that remains the case, but peppered amongst these stalwarts are a few judicious nods to more modern thinking: a zingy soy sauce infusion added real zest to a perfectly cooked sea bass. The clientele is a strange mix of genuine celebs, gastro tourists and shadowy agent types, though the former were conspicuous by their absence on my recent visit.