Herry's Reviews

This place is perfect for trysts with old friends. Truly French, yet with the atmosphere of a smart Chelsea ‘local’ – which is actually is. The only drawback is that you might well run into your youngest aunt lunching with someone more interesting than your uncle. The food is reliable French classics and although easy to categorise as unadventurous, why spend time puzzling out what you are going to eat instead of catching up on the latest gossip? The cooking delivers a fine punch. Last time I had a superb Dover Sole and a glass of Chablis from the exceedingly well-chosen the wine list. The conservatory at the front catches the sun and is perfectly tolerable as the road is a quiet one (and it's even fairly easy to park on the street), but I prefer the the main room as it's pleasantly light, even on a dull day, and warm and intimate at night. The service is experienced and exemplary. Indeed, it's a restaurant that gets nothing wrong.

We found ourselves at Olivomare on one of the hottest days of the year (ok, it’s London, so not New York hot). So glad we did and it’s stunningly good – as well as blindingly white. The food – all seafood naturally – is the freshest there is and the grilled lobster (£26) is reputedly the best in London. Brilliant, simple food; sea urchin (ricci di mare) came in a small bowl with crisp toast and was totally delicious, while my companion’s baby octopus (moscardini) stew may have been a bit of an aberration on such a warm day, but was of superb consistency and my fork found it’s way over to her plate with great regularity. Unfortunately my oysters slid down so fast that I forgot to share any and was lucky to get another glass of excellent Gavi. A shared semifreddo with fresh figs was a gorgeous finale even without the dessert wine which I secretly craved. Service was a bit distracted but if one can get the attention of the lovely maitre 'd Francesca, one will be ok. Sit outside if you can. The noise inside can be a bit much when it's full.

Defune is one of the best sushi bars in London, but it's certainly not perfect. I use to go there for many years when they were in their former premises in Blandford St when I lived nearby, and frequently took a box of their best sushi assortment home for the delectation of my wife, who is Japanese.

The ‘new’ premises is light and spacious restaurant (at least upstairs) is ideal for lunch and is capable of serving with the freshest ingredients, expertly put together. Today I had tai (sea bream), akagi (a shellfish) and ika (squid) that was delicious – but I had them sashimi – ie without rice. Imagine my surprise when I ordered the uni (sea urchin) as sushi and found the rice soggy. it hadn't been sufficiently well blown dry during mixing. A terrible mistake for a top sushi restaurant!

And I also ordered a mixed ‘maki’ box to take home to my wife an she was bitterly disappointed. Not only was the rice soggy, but the maki weren't seaweed wrapped and they mostly contained avocado! Avocado is a heresy that is only just tolerable here and is almost never served in Japan. This made the rice even soggier and the taste bland and uninteresting. There was no cucumber or daikon pickle at all! A travesty of a maki box and completely unworthy of Defune.