Eat & Drink
Originally published on Thursday, 12th February 2009
Kettner's
It wasn't a huge surprise that Kettner's got such a flogging when it reopened at the end of last year replete with Ilse Crawford interior and poncey new menu.
A Soho institution that started life in 1867 as a French restaurant frequented by Oscar Wilde and Agatha Christie, the place enjoyed more recent years as a faded but fun, upmarket pizzeria (it's owned by Pizza Express) where you could enjoy a few glasses of bubbly at the champagne bar before your Fiorentina. But the new-look Kettners, critics-in-mourning wailed, was all style and no substance and the food just didn't cut the mustard.
Thankfully though, the place seems to have brushed up its act on the food front and, I have to say, I kind of like the French-tearoom-meets-scrubbed-brasserie decor, and fully approve that they've kept the pianist.
Try the diver scallops - which are sweet, earthy (in a marine-like way) and perfectly turned out on parsley-flecked champagne risotto - or go just to visit the Pudding Bar, whether to pore romantically over Poires Belle Helene with your beloved or drown your single sorrows in a chocolate pot with warm madeleines.
Hours: Mon-Sun 12pm-12am (Thurs-Sat 1am)
Place: 29 Romilly Street, W1D 5HP
Cost: £40
Web: kettners.com
Book: 020 7734 6112
