The gastronomic map of the British capital is filled with plenty of new and interesting restaurants worth visiting for a daytime meal. And, in addition to these recently opened eating places, there are also many other established restaurants considered as compulsory lunch venues for all those looking for delicious food prepared by the most original and innovative London chefs.
Harrods, for example, has recently opened its doors to the first Flamant Cafe in Great Britain. Situated on the third floor of the famous department store, the restaurant is furnished in line with the aesthetic dictates of the leading, same name Belgian interior design company, a harmonious balance of the four natural elements, air, earth, water and fire. The menu proposes innovative roast chicken stuffed with potato and gorgonzola gratin and a traditional cream tea, a selection of mignon sandwiches, tea scones with special clotted cream from Devon, champagne and a huge variety of different teas, brews and tisanes. Selfridges in Oxford Street is another luxury department store with a great many restaurants, brasseries and cafes. Its most popular, and ‘in’, eating places include Gordon’s Cafe with leather sofas and birch wood tables, and the elegant The Gallery, with a look influenced by traditional Scandinavian design.
Something new at Fortnum & Mason, the most elite London department store, with the inauguration of the 1707 wine cellar which boasts a very long list of over one thousand different wines. The 1707 project was carried out by David Collins, one of the most highly esteemed London architects, who also recently completed restoration work on The Artesian, an extraordinary bar housed in the deluxe Langham Hotel. This originally decorated and elegant meeting place, characterised by lacquered resin tables decorated with purple, lilac and lavender winged butterflies, candelabra, wooden lamps, huge mirrors with bevelled edges and floors decorated in geometric rattle snakeskin patterns, is named after the Victorian artesian well found under the bar counter.
Extraordinary and delightfully eccentric decor can also be admired in the Annex 3 and Loungelover cocktail bars: both haunts are furnished with a mix of antique pieces and examples of contemporary furniture design. The decidedly minimalist look of Ottolenghi restaurants, cafes and delicatessens, in the residential districts of Kensington, Notting Hill and Islington, provides the perfect setting for delicious dishes which combine elements of Mediterranean cuisine, in particular from Israel, Palestine, Italy and France, with other
ideas taken from traditional British, Australian and Japanese cooking. Risotto fans simply must try the endless list of highly original interpretations and interesting variations served at Ooze, the restaurant’s menu is almost exclusively based on this particular dish. The Moose Bar is a really welcoming eating place, furnished in Alpine chalet style, which specialises in fish and meat and pies exclusively served with mashed potato. For those who prefer sampling more exquisite proposals by catering experts, we recommend De Wintons which offers delicious titbits, like toasted brioche with lobster and bacon or duck with pomegranate molasses, accompanied by such novel cocktails as martini and grapes or passion fruit daiquiri.
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