Evening Standard
David Ellis had an uncannily similar experience to Charlotte’s a mile or so to the east, at another hip new place with a name referencing relatively obscure 1970s/80s music, an accomplished kitchen and service that, frankly, was out of its depth.
Marquee Moon is a “long-abandoned boozer” relaunched as a restaurant, cocktail and hi-fi bar. “Handsome with its raw plaster walls and green Formica table tops”, it “has all the hallmarks of a top-tier new opening: the good looks, that short, concise and inventive menu. Fantastic cocktails”.
The kitchen mixes pub classics with Asian dishes to good effect, so you’ll find sausage and mash, mushroom parfait, Sichuan chicken drums and a “flailing onion bhaji shining with oil under a green sauce” that’s “a shoo-in for London’s finest bar snack”.
Service, though, was haphazard, forgetful, unhelpful, inconsistent and more – and of course the bill was wrong. “Someone, somewhere, needs to put a grown-up in charge,” David pleaded.
David Ellis - 2024-10-06
