Chelsea, British, Traditional Restaurant Guide

This elegant 1853 tavern near Chelsea Physic Garden makes “an excellent local, if with prices befitting its location” and a menu of quite ambitious pub grub, following its transformation by Jack Greenall (of the Lancashire brewing dynasty). He now owns a select trio of west London pubs having acquired the Walmer Castle in Notting Hill and The Carpenter’s Arms in Hammersmith last year.

In terms of delivering “really decent” food on the King’s Road (a rarity) and “an amazing Sunday roast”, the three-year-old revamp of this “beautiful” early Victorian Chelsea pub must be accounted a success, and it becomes “BUSY!”. If the backers were not JKS Restaurants in partnership with Kitchen Table’s James Knappett one would say ‘job done’, but by the standards of such megastar restaurateurs, the result is good – not outstanding.