A handy refuge in the bleak purlieus of the Museum of London, a welcoming former Slug & Lettuce that now offers a British menu of surprisingly high standard.
What can you do with a former Slug & Lettuce? They’re often such vast sites that it’s very difficult to see how, without enormous expenditure, they can be turned into anything which feels very different. This latest venture – in the grim area near the Museum of London – is a pretty good example: the result is congenial enough but, on the quite lunchtime we visited, some way short of atmospheric.
Is may be a positive sign of the times, though, that even in such an unlikely location you can find really good food nowadays. Everything from the scallops to the pork belly was robust and tasty: just the sort of fare your typical City punter probably wants. The dishes were surprisingly elegantly plated too. Even the wine list showed a bit of effort – anyone who, as we did, chooses to drink red English wine at £24 a bottle only has himself to blame.
Service, all home-grown for once, managed to achieve that combination of efficiency twinned with friendliness – but without chumminess – that the natives often seem to find so difficult. And, with a bit of a crowd, the setting might even seem quite jolly.
