With summer increasingly upon us, fancy a trip to the country for lunch? No time? How about a trip to the Middle Temple Garden then? If it weren’t – and this is where reality intrudes – for the traffic noise from the Embankment, you could almost be in an English country garden (or at least an Oxbridge college).
Access to the garden (and tables within it) is but one attraction of this recently-opened restaurant, bizarrely located in the heart of the ancient Inns of Court. A spin off from the upmarket Ludgate Hill wine bar of the same name – another draw is the selection of champagnes: some three dozen, all reasonably-priced. (There’s also a similar number again of reds and whites.)
Inside – what with the portraits of legal worthies, and the volumes of law reports on the shelves – the air is more of a combination room than a restaurant, and the atmosphere is airy, calm and relaxed. (Muzak, however, was intrusive on our visit, though in keeping with the setting of the Hallelujah Chorus variety).
If your guess is that the food might be a bit of an afterthought, you’d be spot-on. It’s substantial and tasty though, if – in our experience – generally overcooked. Two people, however, could happily lunch here for £70, and – if you had something you wanted to discuss over a nice glass or two, business or personal, in a slightly away-from-it-all setting – a visit here might well be a pretty reasonable investment. Its level of charm wouldn’t make it the greatest choice for a date, however’ unless you were surreptitiously hitting on a barrister.
