The Cadogan Arms, Chelsea

Ever since the Cadogan Arms closed we have been waiting to see what it would be reopened as. Rumours began that it had been taken over by the Martin brothers, who run the busy Botanist at Sloane Square, among others. These rumours turned out to be true, and since they are doing an introductory 50% off food at the moment if you book through Toptable or on their website, we decided to check it out.

When we arrived shortly after 7.30 pm it was pretty quiet in the bar, and very quiet in the restaurant, which made us a bit nervous. However, it proceeded to fill up, and was nicely buzzing by 8.30 pm. Plenty of people were heading up to use the pool tables upstairs, as well as some big tables arriving for dinner. I am on a hugely complicated diet at the moment, and was a bit worried about finding something I could eat. Luckily the waitress was really helpful about what was in the sauces, and removing elements of some dishes, and everything arrived as it had been ordered. R on the other hand was really struggling to decide as so many things looked good.

I started with a half pint of prawns, with mayonnaise. These would be difficult to get wrong, but were good plump specimens, with nice mayo. It would have been nice to be given a finger bowl and an extra napkin though! R’s mushroom tart with pecorino and truffle oil smelt amazing, and I was very sorry not to be able to try it.

I then had a veal chop with olive oil mash and spinach, and a very rich red wine sauce. The veal was beautifully cooked and tender, and I am definitely going to try and recreate the mash at home. R had trout fillets with broad bean and pea risotto. The trout was soft and flakey, with the delicate flavour being allowed to shine. Both dishes were very well executed.

We then couldn’t resist sharing the Valrhona chocolate mouse, with white chocolate and cardamom foam. There was no visual evidence of the foam, but the flavour contrasted well with the richness of the chocolate. This was served in a large wine glass, which made it rather difficult to eat, and even harder to share, but that would be my only complaint.

In all we had a very good meal, which particularly with 50% off the food was good value. There wasn’t anything very innovative or different on the menu, but what we had was great.