FOOD & DRINK BLOG

I've been in converted pubs that looked less like converted pubs than this big, bland dining room on the ground floor of the Marylebone hotel. Its dark reddish décor, inoffensive artworks and anxiously over-attentive staff are clearly designed not to frighten passing trade or unadventurous hotel guests.

To be fair, the short and reasonable menu is rather more interesting and subtle then the surroundings lead you to expect (four young and very drunk men decamped to Pizza Express when they read it). It also takes local sourcing to a ridiculous extreme, making great play of the fact that cheese and meat come from local Marylebone shops like La Fromagerie and the Ginger Pig butchers. By the same token, I could open a local-produce restaurant with stuff bought from my local corner shop.

Anyway, my terrine of smoked and confit chicken was fine — nice texture, a good chickeny flavour but not very smokey — and Ann's lobster bisque with orange crème fraiche was smooth, creamy and better than anticipated. For the main courses, confit Gressingham duck leg with chicory was gamily flavourful but a little dry, while my pan-fried fillet of gilthead bream was nicely cooked. The accompanying risotto was very tasty, although it came with bland cubes of butternut squash and some wizened pan-fried field mushrooms.

The house red, a D'Istinto Sangiovese Merlot, was perfectly adequate. We shared a pudding of pear William in spiced red wine with half a roasted fig with a blob of cinnamon mascarpone. A sweet, adequate burst of sugar at the end of a meal, but too ordinary to justify the flavours and ingredients listed. Service was so hyperactively brisk we were out after slightly more than an hour.

108 Marylebone Lane is okay if you can't face stumbling far from your upstairs hotel room, but if you really want a local Marylebone
experience, there are countless better places.

108 Marylebone Lane, London, W1U 2QE, 00 44 20 7969 3900; 108marylebonelane.com.

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