Restaurant-savvy Londoners have long baulked at the cafeteria culture on offer in so many cultural establishments. Usually situated in an echoing white-washed basement, the museum café traditionally featured school dinner-type trays, no license to serve alcohol, and substandard sarnies that could only ever satisfy elderly out-of-towners. With the minds of visitors on higher things, sustenance, apparently, could be allowed to languish as a neglected afterthought.
Things have moved on; the National Portrait Gallery, for instance, now has a very smart top-floor restaurant that is a favourite hang-out for the movers and shakers of the cultural establishment. But what about those with children? The Restaurant at the Natural History Museum, which opened earlier this year, raises the bar for all eateries intended to be enjoyed by adults and children.
Located in the magnificent German-Romanesque setting of the Waterhouse Building, it features a wall-length array of Mediterranean goodies attractively arranged on high shelves, bustling white-jacketed waiters and cosy banquette seating for weary visitors. Put a Carluccio's in a grand Roman baths and you get something of the flavour of the place.
My seven-year-old son and I had lunch there before paying our inaugural visit to the Darwin Centre (if you haven't yet wondered at this beautiful structure — an egg-shaped, womblike building filled with the museum's vast collection of samples as well as real-life scientists at work — I urge you to do so). Hector could have chosen from a children's menu featuring macaroni cheese, sausages or a cheeseburger (from £3.95) but manfully opted for an adult pizza (£7.50), which he pronounced delicious.
I chose a glass of wine and a board of tapas including aubergine and mushroom pate, marinated mozzarella with sunblush tomatoes, mixed leaf salad and sweet potatoes in crème fraiche and herbs (£11). It was excellent sophisticated nibbling fare - just the thing for a slummy mummy on the go. Proper hot meals included salmon fishcakes and Cornish shoulder of lamb, and there was plenty to please visitors in search of a proper tea; between 3pm and 5pm you can order scones with jam and clotted cream, cakes, finger sandwiches and home-made lemonade.
And who is behind this 21st century Lyons Corner House? Ben and Hugo Warner, the chaps responsible for the Benugo chain as well as the Serpentine Bar & Kitchen, the Café at the V&A and the Ashmolean Dining Room in Oxford. The Natural History's new restaurant is so enjoyable and affordable, I'd happily go there again and bypass the museum altogether; but if self-improvement is on your agenda, my advice would be to do it before you settle down to a well-earned rest in the Warner brothers' convivial establishment.
The Restaurant at the Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD; (020 7942 6251); Nhm.ac.uk
