It will appeal to design-conscious restaurant-goers for whom food isn’t the primary consideration
Beauty can dazzle you to all kinds of imperfection. And – gasp! – Bronte is an absolute stunner. It’s the sort of place that could move a Samuel Taylor Coleridge to paroxysms of poetry, a vast, multi-roomed pleasure dome in shades of clotted cream, rose gold, shagreen and candyfloss. The first thing that strikes you as you walk through the copse of “Fan” chairs on the colonnaded terrace, under a firework display of glittering lampshades, is a vast bar fashioned from polished pink concrete. Toto, we’re not in Trafalgar Square any more.
Any restaurant design spod will instantly know who’s responsible: yes, it’s Tom Dixon. And what a job he has done, with what was previously the uninspiring Strand Dining Rooms. Chapeau, Mr Dixon, and your Design Research Studio, chapeau. We’re seated in the rearmost room by a luminous pewter bar, its subtlety highlighted by the gaudy beauty of many, many backlit booze bottles. Walls are punctuated by “Cabinets of Curiosities” collected from around the world, and the menu globetrots with the same giddy abandon: miso yoghurt, “weeping tiger dressing”, manuka honey, shiso, tabouli (sic). It doesn’t know whether it’s in Bangkok or Beirut, nor does it much care. Here’s one menu listing in its entirety: “Hot smoked, soy glazed salmon, purple potato, mizuna, edamame, kaffir lime & kalamansi.” Pass the sal volatile.
Related: Cha Chaan Teng, London WC2: ‘This is frankenfood’ – restaurant review | Marina O’Loughlin
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