Our reviewer returns to the place that made her want to be a restaurant critic more than 20 years ago
Momo, the Berber restaurant on Heddon Street in Mayfair, is 22 this year, and has been overhauled and relaunched to mark the occasion. In 1997, this was the place that, beyond doubt, set my eye on becoming a restaurant critic, once the old guard began expiring from gout. I spent 65 minutes there one evening, back when it was one of the very coolest places to be seen – other than the top bar at TFI Friday or doing backing vocals for Finley Quaye on Westbourne Grove.
Momo, as the hottest restaurant in London, was a perfect, galling example of how places treated their famous, in-crowd guests, as opposed to normal diners who weren’t in Donatella Versace’s retinue. It was certainly a very pretty room – a sort of faux-Marrakesh, enchanted souk – and today it’s largely the same, just even better, complete with a golden, hand-painted dome centre stage, art‑deco sofas, illuminated palm trees and flattering, peach-hued lighting.
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