Going Out | Restaurants

Providing the personal touch

Food @ The Muse is a showcase for upcoming artists built round a quirky little resto

I'm not used to being called 'sweetheart' when I phone a restaurant. But I find I like it: at any rate, it makes a pleasant change from the usual impersonal booking robots.

Food @ The Muse is an altogether personal project - a showcase for upcoming artists built round a quirky little resto. You sit high up on benches at large, white blocks, all the better to check out the art: our meal was subjected to the beady gaze of several slightly unnerving porcelain dolls. And you can see right into the heart of the incredibly open kitchen. Such confidence.

Chef Tom Kime (he cooked the Thai banquet for Jamie Oliver's wedding, apparently) helps out when the friendly waiting staff are busy, giving us freebie boards of first-rate Iberian charcuterie and cheeses. The regularly-changing menu wanders all over the world, with lengthy stopovers in North Africa and Thailand.

Flavours are feisty - a salad of 'roast' prawns with pomelo, ginger, shallots, lime and peanut was an alarm call for the tastebuds - and punchy: nutty little lentils, chorizo and tomatoes with the kick of chilli and the zest of lemon. Main courses are less successful - but they won me over with the 'sweethearts', so I'll call it generosity.

A meal for two with wine, water and service costs about £90. Food @ The Muse, 269 Portobello Road W11. Tel: 020 7792 1111. Tube: Ladbroke Grove

The Muse At 269
Portobello Road, London, W11 1LR

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