Theo Randall

For my other half Rachel’s birthday, I took her to Theo Randall at The InterContinental Hotel. This was my second visit, so I had high expectations of quality Italian-inspired food. The last time I came, it was early evening, and the restaurant was rather quiet, so while I enjoyed the experience, the atmosphere was slightly intimidating. At 8.30, there was a far more relaxed ambiance, which was a necessary comedown from our crazed dash across the road from Hyde Park Corner Tube Station-note to other diners: use the Park Lane subway, your instinct is wrong (o.k, note to self). I found the staff welcoming, friendly and attentive, asking several times if we had any questions about the menu or if there was anything else we wanted.

As a starter, I had a charcuterie board, the highlights of which were the parma ham and salami. I was not keen on the pickled vegetables served with it, but Rachel liked them. She had the Carpaccio served with beetroot, parmesan and red cabbage. She found the dish to have perfectly balanced flavours and said that after eating the starter she felt like she’d never eaten beef before.

My main was Anjou pigeon on a bed of lentils with Bruschetta. It was extremely tasty, although I felt there was slight overkill with the amount of lentils. I resisted the caveman urge to pick up and gnaw the leg when I couldn’t get any more meat off-could have done with a sharper knife. Rachel had veal capelletti-all of the pasta dishes are available as a starter or main course, and I can recommend these delicious fresh pasta parcels with rich game and mushrooms.

For dessert we shared a tasting plate, which deserves a drum roll ellipsis … panna cotta with a quince-like jam, ice cream in espresso, Amalfi lemon tart and flourless chocolate cake. Up until this meal, I would never have ordered a lemon tart by itself, but it is Theo Randall’s signature dessert for a reason. The flourless chocolate cake was almost overwhelmingly intense but delicious nonetheless. It was a cake worthy of Gregg Wallace-esque excitement (something along the lines of 'I want to dress like a hippo and wallow in it'). The only part I didn’t go nuts for was the ice cream in the cup of espresso, as I’m just not sold on cold coffee, but the vanilla ice cream and flavour combination worked well. 

Theo Randall has an extensive wine list of varying prices, with bottles starting from about £34. We went for an excellent Valpolicella.

Overall: 8.5/10

Not forgetting, of course, my visual representation of our dessert: