It’s Autumn and a change of appetite, to warming dishes with a touch of comfort and more bold, robust flavours. The restaurants in St Martin’s Courtyard have taken this to heart; it’s time to enjoy convivial cosy indoor meals.
At Jamie’s Italian they’re turning up the heat with plenty of spice accentuated dishes Italian style. This is rustic, authentic Italian cooked with passion, with Jamie’s mentor Gennaro Contaldo from the Amalfi coast providing inspiration. Colourful dishes to bring a warm glow include lamb chops spiked with chilli, coriander and oregano Scottadito style on roast carrots with orange and pistachio bulgur wheat or duck legs with star anise and plums. For a dessert treat, orange blossom polenta cake with pomegranate hits the sweet spot.
Over at Bill’s the Autumn mood is for comfort food given an exotic or indulgent edge: roast squash, red lentil and coconut soup (pictured) and mac ‘n’ cheese with mushroom and truffle. For dessert, there’s an irresistible twist on eton mess with blackberry and caramel apple. Keep checking in as the Bill’s specials menu changes every fortnight. Currently dinner includes grilled lamb and rosemary cutlets with a mini pulled, slow roasted lamb and pearl barley shepherd’s pie and garlic butter green beans with bacon. What’s more, there’s afternoon tea with plentiful scones and clotted cream every day.
Every wall at Dallaterra is lined with wine. Styled an urbane enoteca, it’s an enticing concept offering food and wine matching to dine in and a wine boutique for taking home favourite quaffs. A winning way to start an Autumnal supper is with either their superlative charcuterie board featuring the silkiest of culatello (rump of pork and superior even to proscuitto) and much more or beef carpaccio accompanied by a glass of Barbera, full of blackerry and cherry fruit with a hint of spice.
Celebrating authentic Thai dishes with a contemporary edge, Suda has plenty of dishes to give a satisfying spice blast to dining. A speciality is hot and spicy green papaya salad, crab rolls are finely fragrant with five spice or plump for chilli nuanced dishes including lemongrass and chilli lamb chops or chilli fish.For heat tempered with coconut sweetness, Suda’s green curries are renowned.
Wildly popular Dishoom is inspired by vintage Irani cafes once all the rage in Bombay and serves street style small plates. Breakfast is magnificent and comes into its own in the winter months when a bacon naan or fried eggs with chilli cheese toast and endless chai has to be one of the best starts to the day.
Order spicy, aromatic gunpowder potatoes, grilled in their skins with green herbs for a firework day treat, perhaps with black daal and masala prawns. Newest dessert is falooda, a witty take on knickerbocker glory with kulfi, vermecelli, rose syrup, tapioca pearls. Ever inventive with cocktails, Dishoon’s latest additions include Bombay Manhattan with Old Forester Bourbon and Dishoom vermouth with cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla and IPA Paanch, hop infused gin with tastes of tobacco, leather and peat, plus lime, jaggery, English breakfast tea and spices.
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