Harden's survey result
Summary
Angela Hartnett’s “superb” Mayfair flagship has taken Pip Lacey’s 2017 departure in its stride, and although its ratings dipped fractionally year-on-year, many reporters still feel Oscar Holgado’s “Italian-oriented cuisine must be amongst the best in town”. When it comes to the interior, the harsh view is that these “un-flashy” premises “on a quiet street” are “a little dull”, but the more common verdict is that its “restrained and elegant” style “oozes class and calm” and that “the warm welcome and graceful professional service gets any visit off to a flying start”.
Summary
As it enters its tenth year, Angela Hartnett’s “understatedly brilliant” Mayfair haven is an unusual example of a swanky, celeb-backed restaurant just getting better and better as it approaches middle age. Though not enormously distinctive in design, “the dining room is beautifully set up – you don’t feel crowded” – and the “charmingly kind staff” help “create a wonderful and romantic atmosphere”. Head chef Pip Lacey’s Italian-inspired cooking is taking the food quality here to new heights – “fantastically good” – and reporters “love that you can construct your own tasting menu”, whereby you select any number of dishes from the menu’s five sections in the order of your choosing. STOP PRESS: in July 2017, Pip Lacey left Murano, to be replaced by Oscar Holgado. Here’s hoping he can keep up the good work.
Summary
“Not a restaurant for those who want fireworks… just very good!” Angela Hartnett’s “smooth-running” Mayfair haven is low-key stylewise, but it’s a “comfortable” place “exuding warmth”, thanks to its “first-class” yet “unpompous” staff. Chef Pip Lacey has upped the ante, when it comes to the Italianate food – “superb” – and the flexible “build your own menu” approach is a “simple yet brilliant idea”.
Summary
Angela Hartnett’s “quietly sophisticated” Mayfair flagship is a “classy” mix of “sleek” (slightly anonymous) décor and “superb” cuisine (that’s “not really that Italian”); its ratings were hit this year however, by incidents of “inattentive” cooking and “disinterested” service.
Restaurant details
Murano Restaurant Diner Reviews
"Superlative food, service and atmosphere. Wonderful set and a la carte menu and wine list combined with relaxing surroundings and welcoming staff combine to make a very special lunch or dinner. We will be back!"
"Entered the subtly decorated restaurant was greeted and jacket taken and shown to my table. Amuse bouche/snacks bought very quickly, a nice selection of meat bread pickled veg and olive oil. The menu came after a while and found myself conflicted as to which I chose, in the end it had to be the winter menu. First course was a lovely beef carpaccio with sliced celeriac, with nuts and a beautiful dressing. I then had Haddock with clams and artichoke, again beautifully presented Main was a superb rack of lamb with a selection of vegetables and a small piece of lamb shank too. Pre dessert was a superb Tiramasu Main dessert was the best Soufflé (pistachio and chocolate sauce) I gave had. Lovely efficient staff sadly other venues have invited me to visit the kitchen and meet chef, not on this occasion. Toilets clean but a little compact. Only minor complaint, the door needs an inner door, as each time it opened I was assaulted by a strong blast of cold air."
"On a lunch visit had excellent meal with matching service. A testament is that I stayed longer than originally planned and ordered more than is my custom at lunch. While higher priced than most I thought I got good value, the mark of a good restaurant. I shall certainly return."
"Very good, some fantastic dishes although the presentation could have been a little better. Great fun, good service, very enjoyable."
"Seems to be better than it was the last time we came a few years ago."
Harden's says...
Murano W1
An elegant and refined, if perhaps rather anonymous, addition to the Gordon Ramsay empire, on the former Mayfair site of Zen Central (RIP); Angela Hartnett's Italian-influenced menu is the highlight of an impressive across-the-board performance.
Gordon Ramsay is so omnipresent in the media nowadays that it's easy to forget that the number of undoubted 'hit' London restaurants with which he has ever been associated is precisely three - the Royal Hospital Road flagship and maze (plus Grill), and the now-departed Pétrus. Everything else is media hype and (largely) Michelin-sustained nonsense.
That's not to say that the other restaurants have necessarily been bad, just that there's been nothing outstanding about them. Angela Hartnett - chef at this latest venture - is a case in point. We always felt her gig at the Connaught was a middle-ranker which was wildly over-praised in some quarters (a view consistently upheld by responses to our survey). Our expectations of the new venture, near Shepherd Market, were therefore not that high.
Well, it just goes to show' This turns out to be one of the best openings of 2008. That's not the least of the surprises. Especially as Ms Hartnett's PR machine is always banging on about her Italian heritage, it's something of a surprise to find that the menu is, at most, 'half-Italian' (the remaining bit being largely French). (This applies to the standard and dégustation menus, and also to the very good-value lunch.) Nor were we expecting a grand wine list of biblical proportions and diverse inspiration' and with 'entry-level' glasses at around a fiver.
Service is excellent. Of course, you expect a polished performance in a swanky Mayfair joint, but the attention to detail here is first-rate, generally (if not quite invariably) avoiding a descent into servility.
Prices - especially for lunch - are not excessive, for the area. For the record we enjoyed lunch for two, with a couple of glasses of wine and unrudgingly-brought tap water, for about £85. Highlights included the bread selection, a chicken and foie gras terrine, a monkfish 'stew' and an almond tart. Best of all, perhaps, were the vast array of inter-course and post-meal twiddles, which included an outstanding basil sorbet, plus some wonderful chocolates and wafer-thin brandysnaps.
On the downside, most reviewers have found the general style of the place to be rather anonymous, and this is a criticism with which it is hard to disagree. You could be inside an hotel. That said, the lavishness of the décor is executed in a very comfortable way. Like all other aspects of the operation, it seems well tuned to the Mayfair market at which the establishment so elegantly aims.
20-22 Queen St, London, W1J 5PP
Opening hours
| Monday | 12 pm-3 pm, 6:30 pm-11 pm |
| Tuesday | 12 pm-3 pm, 6:30 pm-11 pm |
| Wednesday | 12 pm-3 pm, 6:30 pm-11 pm |
| Thursday | 12 pm-3 pm, 6:30 pm-11 pm |
| Friday | 12 pm-3 pm, 6:30 pm-11 pm |
| Saturday | 12 pm-3 pm, 6:30 pm-11 pm |
| Sunday | CLOSED |
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