Review: Cafe Murano, St James

There’s something about Italian cuisine in London that gives us a specific type of restaurant. Common elements: the dishes are pared back, simple Italian classics, the cooking and produce is high quality, and the prices are even higher. Cafe Murano is one of these, perhaps not surprisingly as it’s from Angela Hartnett’s stable and I also have a long-running experience of bistro-versions-of-famous-fine-dining-restaurants underperforming versus actual original independent bistros.

So what did we have? I started with a spring “vignarola” salad of artichoke, peas and broad beans. It was very much exactly that, lightly dressed in mostly oil with not enough herbs to come through. And the few bits of artichoke were happy with that, being so full-flavoured, but the peas and beans left to their own devices were… well, it was basically like a side-order of peas and beans rather than a scrumptious starter. Maureen had five slender spears of asparagus, simply cooked, with a grating of a powerfully good hard cheese on top. Was nice, but £18 is toppy for five slender spears.

My main was the dish of the day; gnocchi with lamb neck ragu. Both elements were knock-out, as I’ve never had gnocchi before that were so light and silken, like munching on big fluffy pillows of gentle potato. And the rich lamb neck, cooked to slippery unctuousness with the tomato enhancing the already deep flavour of the meat, was the perfect pairing. Maureen’s crab linguine was a disappointment by comparison. The crab flavour was detectable through the pasta, but only delicately so, and so it was basically “quite nice” rather than something you’d lean over to your neighbour and insist “go on, you must try this!” Again, for £20 that might be okay, but for £38 it’s frankly disappointing.

You’ll pay £60 for three courses before drinks, and the dining room is soothing and informal, the service attentive and friendly. Maureen’s pannacotta was a very nice specimen of the wobbly dessert, made fresher through the use of buttermilk. My lemon polenta cake was fine, but I make a better one (at least to my tastebuds!). But that’s my problem with this particular breed of Italian restaurant, which has been around London since River Cafe opened its doors. The food is all good, I just can’t make it add up to the bill at the end. Let’s go to Padella or Manteca instead.