Secret’s out — Life really is rosy in the Tangerine Dream Café - Restaurants - Going Out

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You can be sure that if you read the phrase "London’s best kept secret", it will almost certainly no longer be that. Strictly speaking, Tangerine Dream Café at the Chelsea Physic Garden falls under the "secret" category, in terms of its hidden location in London’s oldest botanic garden, down a side street in Chelsea. But since the idea for a pop-up summer restaurant was conceived last year, someone has whispered too loudly about the food being good and the marquee on the side of the 17th-century house (unseen from outside) is bursting at the seams.

A friend and I crept in last week through what looked like a gap in the wall but was in fact a gate, and up a gravel path. Our only clue that 80 people were crammed into a little tent and tucking into a three-course dinner (£23 without wine) just around the corner was the faint chinking of glasses from behind some bushes.

We were there for the penultimate Late Wednesday Opening, although much of the three-course dinner menu is repeated for buffet lunch. You’d be wise to book up next year as we only just squeezed in to share a table.

Our waiter, Tom, handed us plates of fresh roasted peppers, green beans, buffalo mozzarella and roasted golden and red beetroot to start.

Each piece was delicately sprinkled in olive oil and tasted juicy and fresh. Main courses include salmon en croute (also a lunchtime special), roast cod and pork loin, all sourced from Smithfield and Billingsgate. Next up was my companion’s choice of duck confit with truffle mash, which was rich but tender and flavoursome, and my option of monkfish and scallop skewers on Umbrian lentils. On the menu, mine seemed unimaginative but, in reality, the fish was succulent and the rosemary leaf skewers were beautifully presented.

The desserts were memorable although we struggled halfway through their elephantine portions. "Berry meringues" was an Ottolenghi-like mound of crumbling sugar topped with fluffy cream and an assortment of sweet berries, while "salted caramel and chocolate profiteroles" was a fine combination of delicate pastry oozing with bittersweet filling, giving William Curley a run for his money. The secret’s out once and for all.

Tangerine Dream Café at the Chelsea Physic Garden
66 Royal Hospital Road, SW3 4HS