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Evening Standard rating
Reader rating
Description: This "spacious" year-old venue, overlooking Trafalgar Square, makes an OK business rendezvous; early-days excitement about its "pricey" British food has faded, though, and service still "hasn't got its act together"; (there's also a snack bar section, which gets better reports).
Food: 
Service:
Ambience:
Phone: 020 7747 2525
Website: http://www.thenationaldiningrooms.co.uk
Good for: Good food, Ambience.
Payment options:
Attention to detail: The National Dining Rooms
Oliver Peyton strikes me as the sort of person who gets carried away at the concept stage of a project, then gets bored with irritating details such as - oh, I don't know - the balance sheet?
His previous outings stood out like geisha go-go dancers in a homogenous world of 'good' restaurant taste. Remember how we thrilled to Mash and its fluid, Clockwork Orange-y style? Or how Isola blasted on to the scene, stunning us with its cocktail-fuelled slinkiness? And who else but Peyton could be responsible for the Teletubby iconoclasm and cheesypun moniker of Inn The Park?
Or the breathless glamour of the Atlantic Bar & Grill - now struggling as the Astor to reference its glory days.
But each restaurant had its flaws: poor service, perfunctory food, built in obsolescence. Capital diners forgave them at first thanks to the heady mix of novelty and Peyton's passion. But they fell by the wayside. Mash is a suity pitstop; Isola and the Atlantic have gone; only Inn The Park struggles against uncomprehending tourists and occasionally demented staff to retain its fabulousness.
And it looks like he has pulled it off. All the elements have come together: understated good looks with comfy furniture and soothing sludgy colours; staff who actually appear to know what they're doing - we particularly loved the rather stern, mature greeter in black and killer heels.
The menu is a thing of beauty, a rapturous canter round Britain culminating in a list of some of our finest cheeses. And, thanks to Kensington Place alumnus Jesse Dunford Wood, there's passion in the kitchen, too: 'Our chef,' confided our waiter, apropos of nothing in particular, 'is very fussy.'
OK, so there's the odd hiccup. Haddock, chips and mushy peas - a popular choice, plate after plate of it wafted past our table - featured waterlogged fish. The sand pieshaped pease pudding accompanying the pork belly was stodgily dense. Sauces were a touch too sweet.
Otherwise, we loved it. We loved perky scallops with smoked bacon and Jerusalem artichokes. Chicken liver mousse as smooth as Calum Best came crowned with thick aspic and 'piccalilli': a delicately pickled turmeric and vinegar-laced collection of crunchy vegetables. That pork belly tasted of organic pig, topped with the crunch of good crackling. And, despite what I said, we loved the detail: a whole baby loaf of brown soda bread with good butter; muslin-wrapped lemons; lovely heavy cutlery.
Oh God, and the bakery. Check this out: tarts, from treacle to 'fallen chocolate'; cakes to make you dream of childhood - Victoria sponges, Swiss rolls, layered chocolate cakes; savouries such as raised pork pies, apple and sage sausage rolls, duck egg and smoked bacon tart. There are biscuits and trifles and fools and syllabubs. Only the generosity of our lunch stopped us falling on this lot like the Famous Five, clamouring for lashings of ginger beer.
The place, currently open at lunchtimes with just one evening sitting on Wednesdays, is already bustling with a gloriously mixed bunch, including loads of properly old people. How often do you see that in a hot-ticket new resto?
We loved that, too. It seems that, having got over the need to be the restaurant world's enfant terrible, Oliver Peyton has evolved into a damn fine grown-up.
Tube: Charing Cross
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
