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Description: <b>A review of this restaurant is coming soon to toptable.co.uk, but online booking is available now!</b>
Phone: 0207 935 2371
Open: Mon - Sat Lunch: 12pm - 3pm,
Mon- Wed Dinner: 6pm - 11pm
Thurs - Sat: 6pm - 11.30pm
Sunday: closed
Dress code: Smart Casual
Payment options: All major cards accepted
Milanese magic: Brera is a welcome attempt to do something different
Brera is an historic district of Milan, home to the Palazzo Brera and the Accademia di Belle Arti. These days it is also a part of the city associated with fashion and fun. Situated on the corner of a car park at the back of Debenhams, the restaurant Brera (formerly Vecchia Milano) can only strive to live up to what the name invokes through the food. Chef Cristian Roncari, a native of Lombardy, and also the front-of-house staff are trying valiantly.
Tired shoppers, a significant part of the previous constituency, will be soothed by newly tasteful, pastel surroundings but shocked by the ambition and price of the menu. Apparently a table d'hôte lunch is planned but it should perhaps have been there at the start to help customers weather changes in an operation that has been in the Fraquelli family since 1973.
If you order a cocktail at the centrally located bar - a Bellini, say, at £7 - complimentary stuzzichini (snacks) are served. This is something to bear in mind as you emerge laden with bags from the sales.
Milanese food is rich - buttery, meaty, cheesy - a fact almost impossible to ignore in the choice of dishes, but why would you want to? Insalata di muscoletti di maiala, cavolo cappucio e mele cotogne which translates inelegantly as pork calf, Savoy cabbage and quince apple salad was a warm first course that certainly smoothed out the rough edges of an appetite. It was almost courageously hefty.
A smoked tuna salad with roasted red onion and salted ricotta left a comfortable amount of room for baby chicken stuffed with cotechino with chestnuts and salsify served on the side. This is what I call a festive dish, remarked its recipient.
Pasta dishes are on the substantial and also glitzy side. One risotto comes cooked with prosecco and garnished (or gilded) with gold leaf.
Tagliatelle with quail and dates was odd but delicious with the quail's liver used in the sauce and the bird served on the bone.
Risotto al frutti di mare was steeped in a sonorous, powerful broth. It is possible to eat more simply. One of two meals I tried included grilled Dover sole with seasonal vegetables at £24.
Edible flowers and the easy-listening piped music could both be dropped to the betterment of enjoyment, in my view anyway, but Brera is trying hard to do something a bit different. That's always welcome.
Open Monday-Saturday noon-3pm and 6pm-midnight. A meal for two with wine, about £115 including 12.5 per cent service.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
