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Description: "Gastronomic finesse, but without a fine-dining price-tag", has made a smash foodie hit of this "spectacular" Soho yearling, where "unfussy" (but "intriguing") dishes are complemented by "exceptional-quality" wines (available by the carafe); the setting, though, strikes some reporters as rather "cramped" or "canteen-like".
Food: 
Service:
Ambience: 
Phone: 020 7734 4545
Website: http://www.arbutusrestaurant.co.uk
Open: Mon - Sat 12pm - 2:30 & 5pm - 10:30pm
Sun 12:30pm - 3.30 & 5:30pm - 9:30pm
Dress code: None
Good for: Good food, Ambience.
Payment options: All major cards except Diners
Arbutus’ soothing interior design mixes bundles of beige with colourful pictures
Do you ever fantasise about retiring early to become an author? Me, too. Not, I hasten to add, of the spill-the-beans variety (that's not my style, and my memory is too bad anyway), but as a writer of fiction. They say there's a novel in everyone, but I'm convinced there's a punchy TV drama lurking in my mind which just needs time to be teased out.
My super-successful friend Lynda La Plante encourages this illusion - probably as a therapeutic gesture, but also, I suspect, in the hope that one day I might actually sit down and try to write the great epic we've often talked about. Her faith in me is both touching and appreciated.
My story does, of course, involve a fantasy royal family, a young prime minister, and lots of media intrigue. Let's hope I complete it before David Cameron becomes PM and spoils my ideas about how such a young PM would perform under pressure, and when we can still remember the reality of a press that the Lord Chancellor hasn't put out of business.
So, it was off to Soho last week for a meeting with my scriptwriting collaborator, and where else to go to play TV writer than the latest cooler-than-ice place in the neighbourhood - Arbutus?
First impressions were good, though I was puzzled about the name choice. Arbutus is another name for the strawberry tree that grows happily in Ireland and parts of the Mediterranean. Indeed, there's an Irish folk song about it, which goes: 'So slender and shapely in her girdle of green.'
But, sadly, there wasn't an arbutus in sight. Never mind - the staff were happy and smart, and the soothing interior design mixed bundles of beige (even down to the matting on the tables) with colourful pictures. You can choose to eat at the bar, at high tables on high chairs, or at a more traditional table. It feels fun, relaxed, but professional, and very much of the Zeitgeist.
The crowd was lively and seemed split between those eager to impress, trying to look like people we know, with anxious eyes darting from table to table, and the rest, sitting apart from the main crowd on larger tables, more at ease with their look, and mainly, I noticed, from advertising. We had a table in the window that looked over at the entrance to the Soho NHS walk-in centre (I didn't see anyone I recognised entering).
It's a good menu; to describe it as modern European does it a disservice, as there is a lot in there that is specific to England or Italy, with a little squeeze of France as well. And it's not too pricey - nice to see at a time when so many restaurants are starting to be slightly silly about what they charge.
The fixed-price lunchtime meal for £13.50 (two courses) or £17.50 (three) was a real deal, though the evening à la carte rises to £25. If I had any criticism of the menu, it seemed a tad heavy for lunchtime with a lot of serious meat and complex starters.
To begin, my friend had a ravioli of mascarpone with Parmesan, rosemary and shavings of chestnut, which was much simpler in appearance than we expected. But it was delicious. I'm having a soup phase, and devoured a fantastic winter warmer of vegetable soup with Parmesan. The main courses we chose were lamb and sea bream.
The lamb, which was delicious but far too big for a normal appetite (so perfect for me!), came with sweetbread, sultanas and braised kale. The sea bream was much less successful. It was too watery and arrived with some shocking green watercress squeezed over it and a truly horrible shrimp and oyster cream piled up next to it, the whole dish looking like it had escaped from the set of Alien 3.
For pudding we ordered treacle tart, and rhubarb with blood orange sorbet - and these were both superb: the tart had the most wonderful caramelised taste and yet managed to be pretty light as well.
I liked Arbutus. It felt happy and relaxed. It's not a great restaurant, but it's fine, and its reasonable prices will certainly help it get established. Let's hope my TV script gets a similar reception. If it ever gets written...
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
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