In the very bowels of Somerset House it’s Spring all year round. It’s possibly the prettiest room in London, the picture of the corridor approaching the restaurant only gives a mere hint of the brightness beyond where you find fresh flowers, elegantly snowdropped chandeliers and plenty of room for conversation to develop.

We were four for a birthday celebration prior to a visit to The Seagull (the play, not a pub, though The Seagull isn’t a bad name for a pub. I wonder if there’s a Seagull pub in Sarfend?*) To business. We ordered off the set menu which gives you a somewhat measly two choices per course, although despite this none of us had difficulty in finding something that we liked.

I went for a celeriac salad up top followed by mackerel with beetroot. The salad was a generous portion, beautifully arranged on the plate and with lots of different textures and flavours making it very munchable. The mackerel, swimming in a thick slick of beetroot purée, came with a good dollop of hot horse-a-radish*** All very civilised and tasty but if you’re hungry you’ll have to rustle up extra stodge because stodge is solely in the form of bread stodge.

Service was by stripy-topped charmers (I don’t mean that pejoratively) who did a bit of chit chat in between dishing out the stuff. And a very good sommelier. We went for a Cypriot white which he commended as a good choice before informing us of its character and provenance (from the Troodos mountains, a name redolent of the improbable double act of Larry Durrell and Francis Urquart) which included the magic formula of ‘high altitude vineyards’ – almost a birthday present in itself. I only wish I could remember its name!

So yes, a very good meal and one I would recommend, especially for a treat. We were there on a very rainy Autumn day but the room is so airy and the staff so easy going that it really did feel like optimistic Spring was still with us. I can’t wait to go back and order à la carte.

8/10

*Google reveals that there isn’t, which seems a shame. Curiously, when you tap ‘seagull southend’ into Goole Maps (ahaa, serendipitous typo, I wonder how many people have tapped maps.goole.com by accident and what happens if you do?**) it comes up with Southend University Hospital where once I had a coathanger extracted from my eye. No, I don’t know how it got there either, I think it was a self-inflicted wound.

**Nothing, which seems a shame.

***’Ah know ah do’ © Edouard Lapaglié

To see where else I’ve eaten in 2016 go to the GoogleMap here

London Restaurants British Edouard Lapaglié Francis Urquart London Restaurant Review Somerset House Spring The Seagull