At the Barbican to see the excellent show on Cabarets (biggest quibble, there wasn’t enough stuff per location) we decided to avoid the Christmas parties and stay on site for dinner.

The last time we had dinner here was 11 years ago, when I had brown hair and small children, and I can’t for the life of me remember what style of yum the kitchen was pushing out. All I remember was buggering around with the curious spoons.

On a Friday evening the room was pretty quiet so we got a table by the window overlooking the Barbican’s fountains and looked at the menu. The proposition is classic Italian with plenty of options for veggies and vegans. Up front I had a Jerusalem artichoke followed by a seafood linguine. The artichoke was cooked perfectly – a generous heap of woody veg with a tasty sauce. The linguine was also a generous size with plenty of shrimp but not so much big chew.

A house white at just over 23 quid was adequate for the job and as we had a third left we pushed on to a cheese course, and I’m glad that we did. A particularly spicy gorgonzola was the highlight of the trio and with a 20% discount offer for January I’m pretty sure I’ll be back soon.

8/10

Food London Restaurants Barbican Food Italian London Osteria Restaurant