Top five... with open fires

Warm the heart with an open fire
10 April 2012

Get in the mood with a cosy meal by the fire. As things hot up you may well forget about how wonderful the food is but, on the otherhand, if things are a little stale, you can pretend to friends that those rosy cheeks were caused by passion!

Cambio de Tercio, 163 Old Brompton Road, SW3 (020-7244 8970) Mon-Sun £90

The Tio Pepe Carlton London Restaurant Awards have this year chosen Iberian restaurants in the changing category which highlights different world cuisines. Cambio de Tercio - a bullfighting reference born out by matador elements in the decor - is on the shortlist of five. Founders Abel Lusa and David Rivero met while studying catering and winemaking in the Rioja region of Spain. The two subjects are treated as equally important in this South Kensington restaurant which has a large, welcoming fireplace in the back room and seemingly never enough tables for the aficionados of Iberico ham, Galician octopus, homesalted cod, Valencian paella, Segovian suckling pig, sherries and regional wines who crowd in. The proud, defiant simplicity that attaches to much Spanish cooking is celebrated here. They do not go too far down that path of the tendency to turn clams into custard and cheese into dry ice.

Clerkenwell Dining Room, 69-73 St John Street, EC1 (020-7253 9000) Mon-Sat £80

A fireplace is the cosy aspect of the dapper decoration here where chef Andrew Thompson, who has worked at The Square and L'Escargot, shows those chaps over the road at St John that he too knows his way around an animal. Slow-cooking is a favoured approach. I remember some excellent braised short-ribs of beef which, with their charred bones and wellsealed meat, conveyed a sort of caveman chic, and delicious confit shoulder of lamb, one of the best cuts for the slow dissolve. Pig's trotter Lyonnaise and suckling pig with belly pork and sauerkraut are more evidence of a visceral understanding and appreciation of the best bits, but Thompson can also turn out crab cakes seemingly held together by faith and a brilliant fish and shellfish minestrone. Desserts are inventive, often using one flavour as the basis of various manifestations. Good value deals lunchtime and early evening.

Sonny's, 94 Church Road, SW13 (020-8748 0393) Mon-Sun £80

The fireplace here has been designed by the painter and performance artist Bruce McLean. It is a cool (in style terms) focal point in deep, light, premises hung with well-chosen art. Owners Rebecca Mascarenhas and James Harris understand well the ergonomics of making the decision to go to a neighbourhood restaurant - Phoenix in Putney, Parade in Ealing and Bibo in Barnes are also theirs - the smart move. Recently appointed head chef, Helena Puolakka comes with an impressive pedigree. She has worked as head chef at La Tante Claire, for Pierre Gagnaire in Paris, Gordon Ramsay at Aubergine and Marcus Wareing at L'Oranger. This is the first time she has devised her own menu. Highlights include salad of crisp pork belly, egg and cepes; grilled halibut with crunchy onion tart and sweet potato cream; roasted Barbary duck with foie gras sauce and shitake and sweetcorn relish served for two.

Anglesea Arms, 35 Wingate Road, W6 (020-8749 1291) Mon-Sun £66


Crowding, bar staff doubling as waiters, and a certain amount of chaos mean that long waits for food are not unknown. So arrive early (no bookings taken) and get a place near the fire where you can huddle happily during the hiatus between ordering and eating. Dan Evans, one of the leading lights of the gastropub movement having honed his style at Waterloo Fire Station, established the culinary approach when he opened here in 1996. Chef Jacky Lelievre's daily-changing menu responds with characteristic alacrity to all that is seasonal. It is not unknown for supplies of, say, sea-kale or razor clams to run out before service is over. However, there are always less evanescent items such as char-grilled swordfish with couscous and Moroccan salad; pot-roasted saddle of lamb with white beans; sautéed calves liver with black treacle bacon and mash. A wide range of wines are served by the glass.

Bermondsey Kitchen, 194 Bermondsey Street, SE1 (020-7407 5719) Mon-Sat £60

'The essential task of preparing food is so universal across the world and throughout history. It was this that made me interested in cooking with fire.' So writes Dela Foster, owner/manager of this recently opened restaurant in burgeoning Borough. She is not rubbing two sticks together or banging flints, or even holding a sausage on a twig near a flame. The fire in the restaurant is a charcoalfuelled open grill similar to Turkish ocakbasi. Chef Ruth Quinlan, ex The Eagle in Farringdon and Cicada in Clerkenwell, offers a sweetly priced menu where, the evening we visited, fired-up main courses included ribeye steak, roasted partridge and roast confit duck leg with Puy lentils. I had the last partridge; the other meats had run out. Sliced chorizo in a first-course salad was burnt. It is a well-meaning place, but at the moment almost too popular for its own good.

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