Good food, drinks at fair prices and high-quality jazz in a cool-but-cosy basement. 606 Club is a Chelsea institution.

The Venue
With Chelsea Harbour just up the road, a derelict warehouse ripe for redevelopment across the street and Victorian houses for neighbours, Lots Road seems an unlikely hiding place for a jazz club. Don’t look for number 606, by the way: the name derives from its first 11 years (1976 - 87) at nearby 606 Kings Road. Find the arched, red-brick, metal-gated doorway, and press the intercom. You’ll think you’ve come on the wrong night and it’s closed but after a moment, a disembodied voice will grant you entry and you’ll descend industrial metal steps, pick your way through the manager’s office and enter a brick-walled cabaret room with a bar off to one side. Arriving at a Chicagoan speakeasy during Prohibition must have felt like this!

There are scuffed wooden tables, bentwood chairs, bare brick walls, dingy paintwork and an uneven concrete floor with random white-painted lines – was it once a sports court of some kind? A performance area (not elevated from the surrounding dining area, so you can’t actually call it a stage) contains drums, keyboards, microphones and lights awaiting the night’s entertainers. Behind, dusty, ancient, velvet curtains sag. If all this sounds depressingly tatty, you couldn’t be more wrong: it’s tatty alright, but warmly, welcomingly, bohemianly tatty, just as a proper jazz club should be.

The Atmosphere
The main room accommodates 125 covers. A further 40 may congregate in the adjoining bar which is for members and their guests only. Even with only 80-odd diners, the restaurant is a bit of a squash but it all adds to the ambience. The waiting staff are casual in attire and attitude but friendly and efficient. The eclectic clientele’s only common denominator appears to be that they have found this little treasure of a venue.

The Music
On the night of inspection, a Chaka Khan-esque diva called Joy Rose delivered two, high-octane, 45-minute, R&B sets backed by a tight four-piece band. Other musicians guested on certain numbers so that, in all, nine artists were involved: how does 606 make a profit? One can only assume that its owners – and the musicians – are in it more for love than filthy lucre. Take advantage of their good nature and enjoy a terrific night out.

The Food
It is often recounted that Ronnie Scott used to advise customers at his legendary Soho jazz club: “Don’t order the food – it’s terrible.” Thankfully, no such warnings are required at 606. From a selection of nine starters, grilled goats’ cheese on ciabatta (actually a French bread crouton) with pecan, chilli and honey dressing (£5.95) is spot-on. The cheese has been grilled to exactly the right point of collapse, the toasted bread is fresh and crunchy, and the ‘dressing’ – more a dollop of relish – is deliciously sweet and nutty, even if there’s scant evidence of the chilli. Even the accompanying leaf salad is impeccably dressed. Six deep fried breaded prawns with a soya and honey jus (£6.75) are fine but nothing special. Nicely dressed leaves again, though.

From a choice of eight mains including two vegetarian options, pan fried rib-eye steak with peppercorn and fresh thyme butter sauce (£17.45) is a delight. The steak is big, tender, full of meaty flavour and cooked as ordered. The sauce manages to taste of all its components. Accompanying potato wedges are crunchy and floury within. An equally generously proportioned grilled halibut fillet with tomato coulis (£18.75) is another winner on its bed of julienned fennel, courgette and sweet pepper with saffron and roast new potatoes. A selection of vegetables to share (slightly overdone French beans and mange touts, good carrots and broccoli) is included in the price but is hardly necessary.

From the four desserts chalked up on a board, all at £5.25, a big slice of lemon tart is just as it should be with not overly sweet filling and good pastry. A chocolate truffle torte has dark, white and milk chocolate layers on a chocolate sponge base. It is satisfyingly rich and gungey, though more of its raspberry coulis wouldn’t have gone amiss.

The Drink
There are 12 white wines and 13 reds, starting at £15.50 and rising to around the £40 mark, plus two roses, five sparklers (£20.35 - £115.50) and one dessert. Two bottom-end whites, two reds and both roses are available by the glass, as is the dessert, a Chateau Fonmourgues 2003, A.C. Monbazillac (£26.50/£3.60). The cheapest white, a 2006 sauvignon from the Loire Valley, arrives correctly chilled and displays the promised fresh, grassy, crisp, gooseberry flavours. Beer lovers have seven options including St Peter’s Organic Ale from Suffolk (£5.10), Czech Budvar (£4.55), familiar names like Cobra, Becks, Stella and Kronenbourg (all £3.40) and alcohol-free Kaliber (£2.40). There’s Weston’s Stowford Press cider (£3.40), juices, still and sparkling water, and even not-bad coffee (regular or decaf) and a selection of teas. Members and their guests receive a 10% discount on all drinks: membership is £95 for the first year, £60 thereafter.

The Last Word
Even when 12.5% service has been added, three courses with water and half a bottle of modest wine is not going to tip you far over £40 a head. The food is of sufficient quality to make that in itself something of a bargain in well-heeled Chelsea. At 606, you get a jazz concert thrown in, which elevates it to the realms of outstanding value.

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