There’s a trend that drops the word restaurant from place names. Now it’s bar and kitchen rather than bar and restaurant. Does this make it sound more down to earth? At Bar and Kitchen Waterloo you can see your food being cooked, so maybe that’s why. So it’s worth investigating, if only to see what comes out of the kitchen.

The Venue
Bar and Kitchen Waterloo, next door to - or rather behind - The Old Vic Theatre, is located in a building that used to be a pub. It’s a comfortable place. A single, large room forms the main restaurant for up to 80 covers. (There is also a separate private function room seating up to 30 diners.) It has round tables on the perimeter of the room with square tables in the centre. Some tables seem a little close together, possibly too close for comfort. The decor is fine and nothing too fancy, with hardwood floors and touches of dark blue, so it’s perhaps a little like having a meal in somebody’s very large kitchen.

The Atmosphere
The one aspect that hits you immediately as you enter is the noise. Unless you have very quiet diners, the high ceilings and the hard surfaces amplify absolutely everything. If you find yourself sitting next to a group that’s a bit overenthusiastic, it may be hard to hear your dining partner – even so much so that you might find your conversation temporarily curtailed at various points during the meal. And it’s quite loud even when half full, so how is it when it’s completely filled? That apart, Bar and Kitchen Waterloo is of a good standard and exudes what has become almost compulsory for a modern British restaurant, namely the feeling that this is how it should be. We expect more nowadays and places like this are making sure we get it.

The Food
Interesting starters include king prawns sauteed in white wine and garlic butter, Smoked mackerel with tomato and herb chutney, saffron risotto and a goat’s cheese tart among the list. The pan fried baby squid and sliced chorizo on mixed leaves (£6.65) is a good and tangy choice with the flavours of the seafood and the Spanish sausage complementing each other very well. The slow-roasted crispy pork belly (£6.65) is very enjoyable with its apple compote and mild mustard dressing. However, good as it is, it does seem somewhat hefty for a starter dish, unless you have a real trencherman’s appetite. But it is very tasty and certainly worth ordering.

Fish figures high on the menu with no less than a choice of five for the main courses with just three meat dishes and two vegetarian main courses. There’s sea bass fillet on Mediterranean vegetables, pan-roasted cod with chive mash, salmon in Parma ham and a trio of fishcakes. The smoked haddock (£13.95) is a good choice with the succulent flakes of the fish served on a bed of bubble and squeak plus a soft poached egg and a grain mustard Hollandaise sauce, making it an altogether very comforting dish. For true vegetarians linguine pasta with sun-blushed tomatoes, asparagus, basil pesto and Parmesan shavings, or char grilled vegetables with halloumi cheese, spinach, and a tomato and oregano coulis may suffice. Carnivores, however, have a choice of corn-fed chicken, char grilled rib-eye steak or Highland venison loin. Of those, the venison (£17.95) certainly wins the day. It is rare to find such a tender cut of this particular meat and it proves quite revelatory: beautifully thin slices packed with flavour, although not too rich or gamey, served with potato and butternut squash gratin and a sweet cranberry jus in a truly perfect dish.

From the desserts menu, the apple and blackberry crumble with custard (£5.45) is bland and not particularly authentic, but the chocolate fondant with vanilla ice cream (£5.95) is definitely worth waiting for (it takes twelve minutes to cook), with the result being near death by chocolate.

The Drink
The wine list is of good quality, with sixteen reds and sixteen whites, a few rose wines and champagne from under £7 a glass. The South African Chenin Blanc from Broken Rock 2006, is nice and drinkable at under £3.50/£5 a glass or £13.25 for the bottle. The top price in the whites is a Puligny-Montrachet at £46.95 and the top red is a Pontet Canet 1997 at £59.95. There’s a good range of prices in between and the dessert wines, ports, malts, cognacs and armagnacs are also well-priced.

The Last Word
On the whole the food and drink are very good at Bar and Kitchen Waterloo. The menus for private dining bookings are priced from £21.95 a head and a new, 80-seat private dining room is scheduled to be build upstairs before January 2009. Noise may not be a bother for private party bookings so, if for you loud comes as a welcome part of the package, you will certainly enjoy Bar and Kitchen Waterloo.

venue information venue map view london review user reviews (6) image gallery (3)