Nestled in an exclusive courtyard off Brook Street near Bond Street and Fenwicks department store, this chic restaurant is worth knowing about.

The Venue
Rocket has a bar downstairs which offers a variety of cocktails and particularly good value Champagne. After your aperitif, walk up the stone spiral stone staircase to the dining room with burnt sienna painted walls, pink suede covered chairs and wooden tables. One wall is covered in wooden niches made exactly to fit different wine bottles, and on the adjacent wall is displayed a large photo of a chocolate Labrador.

The Atmosphere
The restaurant always seems to be busy and is bustling with a fairly young and elegant crowd but it’s not too noisy. The service is friendly and attentive and the modern but refined decor creates an uplifting mood as does the chatter of the well-heeled clientele.

The Food
All the food is presented really beautifully like a picture on the plate. The marinated feta, pistachio, cranberry and orange salad is a tempting starter with a subtle taste – the generous portion of feta is drizzled with olive oil and flavoured with a hint of crunchy green peppercorns and cumin. Also good are the crispy deep fried baby squid, which are very light and fresh, if a bit dry, and served with sweet chilli, plum and lemon sauce.

Main courses include a rather hearty but hefty rare beef and chip salad with rocket, tempura style fried green beans, red onion, radishes, chilli, crispy garlic and a gingered black bean dressing served with ginger and mustard mayonnaise. Despite the subtle flavourings used on the beef – it has a tangy sweet taste with a touch of Japanese teriyaki sauce – the dish isn’t particularly refined. It’s generous to the point of being almost impossible to finish and there are a bit too many chips.

More delicate a choice of main course is the ricotta, parmesan and sage bake topped with sun-dried tomato pesto and served on an oven baked vegetable ratatouille with sweet pepper dressing. Because of the ricotta, the bake has very subtle flavours and it marries well with the tomato pesto which is surprisingly never overpowering.

The dessert menu offers the pearl in the oyster because the sweet, soft date and apple pudding with vanilla ice cream and butterscotch sauce is not to be missed. The medley of date and apple combines two delicate flavours in one to provide a dessert that tastes tantalising. Less good is the strawberry vanilla cheesecake which is creamy but too sweet and made even more so by the sweet strawberry coulis poured on top.

The Drink
The house white wine is the Chilean sauvignon blanc de gras - light and floral and perfect with fish and vegetarian dishes. For a red meat accompaniment there is a Chilean merlot at the lower end of the price scale and medium bodied reds include the Australian Madfish Shiraz. If you want a really full bodied red, try the Chianti.

The Last Word
Whether at lunch or at dinner this is a great restaurant to frequent not just because of the high standard of presentation of the food but also because of the location, the lively atmosphere and the high calibre of the clientele.

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