Lessandro (Restaurant, Hotel)

As I made my way to Lessandros restaurant, housed in the ParkCity hotel, Kensington, I contemplated that there must be some compensations for the lousy British climate. My companion, mentally alike in many ways to A.A Milne’s Eeyore, could think of nothing but I scratched my brain for a few. No tropical diseases was one, a limited window for bare-all dressing was another. But the real benefit, as I was to experience, is the food.

The lettuce leaf has died with summer, and at Lessandros has been replaced with an enticing winter time menu offering up cold weather dishes with plenty of game and red meat. The starters were happily not such heavy meals, and so complimented the rest of the menu well. To start I had grilled squid with Broccoli, garlic and chilli (9.00) which was excellent, the broccoli soaking up the flavours of the chilli and the garlic, and the squid cooked to perfect texture. Miss Eeyore had Buffalo Mozzarella with aubergine caviar and roasted pepper (9.00) and said the aubergine caviar was exceptional. At the recommendation of head chef Stefano Turconi, I tucked into a pasta dish of pheasant ravioli with Rosemary sauce (11.50). I would go back to Lessandros for this dish alone. It was rich but not too heavy, the rosemary sauce and the pheasant were a match made in heaven. We also tried the lobster linguine (15.00), a confident and generously portioned dish, always notable and welcomed with lobster meals. For the main course I went for the fillet of venison served with polenta (18.00). The venison was impressively tender and washed down well with a delicious glass of house red, as recommended by the sommelier. My companion had the braised lamb with mashed potatoes (15.50), which she conceded was very good, old fashioned comfort food, creamy mash and pink lamb.

Lessandros offers a well designed mix of contemporary Italian food and time-honoured meat dishes, which make the decision making difficult – but well worth the effort....read more