Cafe Murano

Thursday Club @cafemurano
White onion and Rosemary arancini.
Octopus, cucumber, Romano pepper & balsamic.
Jerusalem artichoke, chanterelles and parsley root.
Rigatoni Bolognese.
Pheasant Ravioli.
Vanilla Pana Cotta & raspberries
Something great about doing something so simple, like grating cheese at the dinner table itself. It’s the little things that make dining kinda special. And yeah it helps when it’s cheese. Lots of it. And that’s what they did. But to be honest that was the only good thing along with the wine. Everything was just ok.
The place wasn’t that busy for a Friday (early) night and the standout dish of arancini and pheasant ravioli was good… but everything else was a bit too simple for my taste especially for that price. Ah well, I had really wanted to like as I was craving good italian food.

We really wanted to like Murano. We really like Angela Hartnett, but there’s something lacking here. It is the second tier to Murano down the road and so it does feel like an after thought. The staff don’t seem particularly fired up to be there and the food just kind of lacked… well it lacked love. It’s still a nice dining room, and the food isn’t bad, but I don’t think it gets the same attention as her flagship.

Angela Hartnett has a talent for creating special venues. I had had great meals and overall experiences in Merchants Tavern and Murano before eating here.
And Café Murano is now one of my go to mid to high price range restaurants in central London. My girlfriend and I started the evening with some great cocktails. Starters of octopus & chickpea stew and courgette and ricotta bruschetta were both exceptionally good and augured well for what was to come. The main courses that followed were fantastic: Lobster Spaghetti & Beef Tagliata.
Have been back several times since and was delighted to see them expand to a Covent Garden location this Summer.

Most of the food was good, but not life changing, until we came to the veal lasagna. Wow! Will come back just for that. Desserts were really good as well.

Very average — not sure what all the hype
Is about. Asparagus starter was tasteless but the octopus was delicious. Had the lobster linguine for a main and wasn’t at all impressed. Would go back.

As usual for Angela Hartnett, the food was delicious.
Unfortunately, a member of staff had a very bad cold. Why oh why do people go to work when they are clearly very ill? In an eating establishment it’s even worse! Puts you off the food. Shame.

Before I sat down for dinner here, I had no idea that there was a lot of buzz behind this restaurant — in fact, I didn’t even know who Angela Hartnett was. So there weren’t any high expectations on my part, but this restaurant scored low in my books for a number of things that went wrong.
Lets start with the pros:
— special dish of the night, Hogget, was delicious. The meat was a bit gamey (as its supposed to be) but tender
— nice atmosphere
— prices aren’t exactly cheap but it doesn’t break the bank if you want to have a nice meal
Cons: — where was the service!!! Not that we need to be coddled 24/​7, but we hardly saw our server that night. We had to flag him down to order a few things, but he didn’t come around to ask if he can take our order
— we had a large party, and ordered 1 of all the appies on the menu. Only 5 came, and the rest were forgotten. No, not that it tasted bad — they were literally forgotten about. They tried to clear our dishes 20 minutes later, and we reminded them we still had dishes.
— We were never informed of the special of the day, until our orders were being taken around the table, and when I wanted the Hogget Ragu, the waiter said «Speaking of Hogget, we have a different special.». So there were a number of people who changed their order based on this
— the pork neck had flavour, yet was tender and dry at the same time. I didn’t quite get it until I sampled a bite from the bf’s dish. Was a bit disappointed.
— We ordered 1 of each side dish (should be pretty simple). They were all forgotten about, again. By the time it was almost ready to come out, everyone was done eating, so we cancelled it
— We ordered 2 bottles of wine, both which arrived pretty much at the end of the meal. I think others were trying to slow down their eating to wait for the wine.
The meal slid in under £50 for a main, and shared in some (pretty small) appies /​few bites of tiramisu, a cocktail and glass of wine. I’m really trying to remember details of the food, I don’t think anything was wrong with it, but the scattered service made me forget about anything good about that night. The quality of food was overall good, hampered by the poor service and dinner experience, I’m (begrudgingly) rounding this up to 3 stars.
Perhaps they had a bad night. ??

The concept of Café Murano is pretty much Murano but in a much more casual and simpler manner, diners can have a quick lunch by the bar or just a single item off the menu instead of a full on meal which is ideal for people with little time but demanding high quality food at the same time.
Wild boar fettuccine had a lovely richness and earthiness from the boar meat, the fettuccine was silky and smooth while the Parmesan cheese gave the whole dish a lovely aroma. Even better was the prawn, tomato, garlic and chili linguini, simple ingredients but with a perfect balance of sweet, sour and spicy taste, everything linked up together wonderfully, it was simplicity at its best…

I’ve been wanting to try out this place for a while since it opened in November 2013.
Opened by Angela Hartnett, and sister restaurant to Micheline-​starred Murano, Café Murano offers simple, rustic, Northern Italian food in a more relaxed setting.
It is centrally located, close to Green Park station, and just far away enough from the busy touristy areas.
We had an early reservation at 5.30pm on a Saturday, as the other times were already fully booked.
The place had a warm and welcoming feel to it, and we were shown to our table in a quiet corner at the back of the room.
We ordered a carafe of Merlot and were started off with some tasty focaccia which was served with a really good olive oil dip.
Being one of the first diners of the evening has its perks, as all our dishes were served promptly and simultaneously. We had ordered a few dishes from the a la carte menu to share.
The warm octopus with chickpeas and pesto was one of my favourites — tender and full of flavour. The gnocchi was also very good, as was the risotto which was very creamy.
They also do a set menu, which is quite limited in terms of choices.
Overall, a pleasant meal.
Full post with photos are on the blog:

I’m a big fan of this place. I came here for lunch during the workday and really enjoyed it. It’s right below my office so very convenient. I’m not sure what it’s like on weekends, but It felt very corporate-​y and seemed like a much frequented lunch spot for business meetings.
The food was excellent. We started with the truffle arancini which was heavenly. For my main, I had the white broccoli, broad bean and mint fettuccine which was also very good. We sat at the bar and the service was great.
Would absolutely recommend this place for some classic Northern Italian cuisine

It’s called ‘Café Murano’, but don’t let this deceive you — it’s not a café. It’s a restaurant.
But it’s not just a restaurant. It’s an upmarket, quality (Northern) Italian restaurant, of the kind you don’t see often in London’s streets.
The menu changes on a daily basis, so what you may have on one day may not be on the menu on another day. The theory behind the restaurant is that it’s a place you can drop in and eat at every day, though methinks you’d need pretty deep pockets for that sort of luxury.
I went for the warm octopus as a starter, not having sampled it before, and it was very delicious. Not slimy, and not chewy — just right. And very flavoursome, without being overbearing against the chickpea and pesto.
For main, my dinner date and I opted for the Steak for Two (800g). The waiter informed us that the chef will only cook it Medium-​Rare (fine by us), and it came out a half-​hour later, already carved on a large dish.
And, oh my goodness.
I’ve had a lot of steak in my lifetime. Which, as a bloke with Hindu heritage, isn’t probably something I should have. But I like my food, and I like a good steak.
But this wasn’t a good steak.
This was the hands-​down, without even a close competitor, the best steak I’ve ever had. It was perfect.
It was tender, melt in your mouth perfection. If I wasn’t too busy devouring this magnificent beast, I’d have marched into the kitchen and proposed to the chef (Gender wouldn’t have mattered). I feel as though every other steak in any other kitchen has been pre-​ruined for me, as it’ll have too much to match up to.
The let down point was the desserts, which really weren’t very great — the selection wasn’t fantastic, but I opted for the Vin Santo, which I wouldn’t go for again.
But that, by this stage, was a moot point. Nothing could bring me down after a steak like that.
Seriously.

Michelin-​starred Murano’s little sibling, Café Murano has become the latest hot spot in the trendy Green Park area. The menu draws inspiration from North Italy with Chef Angela Hartnett looking to draw in regulars as well as destination diners. The atmosphere is cosy with warm lighting and woods although a bit of light background music would have been a great addition. The staff are friendly but seemed a tad lost at times with parts of our order being forgotten twice and the wine only arriving at the end of the meal.
My picks on the starters would be the Vitello Tonnato — thinly sliced cold veal with a type of pesto — and the giant roasted prawns, and the truffle arancini. The veal was succulent and flavorful and the prawns sweet with just the right amount of crunch. The arancini came in a group of four small bite-​sized balls, but the aromatic truffle was a delight.
Our mains again ran through most of the menu with the favourite being the Hogget special and my pick (based on the waiter’s suggestion) of the Pork Collar. The special was truly that with juicy tender meat served with a celeriac purée and plenty of jus. The meat was a bit gamier than your typical young lamb, largely due to the older animal, and this gave it a bold flavor that was very moreish.
My Pork Collar, however, was deceptively dry and seemed to stick in my throat. Perhaps it was left on the grill for a little too long but it was the only time in recent history I’ve left a meal half finished. The other dishes seemed to all be well executed so I’ll chalk it up to an off-​dish and hope that was the case.
The cocktail list was small but inclusive. My Italian take on an espresso martini was a bit fruitier than normal which gave it a fuller body and slightly sweeter taste. The gin martini was strong but also on the sweeter side which made it quite appealing after a sip or two.
The service, however, was a bit of a disaster. It started with the starters as only 5 dishes showed up when we had ordered 9 — and one of the 5 was the Ribollita we didn’t want. Still, stiff upper lip and all that we figured the rest would show up shortly only to be informed that the kitchen didn’t have the order as presumably the first waitress had forgotten about them. We re-​ordered and they arrived quickly after that but I’d expect the order process to be one of the fail-​proof processes in a restaurant with this pedigree.
This continued with our second waiter who, although a lovely guy, didn’t include our sides orders in the main meal. He remembered once the food had arrived but we ended up cancelling them rather than wait to eat our mains.
However, kudos to them for catering to the fact it was a twin birthday party and bringing out the cake we had stashed earlier with a full range of candles. They even took it away and brought it out in slices after we had sang and embarrassed my cousins. It doesn’t completely forgive the earlier issues, but I appreciate the personal care and attention.
It’s a pricey place, though, with dinner plus a round of cocktails and 2 bottles of wine shared between 8 came to just shy of £50pp. For the area, I suppose that’s not too extreme but I’d rather head to Hawksmoor Air Street for a steak at those prices. So, maybe if I’m restricted to the area but then again if I’m going to splurge there I’d try to go for Nobu.

This place opened in November and is the sister restaurant to Murano. It was amazing. the pasta’s are fresh and sauces fabulous. we splurged a bit and ordered starters, split a pasta course and then each had our main. The food was amazing, the modern feel of the place perfect; they have a nice bar and we’d go back in a heartbeat. There are not that many upscale, casual italian restaurants in London. You get ‘red checkered table cloths’ or over the top, or super traditional with columns and roman or venetian vibes with over garlic’d food. The chef owners do an amazing job — Hogge with pasta, chick pea and octopus salad with pesto, pork shoulder on braised veges, carbonara that’s traditionally made, no crème. Everything from the service on down was perfect. Reservation on time etc. We can’t wait to go back.