Noble Rot

This was my third visit to Noble Rot, this time a celebration with an old friend as our respective birthdays are a month part and last Friday was a midway point.

This friend alerted me to Noble Rot whose venue at 2 Greek Street I visited many times in its previous incarnation as the Gay Hussar.

Noble Rot is a wine company that has branched successfully into the restaurant business and – as you might expect – has a superb wine list which my friend, as a wine connoisseur, mastered with his selection of Premier Cru Chablis and a Pomerol.

To accompany this we had the smoked eel with horseradish and the trademark roast chicken in jaune sauce with morellos.

A great restaurant is not just about food.

Conversely in my column here I have railed against pretentious and expensive cuisine in a soulless ambience of corporate business.

At Noble Rot we were allocated a table on the upper floor which was more spacious but cosy than the two cramped banks of tables on the ground floor.

An elderly Irishman, who looked like a founder member of the Colony Club, was soon in conversation with his neighbour.

A noisy table of ladies-who-lunch, the type that would once congregate in Harvey Nichols, sat next next to us.

I do not see my friend so often so I had no wish to engage despite clear interest

Yet here is a restaurant like Langans in the 80s where people meet and things happen.

Nobe Rot is not cheap so keep it for celebrations.