An elegant place for special occasions – or for any day when you want remember that life is for living Nostalgia is a perilous thing, leading to all sorts of gubbins being recreated. Still, it’s one of the most seductive emotions, which is why, when restaurateurs Noble Rot took on the former site of The Gay Hussar – founded in 1953 – on Greek Street in Soho, they promised to preserve some of this infamous Hungarian restaurant and former political lunching haunt’s former glory. It’s also why my first thought was: “Lord God, why?” The Noble Rot gang, if you’ve ever had the sublime pleasure to visit their original Bloomsbury restaurant, are people who do things correctly, offering inventive, modern European food, a clever, considered wine list and soothing, diligent service – plus a dining room bubbling with the scarlet-nosed food scene cognoscenti. The Gay Hussar, on the other hand, when I last visited in 2013, was barbaric on many levels, from the chilled cherry soup that tasted like Nesquik mixed with Lidl Bull’s Blood and the sludgy bean cholent stew served in a potato-lattice fortress to the sticky carpets, dusty bookshelves, laminated menus, whiff of the fryer and the staff who used to stand in the kitchen peering at you through the chef’s pass like the cast of Meerkat Manor. The best thing Noble Rot could have done for this spot, if they’d asked me, was to fill it with dynamite and stand well back. Continue reading...
 |
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.theguardian.com |