Six new set menus, from a £21 pre-theatre in Covent Garden to a Bloomsbury brasserie
Six set menus added to All Set this month, from £21 in Covent Garden to £41 in Bloomsbury
Six set menus have joined All Set since the start of September, and the spread is wide. A pre-theatre curry in the Lyceum Theatre building, a Mayfair Italian that serves its set all day, a Breton kitchen that has been in the same Richmond shopfront since 1988, a Mexican lunch on the King's Road, a Park Lane steakhouse putting dry aged sirloin on a £29 lunch, and a brasserie under the chandeliers at Russell Square.
Prices run from £21 to £48 across six areas, so this is a list to book from rather than read. Every price, day and window below was read off the venue's own menu on 14 September.
01 · Paro Indian
Covent Garden
The pre-theatre menu: two courses £21 or three £24, every day, 11.45am to 6.30pm.
Paro is in the Lyceum Theatre building on Wellington Street, with the Novello across the street, so pre-theatre here is a walk of about thirty seconds. A house blend of 48 spices runs through the cooking, which takes in West Bengal home food and the Anglo-Indian curries. Course one is bang bang chicken with mint and plum sauce, a lamb samosa in homemade filo, or breaded potato chops. Course two is built to order from seven bases, korma through to jalfrezi, with lamb, chicken, vegetable or prawn, or you take the Paro butter chicken or the rogan lamb across from the carte, cooked in the handi. Mango kulfi, pistachio kulfi or gulab jamun close it. Green velvet banquettes, painted tigers and a ceiling hung with parasols, and the window opens at 11.45am, which makes it a lunch as much as a pre-theatre.
02 · Nipotina
Mayfair
The All Day Set Menu: two courses £24 or three £29, every day.
A neighbourhood Italian on South Audley Street, eight minutes from Bond Street, and the set menu runs all day rather than closing at three. Antipasti are panzanella with heritage tomato and pickled onion, spinach and fior di latte arancini, or prosciutto di Parma with dried fig. Then risotto primavera with courgette and stracchino, pan seared squid with salsa verde, or gnocchi al pomodoro e bufala, and the sour cherry cheesecake for a third course. Each course carries a glass matched to it if you want one. Worth knowing before you book: a £3 per person cover charge is added on top of the set price, as it is to the carte. The kitchen serves until 10.15pm Monday to Saturday and 9pm on Sunday.
03 · Chez Lindsay
Richmond
Set lunch: two courses £24.50 or three £28.50, Monday and Wednesday to Sunday, 12pm to 4pm.
Chez Lindsay has been in the same green shopfront on Hill Rise since 1988, at the top of Richmond Hill and ten minutes from the station, cooking the buckwheat galettes of Brittany alongside a full French carte. The set lunch is that carte at a fixed price: a leek and Comté quiche, a mixed seafood gratin, or duck terrine with onion marmalade, then a twice baked spinach and Comté soufflé, pan seared cod with saffron beurre blanc, or calf liver with bacon, savoy cabbage and Dijon mustard sauce. Chocolate croquant with Chantilly or a maple syrup crêpe finishes it, and the French cheese board is four pounds more. It runs to 4pm, which leaves the afternoon for the hill and the towpath below it. Closed on Tuesdays.
04 · Ixchel
Chelsea
Weekday lunch: two courses £25 or three £30, Monday to Friday, 12pm to 3pm.
A modern Mexican restaurant and tequila bar on the King's Road, six minutes from Sloane Square, and the newest listing of the six. Small plates are a yellowfin tuna tostada with macha sauce, pico de gallo and chipotle crema, rock shrimp tempura with a burnt aubergine dip and avocado purée, or radicchio and escarole with smoked almonds, pear and preserved lemon. The large plates all come with crispy potatoes: free range chicken grilled in achiote with rajas and Mexican hummus, a wild mushroom mixiote with black bean stew and borracha sauce, or two grass fed short rib quesadillas. Tres leches cake with cinnamon custard and corn meringue adds a third course for £5, with a glass of Chardonnay or a Tommy's margarita alongside if the afternoon allows. The set is served for tables of up to six.
05 · JW Steakhouse
Mayfair
Set lunch: two courses £29 or three £34, Monday to Friday, 12pm to 5pm.
The steakhouse at Grosvenor House on Park Lane, seven minutes from Marble Arch, built on hand selected USDA prime cuts with over 500 bourbons in the bar next door. The set lunch is the reason it is here: a 6oz Himalayan salt dry aged sirloin with fries and herb salsa sits among the mains, alongside pan seared cod with braised butter beans and fennel, grilled corn-fed chicken with corn purée, and a pumpkin and ricotta tortellini. Starters are a seared tuna niçoise, celeriac and Bramley apple soup, or roasted heritage beetroot with whipped goat's cheese and blood orange. Sticky toffee pudding, apple and blackberry crumble, or a pear and almond tart follow. The window runs to 5pm on weekdays. The set menu is not available on bank holidays.
06 · Fitz's Brasserie
Bloomsbury
Set lunch: two courses £41 or three £48, Monday to Saturday, 12pm to 6.30pm.
The dearest of the six and the grandest space, under the plasterwork and chandeliers on the ground floor of Kimpton Fitzroy, a minute from Russell Square. Traditional British plates with a wider reach: stone bass aguachile with sweet potato, mango and jalapeño, a watermelon and mint gazpacho with pickled cucumber, or a pulled lamb and feta croquette with mint and coriander sauce, then saffron and lemon risotto with crispy kale, confit duck leg Massaman curry with jasmine rice, or a grilled Scottish salmon fillet. Sticky toffee pudding with clotted cream, English peach melba, or pineapple carpaccio with coconut sorbet. The window runs from midday to 6.30pm Monday to Saturday, so it covers a long lunch and an early dinner on the same menu.
All six are on All Set with the full menu, the serving window and a direct booking link on each. Ixchel and JW Steakhouse are weekdays only, Chez Lindsay closes on Tuesdays, and Paro and Nipotina run their sets seven days a week.