We’ve been spending more time in South Kensington lately, between the museums and church on Sundays, and I’m so happy to have finally found somewhere to land for lunch. Stepping out of the V&A or the Natural History Museum, you want to stay away from the tourist traps and catered museum food, and that’s where The Lavery comes in.
It’s just across from the Natural History Museum and a few minutes from the V&A, on Cromwell Place, in a beautiful old townhouse that was once the home and studio of the painter Sir John Lavery. The dining room is upstairs and full of light, with white walls, plasterwork, rich wooden floors and tall mirrors. Downstairs there’s a casual café for when you have less time, and the restaurant is open on Sundays now too, which we love.
This pocket of South Kensington is one of the most French parts of London, with the Lycée Français around the corner and the French Embassy a short walk away. Our young son adores it here. He shares the dishes with us, and his favorite part is the little sculptures set into the mirrors and the tall windows that look right out onto the street, where he’ll sit and watch the French students go by for ages.
The food feels right at home in this corner of the city. Mediterranean, seasonal, simple in the way only really good cooking is simple. The chef is Yohei Furuhashi, who’s cooked at some of our favorite places in London, Dinings SW3, Petersham Nurseries, and nine years at The River Café before that.
We started with cocktails from their Chelsea Flower Show menu with Sapling Spirits, served on seeded coasters you take home and plant. Our son is going to plant his in the garden to grow wildflowers. The Lady Lavery (Sapling Gin, basil shrub, lime, rhubarb sour) was bright and herbal, not too sweet. Then focaccia, warm and fluffy, with a little dish of Two Fields olive oil, which I’ve been obsessed with for ages.
I won’t tell you what to order because the menu changes constantly with what’s in season. Just ask what’s good that day, everything will be. But the two dishes I’m still thinking about are the shaved raw Ligurian artichoke salad with parmesan and Amalfi lemon, which reminded me of a salad we had on the water in Saint-Tropez a few summers ago, and the nettle tortelli, a deep green pasta filled with Westcombe ricotta and finished in a rich Brue Valley butter with pine nuts.
We finished with lemon sorbetto served in a hollowed-out lemon, the way they do it all along the south of France. Crisp, tart, the right ending.
If you’re planning a London trip, this is the lunch to build your museum day around. The Schiaparelli show at the V&A is on until 8 November and is wonderful. Spend the morning there and walk over to The Lavery after.
The Lavery, 4 Cromwell Place, South Kensington, London.
Note: The Lavery provided support for the reporting of this story.