The Terrace, at Grace, 42-44 Great Windmill Street, London, W1D 7NB Tel: 020 7851 0080

www.grace-bar.co.uk

This huge venue opened at the beginning of October this year and boasts three separate bars, as well as the Terrace restaurant. Just a few yards up from Shaftesbury Avenue as you head toward the Windmill theatre, with striking colours and designs in its decor the whole venue has a bold vibrant feel about it. The restaurant area, The Terrace, so called because it is elevated some three feet above the entrance bar area, has a good roominess, the tables well spaced and a great feel to it.

We were seated and the helpful, enthusiastic staff began to attend to us, fizzy water appeared within seconds of our ordering it, as did the bottle of Columbard, the house white, that we ordered. We chose our meals as we sipped on our drinks. Starters of Thai Fish cakes had a good flavour and some coarse meatiness from its fish content. These three crunchy cakes were well supported by some crisp salad, coriander and a good drizzle of sweet chilli sauce. The mushrooms in a peppercorn sauce were augmented by melted blue cheese and served on toasted ciabatta, all this sat on a bed of peppery rocket. The mixture of flavours working well together, it was much lighter than I imagined it might be, it was a tasty and interesting dish.

Mains of the sticky chilli lamb rump was lovely, the lamb cooked perfectly medium rare, so tender that it almost melted in the mouth. This was sat on a pile of sweet potato wedges and the dish was drizzled with a good refreshing but not overly strong mint and chilli yoghurt. The oven roast corn-fed chicken was a moist breast fillet, with the wing bone in, which had good flavour. This was accompanied by its bed of lemon and thyme crushed new potatoes, which had a freshness of flavour that went really well with the chicken. We ordered a dish of chilli broccoli from the bar menu to go with our mains, these were well cooked – leaving them with some crunch and then drizzled with sweet chilli sauce.

For dessert the lemon tart, served with crème fraiche, the tart was filled with a delicate lemon custard, its sweetness cut through by the slight sharpness of the crème fraiche. The chocolate and hazelnut roulade, was a decadent thin chocolate hazelnut meringue rolled with confectioners custard, the flavour from the nuts was excellent, the chocolate coming through in the finish. This was served on a plate which had been ‘drizzled’ with a chocolate ‘custard’ which had a nice flavour, but to my mind was rather too thick for this dessert.

Apart from the Columbard, we had a large glass each of the house red, a Grenache Merlot, which had a good softness to it, with our mains. Both House wines are very reasonably priced at£10.95 a bottle. The Terrace menu is currently priced at £25 for three courses, which is excellent value. Service was great throughout the meal, it was a really enjoyable evening.

It is also worth knowing that until the end of November this year, table bookings for four or more will receive a complementary bottle of champagne at the end of their meal to drink in the venue’s Milk Bar.