The Cadogan Arms
Chelsea, London
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This King’s Road institution has new custodians in JKS Restaurants, the go-getting group behind such destination restaurants as Gymkhana, Lyle’s and Trishna. It turns out they can do pubs too. The Cadogan Arms looks ravishing after its refresh, with stained glass mirrors at the bar, an embossed ceiling, velvet upholstery and grand displays of dried flowers and peacock plumes. With culinary director James Knappett and exec chef Alex Harper (ex-Harwood Arms) overseeing proceedings, the kitchen delivers ‘pub grub’ of a piece – both prawn cocktail with iceberg lettuce and marie rose sauce, and an XL chicken Kyiv are unapologetically retro. At one meal, ‘humble ham and eggs’ turned out to be 'a fleshy piece of ham served on the bone' with fat chips and a sticky pineapple jam, while fried buttermilk chicken with hot sauce was simply ‘lip-smacking’. Or there could be roast turbot on the bone with brown shrimps, seasonal vegetables and chilled bagna cauda, while a nostalgic rhubarb trifle with a huge dollop of cream has been declared a ‘successful reboot’. One needn’t scale the three-figure reaches of the wine list to drink well. Leave the Latour for the well-heeled locals; for the rest of us, there are cask and keg beers, reasonable wines by the glass and fun ‘cocktail chasers’.
