The area around the picturesque Duke of York’s Square in Chelsea has not always been blessed with the best restaurants. It tends to attract upmarket chains like Polpo and Comptoir Libanais, but the fear that the area is not a foodie hotspot only intensified when the upmarket delicatessen Partridge’s closed down earlier this year after 50 years, depriving the well-heeled denizens of the area of one of London’s most iconic places to eat.
Still, where one door closes, another opens, and the advent of Café Linea, run by husband and wife team Greg and Felicity Godik, is not just the most exciting thing to happen to the restaurant scene in Chelsea in living memory, but represents one of the best and most ambitious openings in London this year.
Situated in what used to be the nearby Saatchi Gallery’s café, the first thing you notice is that the wonderful room – all high, vaulted ceilings and vast floor-to-ceiling windows, which enable you to look out over the nearby square – is equal parts Florentine fantasy and Chelsea cloister, meaning that you’re immediately won over as soon as you walk through the door. That is before the friendly and charming staff- including a Jonathan Bailey lookalike manager – greet you warmly, as if you’re an old chum. Which, given the quality of everything on offer here, you soon will be.
I’m visiting with Larry, because it would be unjust to deprive m’coll of what I expect to be a considerable treat, and as soon as two glasses of Langham English sparkling rosé greet us, I know that we’ll be in for something special. The chefs here are Simon Merrick, an ex-Richard Corrigan veteran, and Carolina Ferpozzi, which means there’s some serious ambition in the kitchen, although one of the more charming features of this all-day operation means that if you want to pop in for a cup of tea and one of the excellent miniature cakes, you’ll be more than welcome as well.
Felicity comes over to say hello and to explain some of the ideas that she and her husband had behind the restaurant, and reveals that they have two distinct kitchens, one for the bakery and one for the traditional a la carte dishes. Excitingly, she suggests that some of the items on the menu represent a collaboration between the two, blending two distinct but highly accomplished levels of skill.
Over a couple of exquisite cocktails – pear old fashioned for me, a sharp-but-punchy watermelon negroni for Larry – we sample some of the snacks. A couple of cheese tapioca buns are like giant gougères and all the better for it, and a shared lobster éclair is a one-bite delight, as are the stilton, peach and walnut profiteroles. A slightly more substantial dish comes in the form of fried pepper chicken, which has just the faintest kick of spice, and is all the better for it. We’re primed and ready to go: “I think we’re in for a treat here”, quoth Larry, and he’s not wrong.
Wine is a major part of the show at Café Linea, and the knowledgeable, charming sommelier comes over for a discussion about how best we’re going to find wines to go with the starters we opt for, a millefeuille of chicken liver parfait on monkey bread and a salmon tartare. He suggests half a glass (‘generously poured’) of a Picpoul and Gewurztraminer apiece, so that we have as wide a selection of the wine list as we can manage. ‘In other words, you’re going to conduct a bespoke wine pairing, based on what you think is going to go best with each dish,’ Larry says, with enormous confidence, and I congratulate him on successfully mansplaining (‘winesplaining’?) to the sommelier.
Still, both wines are superlative, as are the starters; the tartare is beautifully presented in oyster shells, and the parfait has a dense yet silky richness that makes it insanely moreish. I bite into my half as if it’s a sandwich, while Larry, even the connoisseur, prefers to use knife and fork, like a gentleman. So far, so good; we are chuckling and bantering away as if we’re thoroughly enjoying ourselves. Which we very much are, to be fair.
Mains represent a return to what Merrick was doing in a previous incarnation at Daffodil Mulligan in Shoreditch. I opt for the sour glazed sugar pit pork with slaw, Larry after some umm’ing and aah’ing decides that the turbot with courgetti sauce and egg mayonnaise (“what a marvellous idea!”) will be his, and a couple of sides of (excellent) frites and cucumber with feta hit the spot perfectly.
We are sharing, although Larry chides me for a lack of generosity with both the pork and slaw, and it’s only right that we try a couple of glasses once again, this time of Burgundy, one white and one red. It’s perfection; fine dining without the fanciness or the frilliness. The denizens of Chelsea are very, very fortunate indeed.
For dessert, there is a twist. Rather than the usual selection of desserts, there is one conventional one, a Brie-infused cheesecake, and a host of small patisserie, of which I choose three nibble-sized ones: chocolate and hazelnut cake, English strawberry tart and crème brulee choux.
All are as fantastic as everything else we’ve tried, and the sommelier’s brilliance does not desert (no pun intended) him at the last, with the recommendation of a glass of Montbazillac a highly welcome one. Then we are concluded for the evening and release ourselves, sated and blinking, into the SW3 air. I look, expectantly, to Larry, for his judgement on the evening, and it’s a while coming, but when it arrives, it was, as ever with the great man, worth waiting for. “That really was damn good.” Readers, he was entirely correct.
Cafe Linea, 90 Duke of York Sq, Chelsea, London SW3 4LY. For more information, online orders, and for bookings, please visit www.linealondon.com.
