Stephanie Hoang

Small Italian nook for a cozy pasta dinner for both a date night and with friends.

I'm confused by some reviews about service not being great. I thought the service was quite good for UK standards. Our server helped us through the Italian menu, and gave us her personal favorites.

Each dish made me feel like I was back in Italy. Fresh ingredients prepared perfectly. We loved the fried starters, the pastas, and the tiramisu.

Imagine refined British cuisine in a quiet place in Central London. I was surprised at how elegant this restaurant was despite its location. Outside, the restaurant is quite loud and lively from the neighbouring bars, but inside the restaurant, it feels like you've popped yourself over to Mayfair.

The first thing I noticed was how decorative the menu is. They have a variety of options for all diets. We chose a mixture of fish and meat. Their seafood was delicious. The meats were seasoned well, but the smoked eel sandwich was my favorite.

Overall, it's a high-quality London restaurant. All the dishes were up to par, but I didn't quite find anything that would urge me to come back quickly.

Date night or girls night - a relatively quiet but still busy enough wine bar vibe for a good time. No need to shout to hear your date/friend.

My sister and I came here for dinner and were stuffed after only a few dishes. While they may seem small, they're filling and delicious.

We got the Stilton Croquettes, the Brussels sprouts, the sardines, the mushroom risotto, and the guinea fowl. My favorites were the croquettes and the guinea fowl. The sardines were on the saltier side, but were nicely balanced with the rest of the dish. Both the Brussels sprouts and the risotto were delicious, but a bit too oily for our taste.

Service was good. We had an unexpected friend come by, and they were more than happy to accommodate us at another table for drinks only.

Environment is quite unique as it is a stand alone building. I liked having a full table near the back, rather than being towards the front where there seem to be bar seating/high stools.

Overall, a pretty good experience.

Food to price ratio was impeccable.

We came for lunch and got the cockles, trout, cabbage, a spicy fish, and massaman curry. The cockles and the fish were both on the spicy side, but they do warn you about the heat. I absolutely LOVED the massaman curry. It is large, so definitely a sharing plate. I would also highly recommend the cockles too. I kept sipping the sauce it came with even after we ate all the cockles.

KOL takes the crown as my favorite restaurant in London, and 4th in the world. The two month long wait to get a table was worth it.

Let's start with our entrance - the host and hostess were both cheerful and checked us in quickly. We were brought to our table (which was such a comfortable little both right next to the kitchen!) I really enjoyed watching the chefs at work. You'd think sitting next to the kitchen would be loud, but the environment was so peaceful.

Service wise, everyone was attentive and patient with our questions about the food and drinks. I want to highlight the sommelier. We didn't know much about mezcal, so we decided to go with the mezcal tasting. The sommelier was incredibly knowledgeable as she gave us a background on how each mezcal was made. Portion sizes for the mezcal tasting were perfect. I thought I would pass out afterwards, but her pours were perfectly sized for me.

Finally to the food - I couldn't rate it higher. We began with an amuse bouche of a bit of a spicy mezcal soup. It was strong, but I've never had such high quality mezcal where I didn't gag afterwards. We then moved on to a tequila and a mezcal margarita with their restaurant name in the ice cube! I highly recommend the mezcal margarita. The last small starter was a little waffle sandwich with enoki mushrooms.

Now to the bigger starters: yellow pepper with creme fraiche, and scallops with a cucumber. They were both light and refreshing to prepare my palate for the larger dishes. I usually adore scallop, but I think this was one restaurant where the scallop wasn't my favorite. The scallops flavor tasted a bit bland next to the cucumber. I still liked the dish, but not as much as I was expecting.

The next two dishes were two of my favorites: langoustine taco, and the wagyu tarte. We had to squeeze this citrus juice from the langoustine's head onto our taco. It was such a fun dish - I was absolutely playing with my food. The wagyu tarte was an add on, but absolutely worth it. The beef was cooked very slightly so you could taste the flavor of the meat.

The next dishes were vegetable dishes - one that surprised me and one that was a crisp break from the heavier tastes. First, the kohrabi was refreshing and cooling. Next, the purple carrot was actually quite heavy. It felt like eating meat, but it was a vegetable. The sauce was very heavy.

Next up were our mains: a wrapped fish, and the pork cheek tacos. Both were savory and I wished we had another! The pork cheek came with several toppings like mushrooms to pop on top.

Finally, our desserts were each light, but full of flavor to end the meal.

I couldn't give a higher rating for this restaurant. We had an amazing experience and will be back again!