Apero - review

Apero is a smart stop for the museum-weary at Negroni o’clock.
24 October 2012

Apero takes its name from that blessed hour when Italians precede their dinner with an aperitivo, preferably a Campari spritz — and preferably two Campari spritzes, come to that. The idea, if not sadly the habit, has caught on in London and a restaurant where that hour pertains all day, incorporating small plates of Italian morsels, would appear to be very much alla moda.

If Apero were located on some Soho sidestreet or Shoreditch loft, it would probably be hard to get a table. Instead it crouches in the basement of the Ampersand Hotel in South Kensington. “Sit wherever you like,” said the waitress on a recent Friday lunchtime, gesturing around the room.

The hotel has just been done up, loosely themed around the nearby museums. The smell of emulsion pervaded the lobby. Workmen thumped things overhead. The dining room itself is attractively laid out, all exposed brickwork and white tiles, but the mellow beams of sun could not quite angle themselves onto our window table. Perhaps in winter it won’t seem such a tease.

The wine list is fun and accessible, though, with a bizarre emphasis on French wines (South Kensington is an overseas arrondissement of Paris, after all). Mercifully, the cocktails have an authentic Italian twist, involving such sophisticated elixirs as Amer Picon and Fernet Branca. A Negroni variation, featuring dark rum (£7.50), and a sort of supercharged Bellini involving apricot brandy (£8.50), were accompanied by grissini with a green harissa dip (£4). It was necessary to linger over these, as the menu took careful consideration.

One problem with sharing plates is they provide the illusion that you can create the perfect order — actually they make it harder to do so. Smoked aubergine purée with goat’s curd (£4.50) proved a little pointless on its own. All else was bright and refreshing, a sort of Ottolenghi-inspired spin on Italian classics, a dusting of sour sumac here, a golden raisin there.

An assembly of cured sea bass, cold purple potatoes and slivers of fennel arrived with mint and a sprinkling of sweet lemon dust (£5.50). The raw salad of summer vegetables (£4.50) was similarly dainty. The “pork cutlet” — actually a charred pile of honeyed pig flesh with chewy stalks of fennel — was raucously satisfying (£9).

A succession of servers loomed over to ask if we were enjoying our meal and then tried to remove the last servings. When a little morsel remains, it doesn’t mean the customers are done. It means the customers liked the dish very much but are enmeshed in a silent passive-aggressive bargaining process as to who gets to the last bite:

“You have it.” “No, you have it.” “Oh all right.” “Hey!” It is a blunder to interrupt this ballet.

Still, by the time we were sharing an olive oil and pistachio cake (£6), we were authentically transported. The bill was smaller than expected, too, thanks to a lunchtime deal. I hope it will gain more buzz; in the meantime, Apero is a smart stop for the museum-weary at Negroni o’clock.

Ampersand Hotel, 2 Harrington Road, SW7 (020 7591 4410, ampersandhotel.com). About £70 for two with wine.

FIVE THINGS RICHARD ATE THIS WEEK

1. A hearty bowl of borscht at Mari Vanna, the madly endearing Russian restaurant in Knigshtbridge. The perfect place to recover from seeing Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina.

2. An obscene 12in sausage at the Charlotte Street Draft House in Fitzrovia, washed down with lashings of Delerium Tremens, one of the finest lagers known to man.

3. Date syrup, ordained in Yotam Ottolenghi’s new cookbook as the new “it” ingredient, and chanced upon in my local Turkish grocer for £1.99. Used sparingly in dressings and marinades, it lends a compelling, treacly depth.

4. A Last Word cocktail to toast a million-pound business idea that I hit upon with an old friend. I can remember the cocktail: equal parts gin, green Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur and lime juice. The business idea escapes me now.

5. Earthy girolle mushrooms with corn grits at the new branch of Caravan at the King’s Cross development. A good reason to head to London’s newest neighbourhood.

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