No romance but Maggiore is still a gem

Clos Maggiore is something of a gem in the chain-linked streets of Covent Garden
10 April 2012

This Covent Garden restaurant - re-launched last month with a Clos added to the name to honour the antecedents of head chef Marcellin Marc, who was previously working at Le Clos de la Violette in Aix-en-Provence - is often mentioned when lists of romantic restaurants are compiled.

So will it be the right place to take Mummy on Mother's Day? Not really, because it is closed on Sundays, but any other day she would have to be the sort of dame who responds well to theatrical (meaning artificial) decoration.

Bowers of fake blossom, a monumental stone fireplace with a hot fake fire and hedges of box, apparently not fake but dead, are not this particular mother's cup of tea, even though I liked looking up at the sky through panes of glass in the conservatory-style roof.

We had asked to move from a table in front of the bar to one in the back room as I felt that this was the essence of the place. Indeed, it reminded me of restaurants I have visited in the South of France, not all of them joyous revelations.

The service was assiduous, the linen heavy but not as heavy as the huge wine list which for the past two years has received awards from The Wine Spectator. Dining with a teetotaller, I did well ordering by the glass. There is a choice of nearly 30 bottles offered that way.

The descriptive menu points to a lot of hard work going on in the kitchen, but it doesn't seem always to good effect. It may not currently be the best season for vegetables but an etuvée of seasonal vegetables dressed with truffle vinegar revealed a very dull selection sulking in a beige heap at the bottom of a huge soup plate. Everything we ordered was served in huge soup plates.

Brochettes of seared squid wrapped in smoked bacon with sautéed spatzle and a light parsley jus arrived that way, as did braised Charolais beef and treaclecaramelised Gressingham duck breast. Both the meat dishes had good flavour and the duck was a tender improvement on the usual seized-up magret.

Salad ordered on the side was a mound of curly endive with a truffle-infused dressing that also contributed a sort of over-worked effect to what should have been crisp, slightly bitter greens.

Clos Maggiore may not be my idea of romantic or even delicious eating but it is something of an independent gem in the chain-linked streets of Covent Garden.

Clos Maggiore
King Street, London, WC2E 8JD

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