Picasso Black & Blue Restaurant - London

127 King’s Road, Chelsea, London, SW3 4PW
+44 (0) 20 7351 1661
www.blackandbluerestaurant.com

Review by Amy Castle

On a warm summer’s evening, I headed to the King’s Road in London to visit the Black & Blue brand’s Picasso restaurant. As the brand name suggests, the restaurants are all about carnivorous offerings. Juicy steaks, succulent lamb and Scottish beef burgers feature on the menu, with five cuts for the steak alone.

For our starter, my Mum and I both went for the asparagus spears with shaved parmesan, rocket and poached egg. The asparagus was gorgeous, cooked to perfection and tasty, the egg too was cooked well and oozed a rich yolk, and the sauce was buttery but unfortunately too rich after eating a whole plate of it. For the main, my Mum chose the fillet steak; a 200g centre cut of British Isles beef, which the menu told us had been hung for 28 days and char-grilled. Accompanied by a really fresh side salad complete with walnuts, emmental cheese and house dressing, the dish was presented on a wooden chopping-board style platter with a portion of twice-fried chips.

I went for the half rack of lamb cutlets with French beans and mashed potatoes. I asked for it to be cooked medium, and it was perfectly pink and juicy.

The meat elements to both dishes were really impressive. The steak was juicy and succulent, and the lamb was tender and melted-in-the-mouth. But some of the other elements let the overall meal down. My mash potato was grey (a sign of being left for a while and being re-heated) and was lumpy and tasteless. Along with the beans, the mash potato needed seasoning and these elements of the meal were bland.

For dessert, my Mum had a warm apple and almond tart, and I opted for the chocolate brownie. Both dishes were beautifully presented, with icing sugar and fresh fruit in abundance. The tart was sweet and soft, but my chocolate brownie wasn't a brownie, but a chocolate cake. There was nothing wrong with it, but I was slightly disappointed as it wasn't set and rich like a brownie should be, yet spongy and rather dry.

Before our visit, my mum picked out a wine called Pecorino from the online wine list and was excited to give it a try. A fan of sauvignon blanc, which the list likened it to, it was marked on the wine list as current favourite but when we asked for it in Picasso, we were told it wasn't available in this particular restaurant, yet was available at others in the Black & Blue portfolio. This was somewhat disappointing and despite a "this is a sample menu and therefore items may vary across restaurants" disclaimer online, I couldn't help but feel that as it was the current favourite, it should be available across all of the restaurants.

I cannot fault the meat at Picasso, but feel that when you have one particular element that is of superior quality, the other parts of the meal need to be of the same high standard. Mashed potato is so easy to get right, and I wondered why it hadn't been put right in the past.

For more details, and information on other restaurants under the Black & Blue name, visit www.blackandbluerestaurants.com