Noble Rot
Noble Rot review: the original Lambs Conduit Street wine bar remains London's best place to drink well, eat seriously and hear yourself through a bottle.
Noble Rot is, first of all, a wine list. The restaurant exists to support the list. This is the correct order of priorities and is why the place works.
The room
A narrow, low-ceilinged Georgian house on Lamb’s Conduit Street, with dark wood panelling, candles on every table, and the bar in the front room.
What to order
The short, rotating menu is genuinely good. The slip sole with brown butter, the wild duck in season, the perennially-available terrine with pickles. Ask the sommelier what to drink with it.
The drinks list
The point of the place. Deep, generous, thoughtful, with a standing glass-pour selection that is by itself worth a lunch.
What you will pay
Lunch for two with a starter, main, shared pudding, half a bottle: around £120. Dinner with a full bottle: £200.
The verdict
A short taxi from King’s Cross, an essential London lunch.
Nathaniel Ashford
Senior contributing editor
Nathaniel Ashford writes about bars, cocktails, pubs and the London neighbourhoods that hold them together. A former drinks-trade journalist, he now contributes a weekly cocktail column for Vivi and leads the Vivi Neighbourhoods series.
He knows more about vermouth than is strictly respectable. Based in Fitzrovia; generally found two doors down from wherever he is supposed to be.
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