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Chelsea: Gallery Mess

Duke of York's Square , Phone: 0207 730 8135
www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/gallerymess

Reviewed by: Panda from UK, review #3334

When: 2009

Good quality and reasonably priced brasserie type food in central Chelsea location

We often need somewhere for a drink and light meal in the early evening in this part of Chelsea, prior to going to a concert at the wonderful Cadogan Hall (www.cadoganhall.com).

There are plenty of bars/eating places around Sloane Square and down the King’s Road, with quite a few in the upmarket shopping and dining development on the site of the former Duke of York’s Barracks, now renamed Duke of York Square. We had managed to miss this one before because it has a rather odd, narrow entrance from the main shopping area, whereas the others have wide patio dining at their entrances. There are, in fact, plenty of outdoor tables on the side of Gallery Mess, which you see when you approach it as if going to the Saatchi Gallery, facing the wide green square.

This quite recent café/bar/restaurant is attached to the Saatchi Gallery, a collection of modern art previously housed in County Hall, near the London Eye. The Mess part of the name is a play upon the previous long history of the whole area as an army base – I remember going to officer dances there over 30 years ago!

It provides a very flexible eating option: breakfast and brunch are served from 9.00-11.30 then a mix of lunches, light meals, tea coffee and pastries and then dinner until 11.30. We arrived at about 6 PM before our concert at 7.30 and had a leisurely glass of wine or two, then decided on salads. I had a Thai Duck salad, which arrived in a disconcertingly high cone shape on the plate: it was very fresh and crunchy, with a marvellous balance of flavours – I kept saying to my husband “This much mint shouldn’t work, but it really does”.

He had a Seared Tuna salad. He asked the waitress for it quite rare, which she assured him was the way it was served. He was quite surprised at the generosity of the portion, with perfectly cooked (for him) tuna, soft boiled eggs, marinated anchovies and salad items. Again, very fresh tasting - someone in the kitchen really knows what they are doing and cares.

I think this would be a useful addition to the travel file for anyone staying in the Chelsea/Knightsbridge area, visiting the Gallery or the Cadogan Hall. The pricing is very unChelsea: our generous salads were either side of £10.00 and we felt no pressure to order more or to hurry over our meal. We’re certainly planning to use it on our next concert visit or try it for a later evening, full dinner.

This review is the opinion of a Slow Travel member and not of slowtrav.com.

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