THE LONDON ECONOMIC
The Pachamama Group continues its mission to bring exciting restaurants to various fashionable parts of London, such as Chelsea, Marylebone, Notting Hill and Shoreditch.
By opening Nina in Marylebone Village in spring 2025, the group has executed a delicate pirouette to the area of London in which it embarked on its inaugural project, Pachamama Bar + Kitchen, a popular Peruvian bar and restaurant concept which sprang into life over ten years ago in 2014 and ended in 2024.
Nina is located on a relatively quiet street on a north-south axis in bohemian Marylebone Village. Marylebone High Street and majestic Regents Park lie to the north and the luxury boutiques of Bond Street are directly to the south.
The entrance is discreet (no doubt intentionally so) and leads down a flight of steep stairs to a subterranean basement reminiscent of the exciting bars and clubs which sprung up around Portobello Road and Ladbroke Grove in the early 1990s.
Nina manages to be both contemporary and faintly retro at the same time. The tables, in a series of half hidden rooms, are candlelit and covered with white tablecloths and the antique cutlery picks up on the silvered accents which Nina polishes.
The white walls are punctuated at intervals by exposed brickwork, leopard print wallpaper, soft beige colours and artwork filled with scribbled admonitions – “Make Your Own Money and Marry Someone Funny” is particularly memorable. Shania Twain, the leopard print loving Queen of Country Pop, would be right at home.
The dark wooden floors throughout Nina flow towards and around a long bar, at which drinkers and diners sit, facing a back bar made of stainless steel framed by a huge mirror and stacked glass blocks.
The pulse of light techno from speakers positioned high on the walls creates a late night feel and almost a sense of urgency. The vibe is cool and romantic.
The menu at Nina is radically contemporary and Italian inspired. Max, our attentive and knowledgeable Ukrainian waiter, emphasised from the outset that plates were to be shared and would emerge from the kitchen in successive unstructured waves. These crashed blissfully on the palate and Max’s guidance was critical since the menu is multi-faceted.
The food at Nina, as at its sister restaurant Bottarga in Chelsea, is phenomenal. The gluten free sourdough, accompanied by the house creamy parmesan butter and the burratina from Puglia, with its bulbous, oozing centre and surrounded by huge, soft green and red roasted peppers were good choices.
The yellowtail crudo, a buttery white fish commonly found in sushi restaurants, dosed in stracciatella with mildly spicy jalapeño pepper was as refreshing as the two delicious salads – heirloom tomatoes with basil and Ligurian olives and a pure raddichio salad, relieved of any bitterness by a honey dressing.
The unmissable main dish was certainly the whole grilled seabass which was crisp, full of flavour and distinctly southern Mediterranean.
Pudding should not be sacrificed at Nina, and the dark chocolate sorbet sprinkled with salt from Maldon, Essex was only surpassed by the cheesecake, carefully burnt to form a thin, crispy top layer, with a gentle stracciatella flavour throughout.
The wine list is comprehensive and most of the red and white wine is from Italian vineyards ranging from the Alto Adige, Piedmont and Veneto regions in the north to Le Marche, Tuscany and Umbria in the centre and Puglia and Sicily in the south.
Nina offers a creative and stylish twist on Italian dining and has left a lasting impression upon the flourishing restaurant scene in Marylebone Village. Who knows, even the concert goers at the Wigmore Hall may be tempted.
Nina’s website is www.nina.london. It is open for lunch every day from noon until 3.30pm (note the website does not make this clear and that the lunch menu is more restricted than the dinner menu). It is also open for dinner every day from 6pm until 10.30pm.
Bookings may be made by email at [email protected], through OpenTable or at Nina’s website here or by telephone on +44 020 793 59393. Nina’s address is 18 Thayer Street, Marylebone, London W1U 3JY.