In the 30-degree heat of late June, visiting Riviera on St James Street, a restaurant which proclaims to bring ‘a warm journey to the South of France’ to central London, was a tempting prospect.
The French Riviera was one of the first modern vacation resorts, bestowing foods such as ratatouille, salade niçoise and tapenade on the world, with a healthy dose of rosé wine to boot.
Influences from neighbouring Italy and from Spain and North Africa all leave their mark, with exotic spices married with fresh, seasonal produce creating wonderfully vibrant dishes.
Tall escalators lead Riviera clientele from the hostess table to the restaurant, where high ceilings and bespoke pottery furnishings sit atop cool wooden flooring.
Relaxed music offers a soundtrack to the night, transporting you to a relaxed beach where the tide laps against the shore in rythmic harmony.
As a thirst-quenching aperitif, I had the Crémant d’Alsace Jean Baptiste Adam. Into a chilled glass goes crisp apple and peach bubbly, which I could easily have had 2 or 3 more of! It was a absolutely delightful.
A French spritz also arrived at the table which comprised elderflower liqueur, creme de menthe, champagne sugar syrup and lemonade. The suspiciously sweet concoction could have easily slipped into overkill. But as it was, the drink was both visually spot on and proved to be a perfect balance of flavours.
A prosession of food began to arrive at our table, starting with a seeded baguette served warm with a perfect crunch and showcasing the light and airy characteristics one would expect of any good French boulangerie.
True to form, a Tuna Niçoise salad was served with medium rare slices of tuna that had a great piquant sauce, runny quail eggs, potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce, olives and French beans. I would humbly count it as one of the best salads I’ve had this year.
We then had the grilled lobster brioche, which aside from a chewy lobster mouthfeel and dry brioche would have been a real winner.
Finally, the stuffed courgette flower with ricotta and honey was absolutely stunning. Expertly cooked, seasoned and presented I would have this every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
To match these, we had Picpoul de Pinet domaine de belle Mare, a barrel aged expression which had deep citrus notes that harmonised with all the dishes.
We then moved onto mains.
My guest had the black truffle and cheese gnocchi, which came in a Cacio e Pepe style sauce. The large pieces of gnocchi soaked up the very rich sauce, I would have liked to have seen a bit more truffle in there, to have that flavour running through the dish. Apart from that it was very well executed.
This was matched with a glass of Cotes de Provence Damone L’Amour Rose. This juicy, strawberry blush pink wine was again very quaffable, along with being able to hold its own with bold food flavours.
I had the grilled lamb cutlets with puy lentils. You know cutlets are delicious when you pick them up to make sure you didn’t miss any of the meat. They were cooked just right and packed full of flavour. The puy lentils were excellent and the red wine just demanded another bread basket so it could be mopped up.
This was paired with a glass of Samur Rouge La Canroile from the Loire. Light enough to delicately match the pink lamb, and with enough acidity and soft tannin to stand up to the rich lentils and jus.
Our service was very friendly and engaging. Riad was not only was professional, but also incredibly welcoming.
23 St James St, London SW1A 1HA