Stanza - An English Restaurant in Chinatown

Peter Morrell, Food and Drink Editor of AMG, enjoys a convivial night out in this West End restaurant, club and bar.

You may remember Teatro on the corner of Greek Street and Shaftesbury Avenue from a while back as a place for lunch or a pre-theatre meal. It was owned by Leslie Ash's husband Lee Chapman but it is now under different management with a name change and a new chef. Known as Stanza it serves lunch, pre-theatre and evening meals and at around 10:00pm morphs into a late night bar.

The Teatro label has been retained for the private members’ club at the back of the building. This is a very comfortable place to have in central London ideal for meetings or just  to relax after some retail therapy.

The club offers a bar, Sky TV and broadband internet access - all for a very reasonable annual subscription.

I recently spent an evening at Stanza, trying a couple of their cocktails in the stylish bar before dining in the restaurant. The cocktail menu is long and varied and are at some very reasonable prices ... and I was glad to see that the non drinkers were also well looked after with some very interesting alcohol free cocktail options.

The new chef at Stanza is Maggie John-Lewis who has gained a wealth of experience at places like the Artisan at the Westbury Hotel,  Grosvenor House and Park Lane Hotels. The ethos of the kitchen is a commitment to fresh produce and affordable English food. 

We dined as a party of ten and I got an opportunity to take a look at (and try) a number of the dishes on the menu. My choice of starter was Cornish dressed crab with cray fish and, pink-lady apples and I also got a chance to sample the Butternut squash salad with smoked duck, bacon lardons, walnuts and baby onions, both were light and flavoursome.

I had the seafood soup for the main course, more like a fish stew, with a delicious sauce base that had an intense taste and was filled with a mixture of scallops, mussels and salmon. Most of my fellow diners had the braised daube of beef with baby carrots, green beans and pommes puree and said the beef was as tender as you could wish for.

Notable amongst the puddings were the Chocolate brownie with burnt ice-cream and the Apple tarte tatin with cinnamon and chestnut ice-cream. Both the ice creams were made on the premises. We shared a very drinkable house white and red wine that were very reasonably priced.

A Christmas menu is available as is the winter pre-theatre menu priced at £18.50 for two courses with house wine at £15, very good value for the West End.

Verdict, a relaxing venue with good value, well prepared food

Stanza
Wingate House
93-107 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W1D 5DY
020 7494 3020

www.stanzalondon.com

Review Date 4th November 2009