The Lecture Room and Library review: high-style haute cuisine
Two Michelin stars haven’t cramped the style of this flamboyant fine-dining restaurant - now celebrating its 15th anniversary
Mayfair has developed, perhaps even cultivated, a reputation for joyless excess, epitomised by its surfeit of characterless bars charging £20 for a second-rate cocktail and a first-rate scowl.
Sketch is the precise opposite of that. Sitting hard up against the border with Soho, it represents something of a challenge to its hipper, more creative neighbour.
From the pavement, only a peachy glow in the upstairs window hints at what lies behind the sobre Georgian facade. To wit: a green-lit forest glade, a pale pink diner, a bar masquerading as a futuristic space pod and a high-ceilinged amalgam of neoclassical architecture, art deco decals and Japanese lanterns, resplendent against a backdrop of red velvet and orange wallpaper.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Where to begin? Perhaps The Parlour, which breaks you in gently with a relatively conventional bar. Relatively: the 18th-century cornices are touched with neon and its luridly upholstered chairs sport legs in the form of ballet shoes en pointe. Self-identifying as an “eccentric patisserie”, it serves hearty breakfasts and brunches until the 5pm witching hour, which heralds the arrival of cocktails and bar snacks.
The Glade, one step further down the rabbit hole, serves the same menu in a tree-lined grove. Not a real one, of course - the mirrored tabletops and velvet-clad chairs give the game away - but a fantastical, fairy-tale replica. I half-expect an impromptu performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Before one can begin, we ascend to The Lecture Room and Library, Sketch’s two-Michelin-star restaurant. The entrance is nothing if not theatrical: a grand, red-carpeted staircase leading to a dark anteroom, from which we emerge through a pair of double-height doors, opened simultaneously by waitresses in white dresses.
The service is impeccable all evening. Well-drilled yet by no means robotic, it is delivered by personalities ranging from the reserved to the relaxed. The sommelier counsels us with an old-school conspiratorial intimacy, proposing a glass of champagne to get things going, before furnishing us with a white Saint-Aubin Premier Cru, generous and ripe with a spine of steel, and then a red Bordeaux from Chateau Alta Gaia for the meatier stretch of the menu.
Like the room in which it’s served, the food draws from an eclectic palette. France and Italy are well represented, especially in the lamb dish, which consists of a deeply flavoured saddle and a bite-sized rack alla Milanese - a crisp lollipop of meat, breadcrumbed and fried - along with spring onion, oregano and pommes Maxime’s (potatoes sliced, roasted and named after a restaurant in Paris).
Home-made tagliolini, however, gets a piquant Russian kick from a jewelled cluster of Ossetra caviar, and an oyster with black truffle derives additional earthiness from a spoonful of Guinness foam, applied at the table from the head of a pint. Green mango and blood orange add a Thai-tropical flavour to the lobster dish that follows.
But stout spume notwithstanding, there are few gimmicks here - just confident cooking and a willingness to push the envelope.
Perhaps a little too far, in one or two cases. I baulked at the saffron in the first of many puddings - too strident, too savoury - but a more conservative confection of hazelnut cream won me back, and the cumin-infused mousse of the third (or possibly fourth) dessert was the right side of adventurous - adding depth and warmth without shouting about it.
At £120 a head for the food alone, the prices are pure Mayfair, but that buys seven official courses, plus amuses bouches aplenty (which are indeed amusing, especially a delicate langoustine reclining in lobster bisque).
And the toilets alone must be worth at least £20. The glittering black-marble vault of a bathroom halfway up the main staircase is closer to the dining room, but take a walk to the other end of the building, through the pink fever dream of the The Gallery, its walls lined with 91 artworks by David Shrigley, and around the space-age East Bar, to where giant futuristic eggs conceal the necessary conveniences.
Then step back onto the pavement, where normal service will be resumed.
The Lecture Room and Library at Sketch, London W1: sketch.london
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Holden Frith is The Week’s digital director. He also makes regular appearances on “The Week Unwrapped”, speaking about subjects as diverse as vaccine development and bionic bomb-sniffing locusts. He joined The Week in 2013, spending five years editing the magazine’s website. Before that, he was deputy digital editor at The Sunday Times. He has also been TheTimes.co.uk’s technology editor and the launch editor of Wired magazine’s UK website. Holden has worked in journalism for nearly two decades, having started his professional career while completing an English literature degree at Cambridge University. He followed that with a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University in Chicago. A keen photographer, he also writes travel features whenever he gets the chance.
-
Georgia's new foreign influence bill
Under the Radar Critics claim the 'Russian law' could stifle dissent and wreck the country's chances of joining the EU
By Elliott Goat, The Week UK Published
-
'Making a police state out of the liberal university'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
8 looming climate tipping points that imperil our planet
The Explainer New reports detail the thresholds we may be close to crossing
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
Silversea cruise review: a Central and North American adventure
The Week Recommends An incredible journey featuring cultural exploration, cooking classes, comfort and more
By Yasemen Kaner-White Published
-
Three Chimneys restaurant and The House Over-By review: Skye's sumptuous rural hideaway
The Week Recommends The award-winning restaurant with rooms is well worth battling the elements to reach
By Jamie Timson, The Week UK Published
-
The Westbury Hotel review: stunning suites in charming Dublin
The Week Recommends This hotel is the perfect spot to while away a weekend in Ireland's capital
By Kaye O'Doherty Published
-
Drama movies 2024: new films out this year
In Depth Latest reviews include The Boys in the Boat, One Life and Tchaikovsky's Wife
By The Week UK Last updated
-
Best new hotels and places to stay in 2024
The Week Recommends Featuring stylish island resorts, historical properties and wilderness retreats
By The Week UK Last updated
-
Albums of the year: best music of 2023
The Week Recommends A look back at the best pop, rap, jazz, dance, classical and rock releases
By The Week UK Published
-
Savoy Grill by Gordon Ramsay review: an institution reinvented
The Week Recommends Traditions are maintained and the tweaks are clever and modern
By Neil Davey Published
-
Tulum: a Mexican beach town of 'two halves'
The Week Recommends With the 'pueblo' and 'Zona Hotelera', Tulum is home to great hotels, restaurants and beach clubs
By William Leigh Published