Apero restaurant opens in new boutique hotel in South Kensington
The 40-cover restaurant is headed up by chef Chris Golding, formerly of Galoupet which closed earlier this year.Golding has created a daily-changing menu of sharing plates to promote the Mediterranean culture of communal eating.
Sample dishes at Apero include gnocchi with rainbow chard and smoked scamorza (£5.50/£10); Cured mackerel, purple potatoes, fennel, pistachio and candied lemon (£5.50/£9.50); and Green apple and Castelfranco leaf (£4.50/£7).
The dessert menu has been designed by pastry chef Ji Sun Shin - formerly Sous Chef at Nobu - with dishes including set buttermilk with lavender and peach; olive oil, pistachio and vanilla cake with vanilla ice cream; and lemon posset with churros, all priced at £5.50.
Apero also features a separate bar area, with space for an additional 17 guests. The cocktail list includes classics such as an aperol spritz and Americano appearing alongside original recipes. Wines are available from £4.50 by the glass.
Major refurb
The design of Apero was created by Dexter Moren Associates. It is influenced by the history of South Kensington, designated as one of London’s centres of culture by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in the wake of the Great Exhibition of 1851, with features including a five-metre-tall ‘cabinet of curiosities’.
Guests enter the restaurant via a brash-mesh staircase, while a feature chandelier illuminates the entrance. The marble bar runs along one side of the room, with some areas of the original brick walls painted white and other areas have left exposed.
The Ampersand Hotel in South Kensington, formerly the Grosvenor Kensington Hotel, had a soft launch in July following a multi-million-pound refurbishment for the venue before it opened fully in August.
The Harrington Road venue was originally built in 1888 but was purchased by a new group of private investors last year for an undisclosed sum. The group then embarked on a refurb programme costing approximately £13m to modernise the building.
