Part of the Conran empire, this mammoth of a restaurant is divided into two main eateries (the main restaurant and the Mezzonine Asian-inspired brasserie / bar), as well as the Mezzo café and Mezzoluna bar. This isn't the sort of establishment I would normally choose to eat at - too big, too noisy, too Conran - but I was determined to enjoy it nonetheless.

The cavernous downstairs dining room, crammed with a sea of tables (get your bearings if you need to navigate to the loo and back), can get unpleasantly noisy / have a real vibe, depending on your point of view. For me, getting that vibe shouldn't leave you with a headache and hoarse throat from attempting conversation. And we didn't even visit when the live band was playing (beware of surcharge for this "privilege"!)

The waiting staff are too busy to be attentive, verging on indifferent even, such that there can be long waits between courses, taking your order for dessert, requesting the bill, and having your credit card returned. Not quite up to scratch to justify the 12.5% service charge automatically slapped onto your bill, but how many people bother reducing or deducting this?

Did the food more than compensate for this? I'm not sure that it did. Some of the dishes were good, but certainly not exceptional, both in the sense that the food is pedestrian "modern European" fare, and numerous other restaurants could deliver comparable quality for a similar price.

I started with a chargrilled salmon salad, pieces of fish slightly blackened on the outside, still a gelatinous pink on the inside, on a bed of mediocre leaves (supermarket salad bag medley mainly consisting of the impossible-to-eat-attractively frisée). Not enough flavour from the fish meant that the overwhelming taste was the bitterness of the burnt bits. Other starters are of a similar ilk: tomato and basil galette, warm chicken liver salad, shellfish bisque with tarragon cream.

For the main course, confit of duck was a respectable portion of meat that yielded without resistance to the knife and fork, though the copious sauce (or "jus"), pushed it beyond well-seasoned to oversalty. As someone who normally prefers seafood, I thought the meat options (for example pot roast saddle of rabbit and shoulder confit) sounded more appealing than the fish dishes (such as pan-fried seabass with chorizo), but it probably depends on the menu for the day. Not all main courses come with vegetables other than as a token garnish, so side orders can push the bill up.

Dessert saved Mezzo from being disappointing. Crème brulée didn't quite fit the now-traditional mould, and was all the better for it. The burnt sugar topping was as thick as glass - just as it should be - which required some breaking in to, revealing a super-creamy vanilla-flecked cream beneath. Much less eggy than the slightly stodgy variety you can sometimes get, but a welcome change and an indulgent finish to the meal.

Rising noise levels and the probable wait for service meant we weren't tempted to linger over coffee. We were slightly deflated by the experience, and while I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Mezzo to anyone who prioritises a "happening" venue over good food and doesn't mind paying over the odds for it, I personally wouldn't choose to go back unless they increased staff by 20% and lowered prices by 30%.

- Tracy Yam, 12/2003

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