The ground floor dining room at The Campaner
If you're a regular follower of our Coming Soon pages you'll probably be aware that London has a new Spanish import. The Campaner sees a team featuring folk who were involved in hip Barcelona restaurant Terraza Martinez setting up in London. This, their first London opening, is the centrepiece of the Chelsea Barracks development just off Sloane Square.
We popped along for a preview evening when they were running a truncated soft launch menu to get a feel for the place.
The space
First impressions - it's a very beautiful building - an award-winning one, in fact, designed by architect Ben Pentreath and made to look like it's been a part of the Chelsea landscape forever.
The dining room is split into two distinct parts. If you go to the left as you enter, you'll be in a room with probably the most natural light with large double-height windows on two sides. It's a bright, airy double-height space.
To the right as you enter is a space that's just as lovely with banquette seating and a wall of wine. It all looks rather lush.
There's also a massive terrace at the front of the building looking over to the Grade II-listed Garrison Chapel (now an art gallery) across the square.
The drinks
Cocktails were already proving to be popular. In addition to our very moreish Pineapple Mezcal margarita, we also had this Golden Stairs (£15) - made with gin, lime, orange juice, ginger, passionfruit and vanilla.
Oh and did we mention they also have a speakeasy? The Clandesti is accessed via a door to the right of the restaurant's terrace outside. Take the lift down and you're in a very cosy cocktail bar that'll be open till late.
The food
When it's fully up and running the menu is quite an unusually structured one. There's an all-day focus, so in addition to a special egg section (you can have them fried or scrambled and with additions like lobster or sobrasada) there's a deli-style feature where you can pick between Spanish jamon, London charcuterie, oysters and a choice of caviars.
Oyster gratin with Béarnaise sauce (£7)
In addition to this, there's another page of the menu with a slightly more classic structure - think starters, mains and desserts. We wanted to try some of the dishes made famous at Terraza Martinez, but were dining with someone with a mollusc allergy so, alas, the Catalan soccarat with prawns would have to wait till another time.
Both our mains were from the Josper Grill section, we had some turbot, grilled and then liberally doused with garlic butter and a steak Rossini.
Turbot (market price)
Rossini sirloin steak (£42)
Overall
Opening their doors just as Chelsea is about to be inundated for The Chelsea Flower Show would be a baptism of fire for any restaurant, so let's hope The Campaner is up to the challenge. It really is a lovely-looking space and once their full menu is up and running it'll be a great spot, particularly on the large outside terrace, to enjoy some Barcelona-accented dishes.
More about The Campaner
Where is it? Chelsea Barracks, 1 Garrison Square, London SW1W 8BG
Find out more: Follow them on Instagram @thecampanerchelsea
Hot Dinners dined as guests of The Campaner. Prices correct at time of publication.
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