Making use of the Eat Out to Help Out scheme I took some friends for dinner at Margot in Covent Garden. As always when you suggest a place you are always hoping that it’s going to be as good as you anticipate, but Margot outshone our expectations. We were made to feel like royalty from the moment we entered. The service here is incredibly attentive. On first look, it’s not particularly what I would have expected from an Italian restaurant. The interior décor reminds me more of Art Deco than native Italian. It’s neat and chic and makes a good deal of its wine collection, rightly so because it is extensive. The first thing you see on entering is row upon row of elegant-looking wines carefully stored in a glass cellar right in the centre of the restaurant. This was less of an attraction for one of my friends who is teetotal, but here again the restaurant did not disappoint. They made her a highly sophisticated basil-based mocktail.

The food is true to its Italian heritage – good quality fresh ingredients and rich flavours. We had a burrata with aubergines to start. Burrata is my absolute favourite and it did not disappoint. Afterwards I had an excellent cicatielli with lamb ragu, pecorino and mint and then we shared the chocolate mousse and tiramisu. I have to confess that I was pretty full by that stage so didn’t partake in the desserts much, but I can vouch for the chocolate mousse, which was as light and fluffy as ever I have known a chocolate mousse without losing that rich chocolatey flavour. It came with a Margot sausage dog imprinted in gold on a piece of chocolate to top it off.

Apparently the reason for the sausage dog logo is that the name of the wife of the owner was called Margot and she was very short and he was very tall and consequently called her the sausage dog…

At the time, we didn’t know that we should have been celebrating the success of my friend in his MBA exams, he only found out on the train on the way home, but despite the lack of this knowledge, we had an exceedingly celebratory meal and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Everything from the food, the wine, the service and the atmosphere contributed to ensuring we had a fabulous evening out.