Tokyo has attracted attention as the city with the most restaurants per capita in the world.

The sheer amount of

competition has resulted in businesses pursuing a path of specialisation; many now serve only one dish. Here in
Belgravia, fusion is still the order of the day. Henry Hopwood-Phillips discovers if two of our most successful local
restaurants are part of the future or the past...

MANGO TREE

he Mango Tree is a vast Asian hotel-style dining

hall on Belgravias Victoria frontier, of the sort
that out in the Orient hosts Dubai-style buffets
and brunches. High ceilings? Tick. Long banquettes?
Tick. Asian tableware? Tick. Bamboo blinds? Tick.
Contemporary design in a very noughties sense? Tick.
Huge plants... you get the point.
The international stamp is unlikely to be
accidental. Founded in 2001, its part of an Asian
company, Coca, which owns several international
outlets. It even has a popular sister restaurant,
Pan Chai, down the road in Harrods. The
location of its Belgravia restaurant on the
corner of Grosvenor Place leaves it cleverly
placed to access both the tourist and the
office trade of Victoria. The result is that
the Mango Tree can feel a lot more in
rather than of London than many of
its neighbours. One can certainly sense
that few of its customers live within a
five-mile radius.
The (wipedown) menu was devised by
renowned pan-Asian chef Ian Pengelley. Only
two years after launching he won the Thai Chef
of the Year Award in the Fusion category. Its
a cuisine that blends the four main traditions of
Thailands regions: the north (creamy and mild), the
south (pungent and hot), the east (spicy), and the Centre
(highly influenced by Chinese).
Sadly none of these are reflected in my seafood
starter, a tepid pub platter of a dish: its flavourless, dull,
full of indeterminate protein. I attempt to wash down
the cocktail (a signature) but it tastes of fruit pastilles;
the supermarket own-brand variety.
Fortunately, things improve with the main a
Massaman Gai. Imagine lamb shank with a curry edge
to the gravy; this is it. Flavoured with cardamom,
cinnamon and bay leaves these are flavours more
usually associated with Persia or India but here, slow
roasted into the flesh, they reach their apotheosis.

B E L G R AV I A R E S I D E N T S J O U R N A L

The service is a tad erratic, both personality and

punctuality-wise, but perhaps this can be put down to
the sheer size of the place. I need a map and compass
and willing navigator in order to find the loo. Its

The location of its Belgravia

restaurant on the corner of
Grosvenor Place leaves it cleverly
placed to access both the tourist
and the office trade of Victoria
impossible to have a favourite table here, because youll
never get to sit at them all to find one you prefer, such is
their abundance. Overall, however, Mango Tree is more
miss than hit. It feels more of a pre-theatre, somethingto-tide-you-over place to eat, rather than a destination
for dining in its own right. Unfortunately, the most
annoying fact about it is that it sits nearer the price
brackets of a place youd choose to go to.
46 Grosvenor Place, SW1X 7EQ, 020 7823 1888
(mangotree.org.uk)

THE VERDICT
Atmosphere: 9/10
Food: 5/10
Service: 7/10
Value for money: 6/10

TOTAL: 27/40

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