Kensington Wine Rooms

[battleofthebulge]

On the site of the Med Kitchen on Kensington Church Street, a block south of Kensington Place, Kensington Wine Rooms is now another excuse to drink too much wine and then roll gently home downhill.

It's a series of Enomatic machines with a wine bar and small restaurant attached. 40 wines by the 125ml or 175ml glass, plus a very extensive wine list which I'm afraid I didn't look at in detail, as we were busy planning how many of the glasses we could get through between us with dinner.

The food is not terribly exciting, but then that's not the point of the place. It is very good value. I had a zippy gazpacho with good olive oil, with a Costieres de Nimes rose which just about stood up to the spice. Steve had tuna carpaccio and mango puree with the suggested match of a Marlborough Sauvignon. The wine wasn't an exemplar of the form but did well to cut through the oiliness of the tuna and the sweet mango. Mains were tempura of cod (excellent light tempura, perhaps not quite golden enough) with chips and mushy peas, and a reasonable duck confit with lentil salad and green beans. To match the cod Steve first chose the entry level SA Chenin, which was nothing special, so then swapped to the white Burgundy which was excellent - nicely balanced, not too oaky and relatively cheap at £5 for 125ml. I had the 2004 Brunello by Argiano. Not a bargain at £14.75 for a 175ml glass but a relatively cheap way to drink this great vintage which is already very approachable. I think this may be the first time my main has cost less than the accompanying glass of wine.

None of the desserts appealed - chocolate mousse with black pepper ice cream? No thanks. So instead we had a couple more small glasses of red. The Nine Popes shiraz (Charles Melton) was pretty good, but the Ata Rangi Pinot Noir was superb. Staff were smiley, and topped up the tap water regularly with a fresh carafe.

So, 34 quid on some good food and £60 on wine which ranged from acceptable to really really nice. From their facebook page looks like they are constantly changing the wines in the enomatic, so looks like we'll have to go regularly to see what's on. Annoyingly their website - http://www.greatwinesbytheglass.com/ - is just a holding page with no wine list.

Sarah

[howardlong]

On the site of the Med Kitchen on Kensington Church Street, a block south of Kensington Place, Kensington Wine Rooms is now another excuse to drink too much wine and then roll gently home downhill.

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Thanks for the tip, will mean a stiff uphill cycle for me, but I'm sure I'll pick up some speed on the wobble home.

Cheers, Howard