P&M are back in the country, so we meet up for lunch. I'd read reviews of Cicoria, the new Angela Hartnett on the 5th floor of the Royal Opera House, so we head there. It takes us a while to find the lifts, and then it's a little walk back to the restaurant itself, but it's worth it for the view, down over the Covent Garden piazza.
There is a bar terrace as well, but we're booked into the restaurant proper. It's all brightly decorated with plants, and as it's a lovely sunny day it feels all fresh and open. We're promptly shown to our table, by an open window, but P&M had to wait a while to be escorted along.
We've started off with the house white, from Sicily, at £38, plus sparkling water. This comes swiftly enough, and is then placed just out of reach. Smiley and friendly waitress.
For starter, B has burrata with tomatoes. This is a good sized portion, and the tomatoes are excellent. The rest of us each have the melon and cucumber soup with toasted almonds with a touch of truffle oil. This is very refreshing on a warm day. It's not a very wide-ranging menu, but interesting nonetheless.
For main course, both B and M have a starter size crab linguine, with a green salad to share. It's billed as coming with chilli, but this is very mild. It's a reasonable sized portion. P has the chalk stream trout, which comes looking very red - he declares it fine. My selection is "pollo alla diavolo" - this chunk of chicken breast comes with panzanella (croutons), a smallish portion, not very spicy, but good flavour and moist.
P and I both follow up with the vanilla gelato with chocolate and hazelnuts - very indulgent.
Service has been very attentive; tables are far enough apart; there's a gentle hum with some very light background music - in all, a calming ambience on a nice day.
With four bottles of wine and the usual service charge, the total comes to £400. The food was good and the situation very pleasant, so probably fair enough. Only for special occasions I suspect, and mainly in the sunny weather.
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