With lockdown measures easing across the nation, many restaurants have started their re-opening process. My emotions about this are mixed. My entire personal and professional lives are centred around restaurants. Déjà Vu is a restaurant and bar discovery tool, and a newly launched one at that. Having restaurants re-open obviously helps put us back on the map. Personally, restaurants are the social hub of my life, a place I met friends post work over a meal, or just a place to go and unwind after being in front of a computer all day. However, on the other side, we’re are still living in the time of a pandemic. Mask wearing, hand sanitising, overall antibacterialising is still the ‘new normal’.  How do you reconcile those two things, two separate emotions? One of dining for an experience of relaxation and exploration and, the other, of general 2020 anxiety?

Well, very easily if the right procedures are in place, I found. For my first foray into the unknown, I sprang, albeit apprehensively, into booking my first restaurant, Noble Rot.

With the companionship of my trusty partner in crime, we found Noble Rot down a side street in Bloomsbury, just a stone throws away from my flat. Never having traversed down Lambs Conduit street, I was pleasantly surprised at its quaintness. It was just like a scene from the movie Notting Hill. Cobbled pedestrian walkway, tall trees swaying in the breeze, boutique shops, an Aesop (which always makes me feel fancy), and a laid-back vibe. It was raining that evening, which made it feel even cosier as we approached the dark awning of the restaurant. A group of men sat out front with a bottle of wine, seeming jolly and laughing over stories of, what I assumed to be, a good ole catch-up.

In the front of the restaurant, just tucked slightly in from the door was a bottle of hand sanitiser and a member of their front of house, masked with an iPad. Ready with what sounded like a smile (since I couldn’t see her face), she greeted us warmly, checking our reservation. She welcomed us and asked us to sanitise our hands on the way in. As I did, making sure to make a big show to the other guests and staff how vigorously I was doing it, I started to feel a sense of ease about the whole experience. Step 1, sanitised, check.

We were led, through the mysteriously romantic, dim light restaurant, to a table in the back, lit by a skylight pointing towards the grey clouds above. I loved it. Rainy day in a dim-light wine bar equals great vibes. As we took a seat we were told that another measure they were taking to help protect us/themselves, was to reduce allocation of staff for each table. Therefore, each area of the restaurant only has one member of staff, as opposed to multiples. There might be a slight delay in service, but we were happy to take our time. It was our first night out and we did not want to rush it.

Our waiter was joyful and full of energy. He set a tiny bottle of sanitiser on our table and showed me the wine list on an ipad, ‘…freshly sanitised’ he said. We ordered a glass of champagne (Michel Gonet, Blanc de Blancs ‘3 Terroirs’; Champagne, France 2010) to start the celebration, some bread and butter, and sat back to dissect the menu.

Noble rot, by the way, for non-wine buffs (like myself), is actually a wine term. It relates to a certain type of fungus that grows on very ripe grapes. As the fungus grows, the wine shrivels and concentrates all the sugars giving birth to, once pressed, to honey like textures and flavours. Interesting right?

Back to the menu, we decided on Noble Rot’s signature dish, the slipsole & smoked butter and the lamb sweetbreads, Alsace bacon & baby gems as our starters. Followed by the roast Swaledale lamb, aubergine & tapanade and baked Cornish monkfish.

The champagne was so unique, I don’t think I’ve ever had one quite like it. It was buttery, nutty, but also musky with fine bubbles and a deep golden hay colour. It was exquisite to be honest, why am I surprised, we were in a wine bar. But Noble Rot is more than that. Self-described as ‘Franglaise’ style cooking, the head chef Paul Weaver and team prepare small plates easily paired with their wide range of wines in their massive cellar beneath the restaurant. Situated it an old townhouse, it’s no wonder it feels like stepping back in time, into a good friend’s home.

Our starters arrived and they were delicious. The slipsole was well seasoned, firm, and easily came off the bone—aka the freshest of fish. The smoked butter and the champagne were perfectly matched, in my opinion. The sweetbreads, unctuous and rich, went well with the freshness of the baby gems.

We decided to move on to a bottle, why not. Thinking of what to pair with monkfish and lamb, but still wanting a red we decided on one from the Loire valley in France. Comprised of 67% Côt and 33% Gamay, Clos du Tue-Boeuf, Touraine ‘La Guerrerie’; Loire, France 2018 was everything we wanted/needed. Cherry notes, big fruity flavours, musky, leathery and funky really. As I mentioned, I’m not a wine aficionado, but I’m starting to get a better idea of what I like, and the combo of big fruit and big musk is weirdly a great find for me. Try it, trust me. The waiter brought over the bottle, showing us he was rubbing it with an alcohol wipe before opening it for us to try—another tick in the box for me.

Mains—yes. Here arrived our lamb and monkfish. The lamb was blushing pink, on the bone, with delicious rendered fat along the side. The aubergine tapenade was smoky, sweet, and moreish. The monkfish sat on a bed of green peas (not my jam, but it looked great), and served with roasted pistachios. Everything perfectly cooked, everything perfectly normal. With the wine flowing, and the meal so delicious, we genuinely forgot about the woes of the world for a few hours. I didn’t really want it to end.

Our neighbouring table had celebrated a birthday and was served with some freshly baked madeleines and a hearty yell of support from yours truly—I’m loud already, but I was having a great time. When they left, they told us to seriously try to get those madeleines. Being, what I like to call a ‘madeleine connoisseur’ of sorts, I was down for this. When our friendly waiter came back, he asked us if we wanted anything, to which I said ‘any chance on those madeleines?’. He winked and said, ‘let me see what I can do’. I decided to try a small glass of dessert wine from Jura, France—since I’d never had that before. When he returned, he placed the madeleines and a small glass of the Jura wine in front of me. It was the last of the bottle, so it was on the house, he said. We devoured the madeleines in about 10 seconds—they were warm cloud puffs of pastry deliciousness and equally on the house—which made them even sweeter.

We settled the bill and made our way out of the restaurant, with each member of staff saying bye to use as we left. Given we have never been there, we felt like regulars.

For the times of a pandemic, having these slivers of ‘normality’, and just being able to get out and have someone else cook for you, is freeing. However, I think the thing that I really missed and truly appreciated from Noble Rot, was that it felt like they really cared about the whole experience of dining. It’s not just about good food, or good wine in this case. Obviously, those are two key factors, but it’s about so much more than that. It’s about being warm and welcoming to your customers, new or old. It’s about genuinely being excited to greet them, recommending things, and being knowledgeable about your products and produce. It’s about the small details, like placing a bottle of sanitiser on all the tables, the masks, and the alcohol wipes for the wine bottles that show you care. I was just hoping to get some great food, but honestly, I got so much more than that. I got peace of mind that, if we all take steps to be caring to one another in these times, we’ll all get through it just fine.

Here at Déjà Vu we’re working hard to bring you a list of places like Noble Rot and many more who are taking these same steps to welcome you back. Support independent and small business, download the app (to support us) and make a reservation (to support restaurants) and go enjoy some great dining experiences soon.