Not to be confused with The Zetter Townhouse Clerkenwell and its stellar bar The Zetter Townhouse Cocktail Lounge, the hotel’s neighbouring sister, The Zetter Hotel, is home to this ground-floor restaurant, lounge and bar. With a mix of high seating, banquette and intimate areas, the restaurant caters to solo business travellers, groups and one-on-ones alike with mid-century design touches that make it bang-on trend.
It’s The Zetter’s menu, however, that is the real crowd pleaser, with dishes as pretty as they are classic. The evening begins with warm bread and soft, whipped butter plus a plate of amuse bouche that included rich cheesy gougeres as well as a subtly smoked cod’s roe dip with crispy salmon skin.
To start a pleasing combination of octopus and chorizo was surrounded by a smooth and subtle white bean veloute. Chickpea fritters and jalapeño ketchup stand out from the sharing snacks, while the pumpkin risotto with smoked ricotta, toasted hazelnuts, pickled girolles and coffee oil for mains is a genius balance of sweetness and bitterness resulting in a clean flavour and dangerously photogenic plate. It’s côte de bœuf for two that draws strangers to our table for a look, and if you’re in a group, this would go down well sharing-style thanks to generous accompaniments of fine beans with pickled shallots, as well as bone marrow, bernaise sauce and the requisite triple cooked chips.
Dessert comes in the form of delicately presented edible artworks, with the chocolate and olive oil delice all rich and devilish, the perfect reward for polishing off all of your main course. Bonus points come in the form of chocolates and jellies for petit fours with tea and coffee.
Because of the frequent business travellers passing through the space, the atmosphere can at some times feel flat, but this wouldn’t be a problem if you were to visit in a group, and the friendly affable staff set this off somewhat too.