Ghastly art but the menu is comforting

Jimmy's offers a calm, if strangely confusing, oasis for footsore shopaholics in the King’s Road. The schizophrenic décor is mostly minimalist Nineties — white walls, bleached floors, spotlights and enough mirrors to kit out a branch of Toni & Guy — but a monstrous spaghetti-andtrifle daub of art suggested a ghastly Eighties Italian restaurant. At least it distracted us from the traffic fumes.

On sunny days the front of the restaurant opens up — nice idea in theory but you might want to pick a table nearer the back to avoid asphyxiation. Given that chef Liam Cooper is only 25, it’s surprising that the menu reads like an Enid Blyton novel, full of macaroni cheese and custard. The place was packed with Sloanes of all ages, however, so he clearly knows what the customer wants: reasonably priced food (£22 for two courses, £27.50 for three) that harks back to boarding school meals.

Jimmy’s serves good plain food — with an emphasis on the plain. My friend’s perfectly pink beef wellington justified its £3.50 supplement with the quality of the meat, but the Marmite-like gravy and flavourless pastry shell let it down. My Torbay sole was boringly presented and crying out for chips. We shunned the heavy-looking starters to save room for a humungous knickerbocker glory, a retro joy of thick, vanilla ice cream and red jelly, and a scrumptiously light Bakewell tart. The "English custard" was so good it’s no wonder people were ordering lashings of it.

Jimmy's
386 Kings Road, Chelsea, SW3 5UZ