A Summer's Lunch at Orrery, Marylebone

Written on 02/07/2019. Posted in Eats & Drinks, Poppy Loves, Restaurants.

What a treat for a warm and sunny Monday… lunch on Orrery‘s newly designed South-facing Summer terrace, up on the top of a converted stable block, overlooking St Marylebone Church gardens in the heart of Marylebone Village…

The-Orrery-Restaurant-Marylebone-30 — A shirt dress with pockets – am in heaven. This is the Dolly Stripe Dress from Monsoon.

I wore a Monsoon dress that’s an update from one of their styles that I wore to death last Summer. Three-quarter length sleeves, light cotton, big pockets and front button fastening. Tick tick tick tick. TICK.

The-Orrery-Restaurant-Marylebone-1 — The sommelier was excellent and knew exactly what would complement the dishes we’d selected.

Marylebone is packed to the hilt with foodie wonderfulness and Orrery (a clockwork model of the solar system) fits in just perfectly. In fact, it’s rather a beacon of gastronomic delight, welcoming folk who arrive on Marylebone High Street who have hopped off the tube at Baker Street…

Terrance Conran opened Orrery in 1997 and over twenty years later, it is still serving the most divine French cuisine over crisp white tablecloths and silverware. But it’s not stuffy. And it’s not pretentious. It is light and pretty and I felt very comfortable indeed.

The-Orrery-Restaurant-Marylebone-25 — The lavender smelled amazing…

The gorgeous Summer terrace is a collaboration with Moët & Chandon and L’Artisan Parfumeur and is lined with groves of lavender, rosemary and olive trees… The terrace windows are shared with the Conran store, so not only were we spoilt with the fragrant plants around us, but we could dribble over chairs we were lusting after as well…

The bread was freshly baked and still warm and fluffy… the butter was at the perfect temperature for spreading (tricky on a hot day) and the gazpacho was absolutely excellent. We knew we were in for a treat.

The-Orrery-Restaurant-Marylebone-13 — Roasted quail, peas, pancetta, polenta, Madeira jus

London is bursting at the seams with French restaurants serving fancy pants foams and faff, but Orrery is different and serves up simple yet michelin quality fare without the pretention…

The-Orrery-Restaurant-Marylebone-15 — Kentish rump of lamb, salsify, pommes mousseline

The lamb was my dish and I could have eaten it twice. So succulent, so full of deep, rich flavour… I was in heaven.

Please forgive the lack of photos of our starters – the awning of the terrace gave all my pics a slight orangey hue and some survived much better in the editing process than others! But the gravlax and seafood raviolo were both also absolutely delicious…