Lunch at Portal

Today, I had lunch at Portal, London's leading Portuguese restaurant. I was there to interview owner Antonio Correia (above), who established the restaurant in St John Street three years ago. I'll publish the interview elsewhere; for now you'll have to make do with a brief restaurant review.

The ambience is great, with stylish decor and great use of natural light. The food is fantastic. I had a brilliant octopus carpaccio with squid ink and potato foam, red pepper sauce for starters (pictured) and the followed this up with black pork loin with deep fried potatoes, coriander, parsley and a tomato sauce. The flavours were great; the food was visually very appealing; the service was flawless. The wine list is 70% Portuguese and this is where you want to hunt, because Antonio is a Portuguese wine expert and puts a lot of effort into this. By the glass selection is quite good (but could be a bit broader) - I had a glass of the Quinta do Portal Reserva 2003, which was really nice.

Overall, a very positive experience.