What do you get when you cross one of London's biggest restaurant success stories of recent years with what is arguably the city's most dapper department store? The kind of place that couture cuisine dreams are made of, that's what. Grab your smartest shoes, and hot-foot it to Polpo at Harvey Nics for plates of cicchetti with a side-order of style. A match made in heaven. (Or Knightsbridge, via Venice, as the case may be.)
The elegant dining space on Fenwick's second floor not only provides some much-needed calm along with the food, but there's a sleek cocktail bar, too, where you can sip on a Fenwick martini or two.
Ah, Fortnums. That turquoise-tinted haven of all things edible that's as British as a cup of tea. In the rain. While wearing a Barbour. It figures, then, that the gourmet department store's new restaurant should be a celebration of some of the UK's finest ingredients – think Cornish oysters and Launceston lamb, given an international twist (hello coq au vin with risotto).
The Galvins... in a department store? Surely not. But this is Harrods, a place where you used to be able to buy actual lion cubs, so perhaps it's not so strange. The menu's classic French, and the setting suitably chic, too.
Salt beef sarnies and shopping. Is there a better combination? Of course there isn't. Unless you accidentally drop a pickle on your new silk Gucci bomber. But that'd be your fault, not ours. So join the queue at Selfridges' recently relaunched (it was 'born' in 1966) Brass Rail, sink your teeth into some serious sandwiches, and for God's sake keep a steady hand.
