The sun was out on the evening I tried the terrace at Cavo, the new slick restaurant housed in the new slick Now Building, Outernet London in the West End.
While the Bruce Wayne-suave dining room inside was empty, the terrace was full of life, wine and cocktail quaffing life. Because that’s the sort of terrace it is.
Bordered with olive trees and sun-loving plant-life, the sun trap patio, (which comes with umbrellas) overlooks the Tottenham Court Road and Charing Cross intersection, which has only gotten more hectic since the Now Building, part of the Outernet London blob of tech, glitz and concreate, opened.
I’ve rarely ventured further in than past the 8K digital screens that suck passersby in like huge, slack-jawed moths, gawping at the frenetic neon displays of advertising posing as art. Yet the Tottenham Court Road landmark building and precinct is home to two music venues, the OTT Cantonese restaurant Tattu, Japanese-twanged bar Thirteen, a glam rock hotel Chateau Denmark, and neatly, access to the Elizabeth line.
The building’s residents are befittingly polished for such a schmick cutting-edge act, including Cavo, the Mediterranean restaurant and terrace found on the fourth floor looking over the chaos below.
Above the riff-raff, the terrace offers a little bit of respite from the throng without losing any of that big city energy; it’s shiny and slick, but relaxed, and when the sun is out it has a vibe and that vibe is quaff the rose.
As it were, neither myself nor my friend Anna were drinking. However, the minty fresh virgin mojito that came poured over a tall glass of crushed ice cleaned away my dusty head from the night before and Anna’s berry bliss was equally refreshing, so we didn’t feel like we missed too much of a trick.
The sharing tasting menu, which includes a wine pairing, is not for the small eaters. I was nursing the kind of hangover which makes your stomach a bottomless pit, and I was stuffed by the end of the five courses.
An oyster each to start, served with three vinegary, lemony brines to choose from, went down the hatch quick. The pleasingly fishy, cloud-soft salted cod mousse on crispy sourdough was also gone in an instant.
A tiny pillowy choux pastry stuffed with a creamy, musty mix of spiced mussels were in this first round of dishes as well, as was half an eggplant, roasted to a satisfying squidge and piled with crumbled feta and pomegranate seeds.
Next up, a dense tangled log of taglionlini coated in a creamy funk of parmesan and black truffle was used as bedding for the buttery scallops and their lovely pan-fried crust and hit of salt, and which came in their own rich champagne and butter sauce.
This was followed by a filet of roasted Iberico pork, seared on the outside and tender pink on the inside, and draped across a bed of silky mashed potatoes infused with a hit of truffle. The fleshy lobster tail sat in a thin pool of tomato and citrus juice and perched on roasted smashed Jerusalem artichokes.
The serve of Greek chips were perfectly simple. More like chunky homemade crisps than a bowl of chips, they were dangerously good.
A thick slice of good Basque cheesecake and strawberry compote rounded dinner off, before I tottered, not swayed off, on my way home, filing away the terrace for when I am next in the area with a thirst for rose in the sun.
Address: The Now Building, Outernet, Denmark Street, WC2H 0LA
Website: cavorestaurant.com
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