Restaurant Review: Rondo at The Hoxton

After ducking and diving through the loyal/possessed shoppers of central London’s Oxford Street, Rondo at The Hoxton offers Tristan O’Hana refuge, restoration and ragù

Now, depending on your passions and potential pub quiz knowledge, the word ‘rondo’ will mean one of three things. For you sophisticated types, you’ll know it’s an instrumental composition, featuring a very specific four refrains and three couplets. Anyone? No, thought not. In which case, you may be in my (simpler, but still quite niche) camp, associating a rondo as a sort of glorified ‘piggy in the middle’ that footballers carry out during training sessions and warm-ups. Still no? Fair enough. Finally, of course, it’s also a dark-skinned grape variety used for making red wine.

Without asking for clarification from the F&B team at The Hoxton hotel group, I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess it’s the latter where they got their inspiration from when naming the restaurant within its Holborn venue. Although, in Italian, rondo translates as ‘a little round’, so it could be the small circular bistro tables that fill its quite beautifully decorated dining space in central London? Or perhaps ‘a little round’ is the way you feel once you’ve made your way through its alluring menu? Enough speculating – let’s get on with this.

Sub-brand success

Avid readers of Dine Out will know that we’re admirers of the restaurant ‘brands’ that The Hoxton group is able to create and deliver within its hotels. It operates with a blend of seamless separation and integration of the hotel’s core Hoxton offer, meaning a constant flow of drinkers and diners who aren’t necessarily staying the night. Our visit to Chet’s in Shepherd’s Bush in 2023 was hugely memorable, with the Thai-California-inspired menu transporting us far away from the cloudy congestion around Shepherd’s Bush Green. The Hoxton also has the glamourous Seabird in Southwark, the Peruvian-led Llama Inn on top of its Shoreditch site and countless other bespoke food and drink options in hotels around the world. This group, supported by owners Ennismore, is highly adept at creating sub-brands of its hotel foundation.

And so to Rondo, which opened in the summer of 2020 under the creative stewardship of Woodhead Restaurant’s Will Lander (Quality Chop House, Portland, Clipstone) and Chris Gillard (EartH Kitchen, St John). The kitchen is now overseen by Tristan Downes, known for his cooking at The Light Bar and Gordon Ramsay Restaurants. Those familiar with Woodhead Restaurants will detect certain nuances also experienced in Lander’s other London outposts – the polished wood décor, terracotta floor tiles and a menu listing British dishes that are delivered with unsung ingredients and industry-leading finesse. Why aren’t more menus kicked off with a ‘snack’ option of deep-fried gnocchi, black truffle and parmesan? I ask you.

Grilled langoustines with fennel pollen and lemon

We all know that with quality, freshness and sustainability at the forefront of most restaurant launches or overhauls, ‘local’ is a ubiquitous word that is as overused as it is stretched in its honesty. Not everything can be locally sourced – and that’s OK, guys. What we’re also seeing more of in recent years is this term ‘modern British’, which, again, can often be lacking in substance and delivery. But not at Rondo. Here is a spot-on example of what modern British cooking should offer the people of London and beyond. There are grilled langoustines with fennel pollen and grilled lemon. There’s a roasted squash and sage tortellini with pumpkin broth and roasted pumpkin seeds. The croquettes are filled with Harewood Estate venison. And these are just the starters. So quickly were the langoustines consumed that a second plate had to be ordered.

The main event

I must admit, I do breathe a salivating sigh of relief when presented with a menu that is broken down into the unbearably nostalgic ‘starters and mains’ format. Yes yes, small plates are big business, but most of the time you just want Brian Wilson to play the classics, am I right?

Mains at Rondo offer seven choices, with four of them coming ‘from the grill’. For the vegans, there’s a roasted seasonal squash with farro, chestnut gremolata and crispy kale; fish fanatics might go for the roasted cod with artichoke, mussels, chicken and calamansi. Or, if you like your short rib braised, look no further than a ragu with chilli, more of those fennel pollen puffs and tagliatelle. The night we visited, it was below freezing, so the latter alongside a large glass of the Mary Taylor Merlot Blend Bordeaux was really the only option. We did see a number of the grill dishes coming off the pass – pork belly, sirloin, baby chickens – so if grilled meat’s your thing, you’re also in safe hands here.

Tottenham Court Road into Holborn isn’t exactly the calmest of areas to navigate, day or night, but once inside Rondo you really do feel as if you’re dining in a secluded neighbourhood restaurant local to any small town around the UK – it just has the elevated food and drink offer you’d expect from such a talented brigade of London operators. On top of that, it’s run flawlessly by a passionate front-of-house team, which can only be attributed to The Hoxton group itself, as the polished service is replicated in each of its four London sub-brand restaurants. So much so that you almost want them to open a fifth, just to see what’s next.

Images: @becabjones

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