Pauline returned to London after about a three month absence so Sandra thought it would be a nice idea to have an intimate little catch up with a few of the girls. We started off at a favourite bar of Pauline’s, Dirty Martini, before moving on to Volt Lounge Bar Restaurant.

Volt is a pretty swanky looking restaurant in Belgravia, near Victoria. Its neighbours are the infamous Mango Tree and Volt’s sister restaurant Noura. With its good looks you would expect it to be a little on the side of pretentious and full of itself but to my surprise it wasn’t. The service is very good (despite some communication problems with our main waiter where we couldn’t understand him and he couldn’t understand us!) and from the minute you step into the door it was attentive without being too overbearing. Our table was actually supposed to be in the main room (which was long and narrow and a bit smaller than I thought) but instead we got a table in the brighter light private Crystal room with its video projections and slight music playing in the background which wasn’t too bad once it was filled with other diners (otherwise it would have felt a little isolated from the main action.) Unlike other restaurants the tables are actually fairly big so you have enough room on the table for all you food – ironically this makes the meze sharing concept a little more difficult!

Most of the reviews of this restaurant have commented on the fact that they dined at this restaurant taking advantage of the 50% off food deal from Top Table and London Eating. The deal, which we also took advantage of, gives you 50% off the Gourmet Menu which for £44.50 gives you a Chef’s Selection of
6 different Mezzes (2 Salad; 2 Antipasti; and 2 Pasta except Lobster) + a main course + a dessert/cheese + coffee/tea.) Its actually a very good bargain at the 50% off price considering the steak which we ended up ordering for mains was £18 on its own.

Tonight we were served with some bread to start, for our salad mezzes Caesar Salad and Rocket Salad (both of which were quite tasty); for our antipasti Tuna Carpaccio and Beans (tuna was surprisingly yummy) and Parma Ham and Melon; and for our Pasta mezza two small bowls of Seafood Linguini (generous serves of seafood) and a Chicken Sausage and seashell pasta (sweet but my favourite dish). The majority of us selected steak and mixed veges for our main – it was quite funny because those of us who elected for medium steaks seemed to receive a much larger size steak than Pauline who opted for well-done! By then we were all pretty stuffed and could barely fit our desserts in. Didn’t stop us trying though! My Almond and Pear tart was surprisingly good and I think the other desserts were equally nice.

Overall I was quite impressed with Volt for the quality of food, menu options, service and atmosphere in the very funky restaurant. Having said that I’m not sure I would come here without the offer which is extremely good value because once you include drinks (where they probably make their margin) it could end up being quite a pricey night. If you do go make sure to check out the interesting toilets!