It’s Lofty’s birthday today, or technically yesterday, so as a treat Jules, Akh and I decided to take her out for drinks and dinner. We wanted to try something different outside of our normal dining options and after much searching we settled on a short list of restaurants … all of which seemed to be located in the Mayfair area. We ended up going with Athenaeum (or Damask actually) which is in the Athenaeum Hotel.

Damask, I guess as befits a Mayfair postcode, is fairly a posh restaurant but is actually quite intimate and seems set up for small groups of quiet diners rather than big raucous parties. Jules and I headed to Damask early to “set up” which merely involved tying some helium balloons to Lofty’s chair and dropping off her presents. I was actually quite impressed that they allowed us to change tables AND leave all the balloons in the room. I thought they might turn their nose down at it but everyone was quite friendly about it.

That job done we headed off to meet Lofty and Akh to find someplace to have pre-dinner drinks. Its not too easy to find somewhere in Mayfair to have a nice drink (despite the fact we were already armed with a shortlist!) but after a bit of searching we ended up at Ye Grapes. Not the most spectacular of venues but it did the job.

By booking at 7pm I was hoping that Damask would be a little less quiet but it was really really quiet – no music even! Still the staff were very accommodating and extremely friendly even when Nemo kept hitting them in the face and when Sandra was pulling out all her silly little presents. The giant hand was a hit.

We were dining from the set course menu and I think it gave a nice variety of choice, if not necessarily adventurous, for all sorts of diners. Not sure what the others thought of their meals but my Asparagus soup, Grilled John Dory and Pudding were of good quality ingredients and presented nicely if not necessarily the tastiest. I think Akh’s Haloumi Cheese starter was the funniest out of all our meals.

Where Damask fails is in the atmosphere department. Even if the restaurant was empty they could have done with some sort of background music to create some sort of mood.

Overall Damask is not too bad a restaurant – great service, decent food (if not necessarily the best value for money in terms of portion sizes), plush surrounds – but it just needs to improve on the atmosphere department. Something that could change if you came on a Friday or Saturday night.

Finally, we wrapped up the evening with a final few drinks at Henry’s Bar before sending Sandra off home juggling her gifts and her balloons.