Lita review: perfect small plates in a terrifyingly smart setting

Short for ‘abuelita’, the Spanish word for ‘grandmother’, Lita is a new Marylebone venture from restaurateurs Daniel Koukarskikh and Dominykas Ramanauskas and the team behind Chelsea’s Wild Tavern. The general schtick is a modern Mediterranean bistro with open-fire cooking, but with the kitchen headed up by Irishman Luke Ahearne, the waters and pastures of the British Isles are just as much of an influence on the sharing-plates menu as the Med. See more new London restaurant openings.

The Mood: Rus in urbe near Regent’s Park

Like visiting the sort of rustic-chic French farmhouse restored by a terrifyingly smart friend, B3 Designers have jumbled together a floor laid with reclaimed Italian terracotta tiles, a timber-clad bar with a red marble-veined top, restored antique tables and chairs by Guillerme et Chambron. The best seats in the house are the green velvet bar stools at each of the three counters, which offer a ringside seat to the open-fire cooking from the roaring grill. The full-length windows are thrown open to the pavement in fine weather; dogs are welcome too if you’ve been for a stroll in nearby Regent’s Park.

The Food: British ingredients warmed up with Mediterranean flavours

Ahearne worked at the two-Michelin-starred Clove Club in Shoreditch before becoming head chef at Corrigan’s Mayfair; here he’s found a happy medium between the cutting-edge and the comforting. So while morels come with wild garlic and lardo di Colonnata to highlight the kitchen’s ultra-seasonal, southern European credo, the dish is essentially the best version of garlic mushrooms imaginable. Small plates such as pan con tomate elegantly draped with Cantabrian anchovies are followed by meat and fish from the chargrill; dry-aged Devon duck, vividly flavoured with Todolí citrus, is the perfection of duck à l’orange.

Lita is located at 7-9 Paddington St, London

litamarylebone.com