31 Below is a café and bar with a small plates menu and a great outdoor terrace on Marylebone High Street. It’s the perfect spot to sit and people-watch shoppers at the area’s swish boutiques with a cocktail (the watermelon and chilli caipirinha is, by the way, excellent). The buttermilk fried chicken with chilli mayo was the highlight of the menu – crispy, spicy bite-sized pieces of meat. Desserts were also a real treat: the sticky toffee pudding was soft, warm and smooth, and the hot chocolate pot was rich, but not overwhelming. A well-sized beef burger with bacon had a nice patty, but its slice of American cheese was so burnt it was completely black. The lamb chops had been teamed with a full-flavoured mojo verde sauce, but the meat itself was forgettable. Pieces of patatas bravas needed to be crispier on the outside.
So the food at 31 Below is okay, but not great, and more attention to detail definitely needs to be paid if it wants to survive in London (don’t burn the cheese). For now, drinks, not dinner, is your best bet here.