The Kimpton Fitzroy is a fancy London hotel. Close to Russell Square, it has marble staircases, limestone pillars and an opulent lobby where business people in suits roam around having serious conversations on their phones. Neptune is its seafood restaurant.
Away from the more strait-laced parts of the hotel, it is unstuffy, and a delight. Embracing the two contexts of its name (space and the ocean), there are adorable cartoon planets and spaceships printed on the plates and the menus are in cutsey bubble writing. But there’s also an elegant tiki bar at the entrance that brings a touch of fun, along with whimsical greenery, pastel-pink chairs and bar stools made out of cane.
There’s an appealing mix of hotel dining room staples, like steak and chips, alongside the interesting seafood dishes. Fish trumps meat. A warming bowl of delicate clam chowder came with swirls of curry oil and two perfectly boiled quail eggs, while sashimi-like brill crudo had been topped with fresh basil and flecks of finger lime.
Our delicious clam spaghetti, doused in smooth chilli oil and mixed with bright-white pieces of squid, was much better than the juicy-but-fatty sirloin steak and our seafood small plates were more interesting than a nutty pork terrine.
The service was lovely and approachable. Staff seemed sharply dressed in suit jackets and pressed shirts, but closer inspection revealed them to be wearing trainers too. A nice metaphor for the fancy-but-fun aesthetic Neptune’s got going on here – we kept the bubble-written ‘thank you’ card that came with our bill.