Silva – Restaurant of the Month

Last Updated on January 4, 2026

Mediterranean-inspired cuisine in Mayfair

With restaurants under constant pressure from sourcing staffing to profit margins, it makes sense that increasingly, new eateries are opening throughout the day from breakfast through to dinner. Silva, just opened in central London presents itself as a neighbourhood venue where diners can pop in at all times of day. Silva is situated in Bruton Place, a mews in Mayfair that already boasts some excellent restaurants such as UMU which brings one as close as possible to Japan without leaving London.

Silva styles itself as having a day-to-night ambience welcoming modern Londoners to a dining experience that is ‘refined and refreshingly relaxed’. I am not sure what a ‘modern’ Londoner is or whether I fit that description, but I opt for an early dinner time slot at the end of the week. I am hoping that I will leave the restaurant feeling refined and refreshingly relaxed as suggested by the alliterative mission statement. Silva aims to fit into the ‘independent spirit’ of Bruton Place with a Mediterranean-inspired menu.

Silva impresses before one enters the front door. It occupies the ground floor of a striking, terraced house – there is an outdoor terrace out the back – and sports a large window looking over the street. This must let in a lot of daylight, while in the evening there is elegant lighting courtesy of glass lamps on the round, marble-topped tables. The seating is attractive and comfortable – banquettes undulate down the room, some covered in a zigzaggy zebra stripe, others covered in brown with a contrasting back cushion that resembles a long line of Savoyard biscuits. It put me in the mind of a tiramisu.

The style of the restaurant is ‘quiet luxury’ and I was particularly taken with the wall decorations. In addition to paintings of a floral nature – the restaurant has lots of plants, Silva is Latin for forest – there were delicate wall coverings made by artist Kate Churchwill. These are large white basrelief panels of herbs and plants and are made from a mix of polyester mixed with resin. Having looked at the Silva menus, Churchwill set about incorporating every plant and herb into her artwork. It is beautifully organic.

Upstairs there is a very snug bar where one could happily pass a few hours after an afternoon of shopping in New Bond Street. There is also a beautiful private dining room – double doors slide open to reveal an oasis, a plant-filled space which must be as lovely in the daylight hours as low-lit and magical after dark.

Back downstairs we settled into a semi-circular banquette and read through the well-crafted menu. There were two fish tartare options under the Raw category along with wild seabass crudo or a sashimi selection for two. We made a start with sourdough with black garlic butter while waiting for our starter dishes.

From a selection of six options, we chose Cornish crab raviolo in langoustine sauce which was presented as a pool of langoustine foam in which perched a large raviolo filled with crab. This was a very subtle dish, attractively presented. The second dish – stracciatella, figs, radicchio and caramelised grapes – was very appealing to me as I have recently returned from a few months in Italy where this fabulous cheese became a favourite. Not to be confused with the gelato flavour that bears the same name, stracciatella, meaning little rags, is a cheese originally from Puglia and is a cousin of burrata. It is made by mixing the scraps left over from making mozzarella with cream. It is deliciously creamy and very rich, hence is well paired with the bitter leaves of radicchio and the sweetness of caramelised grapes and slices of fig. A drizzle of an Italian peppery extra virgin olive oil would finish it off beautifully.

There were eight main courses to choose from and these ranged from wild mushroom risotto to lamb cutlets with charred aubergine puree to a chateaubriand with pica pau sauce (a piquant Portuguese sauce) and wild mushrooms for two. We chose a fish and a duck dish both of which were most attractively presented in copper serving dishes. Wild seabass all’acqua pazza, courgette and green olives was a dish I have long wanted to try. I first came across this cooking method – acqua pazza translates as crazy water – in a Diana Henry cookbook, Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons. I noticed this dish on menus on the Amalfi Coast from where it derives. It is a method of poaching seabass in a broth of fish stock, white wine, chilli, plum tomatoes, garlic and herbs. At Silva, the fish perched elegantly above a well-reduced sauce in which were tender chunks of courgette and olives. The wild seabass fillet was perfectly cooked and the sauce was deeply delicious with a subtle but discernible tomato flavour. It was the sort of sauce for which the Italian word ‘scarpetta’ is so necessary, which involves taking a piece of bread and mopping up the sauce left in the bottom of the plate when the sauce is too good to be left behind.

Just as good was the Creedy Carver duck, coco beans and orange jus. Creedy Carver is renowned for the quality of its free-range ducks and this large breast was served pink, tender and had just the right gamey flavour. It was served on a bed of coco beans and tiny diced carrots.  Coco beans are small, round, white beans which you might find in a French cassoulet. They retained their bite and added not only colour but textural contrast to the tender duck. An orange jus is a perfect foil for the rich duck meat and the sauce was delicious. Fortunately, a spoon was provided in anticipation of diners wanting to enjoy every last drop. A side dish of pumpkin and squash gratin would benefit from a slightly longer time in the oven and was served with a light garlicky sauce perched on top.

Portions are generous at Silva so we really should have shared a dessert but succumbed to ordering one each. Chocolate parfait looked lovely, a slice of deeply rich parfait was studded with shards of fudgy praline and accompanied by a dinky quenelle of intense coffee ice cream. Basque cheesecake – which I ate far too much of during a stay in San Sebastian last year – was creamy and had a good ‘burn’ on the top as required.

While my husband and I are keeping off alcohol, I read through the wine list which has a strong representation from Italy and France as well as a selection from other European countries along with New World wines. There is also a creative list of cocktails and a few mocktails too.

Silva is designed to encourage a sense of coming home rather than sitting in a formal restaurant. The ambience exudes an elegance appropriate to its Mayfair neighbourhood and would make a relaxing place to unwind when in the area. The menu has something for everyone, with a dish in each section for vegetarians and vegans.  Should you wish to visit Silva for breakfast you can look forward to a selection of pastries, coconut porridge, acai bowls, French toast, shakshuka, omelettes and poached eggs with various fillings and toppings. The lunch menu is the same as dinner aside from not having chateaubriand. Instead, there are a couple of main course salads.

Silva, 26-28 Bruton Place, London, W1J 6NG.
Open Monday – Friday for breakfast from 9 am, lunch from 12 noon and dinner from 6 pm.
Brunch – weekends from 10 am, lunch from 1 pm and dinner from 6 pm.

Other openings:

The much anticipated AngloThai has opened in central London. It is the first restaurant of the husband and wife team, John and Desiree Chantarasak and combines Thai dishes with seasonal local ingredients. There is a chef’s selection menu for £75 (also available in vegetarian or vegan form) or you can order from the compact a la carte menu. Only open for a week or two it is already very popular so be sure to book a table.

AngloThai, 22-24 Seymour Place, London W1H 7NL

Over in North West London, Motcombs has opened in St John’s Wood. Close to Abbey Road Studios and Lord’s Cricket Ground, Motcombs established a reputation over more than four decades at its original restaurant in Belgravia. The menu presents the best of British, European and Asian cuisine along with a New York-style pizza menu. It is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and the Head Chef, Rafal Novak, is formerly of Gordon Ramsey and Salty Girl. Think of classics such as Eggs Benedict with honey-baked ham, shepherd’s pie, Dover sole and the restaurant’s famous Vodka Penne.

Motcombs St John’s Wood, 3 Circus Road, London, NW8 6NX

Also in St John’s Wood a new neighbourhood Italian restaurant, Babbo will open in December. Open all day from breakfast to dinner you can look forward to classic dishes such as Parmigiana, and spaghettone di gragnano with chilli mussels and baby squid. For those eating earlier in the day, there are baked fried eggs in Mediterranean tomato sauce, Neapolitan sfogliatelle filled with vanilla Chantilly cream and pan-fried banana and raspberry crepes with melted chocolate.

Babbo, 29 – 31 St John’s Wood High St, London NW8 7NH

Staying in North West London, a new Indian dining concept, JUGAD, has opened inside Camden’s bustling Stables Market. Designed by healthy food delivery company, Foodhak, it offers a diverse menu that is completely dairy-free as well as refined sugar-free. Most of the dishes are also gluten-free. The hero dish is the dairy-free Delhi-style butter chicken with tomato and coriander and you can also enjoy Kashmiri lamb with papaya chutney and mint sauce, seabass with mole sauce and beetroot porital. Desserts include alle belle jaggery pancake with coconut and saffron custard.

Jugad by Foodhak, Unit 92, Camden Stables Market, Chalk Farm Lane, Chalk Farm, London NW1 8AH

Looking for something different? Do check out our popular restaurant of the month series. Last month we went to Wildflowers in Pimlico and the month before was Jason Atherton’s Sael. You’ll find more of our recommendations in this roundup of new London restaurant openings