More than once I've been castigated for reviewing a new restaurant before it has had time to "find its feet". But the way I see it, if they are charging, they are asking to be assessed. So I make no excuse for having visited Meadow on day five, and even less excuse for having found that they had, at that stage anyway, a lot of work to do.
I would have gone on day three, but couldn't get in for the heaving crowds of locals noisily enjoying Thursday-night drinks (they're starved for choice in that part of town, poor dears). When we finally snared a table, on a Saturday at 5pm, it was in the partially glassed-in conservatory, right next to the roaring fire, which warded off the worst of an unseasonable chill.
The downside was the nearby group of that species the Poms call a Hooray Henry - barely post-pubertal mouth-breathers, sipping rosé and ostentatiously consulting their new iPhones. Their guffawing profanity was such that I thought the Professor was going to box their ears, which would have been fun, but unfortunately they left.
Meadow is the creation of Dana Johnston and JP Schmidt, whose credits include 46 & York in Parnell and several Britomart watering holes. Schmidt, who was stoking the fire, beer in hand, spent some time explaining to me how the design (by famous luxury-lodge specialist Virginia Fisher) needed some radical rethinking.
