Sandwich 'virgins' with a French twist

This review was first published in January 1999

A new Danish restaurant has less competition than an Italian. In fact, since the closure of The Danish Centre in Conduit Street, I cannot think of any. How innocent were those days - also the days of the conversation pit - when The Danish Centre, The Norwegian Centre, The German Centre et al were a source of exoticism for Londoners. Nowadays we would have to consider The Latvian Centre, The Bosnian Centre and so forth.

Until the recent opening of LUNDUM'S, another one caught up in the pre-Christmas rush, aficionados of the open sandwich required membership of The Danish Club in Knightsbridge. Kay and Connie Lundum, of the eponymous new restaurant, previously managed the restaurant at The Danish Club. Their children Clint and Lolli set up the caf? Alberta's in the Alberta Ferretti shop in Sloane Street.

Lundum's has replaced what was Shaw's in Old Brompton Road and before that The Chanterelle. The swathes of beige which decorated Shaw's have stayed in place, contributing soothing comfort, if not much else. It is an appropriate look for the sedate neighbourhood and seems to have succeeded in attracting well-upholstered, rosy-faced chaps who once upon a time might have been described as thespians.

At lunchtime, open-face sandwiches are offered as well as Danish main-course specialities and a grouping entitled Lundum's Symphony of Salmons. According to an old review I possess of The Danish Centre, making Danish open sandwiches is such a highly specialised operation that a smorrebrodsjumfru - or sandwich "virgin" - may have to put in five years to complete the training. So we can think of the concoctions as Scandinavian sushi. My companion turned out to be a smoked-eel virgin but she was highly enthusiastic about her first-course sandwich of smoked eel and scrambled egg on rye bread. This she followed with a non-sandwich of grilled salmon served on cucumber and red-onion concass?e with dill-flavoured boiled potatoes, where the fish had been given extra succulence by melted butter.

The presumably home-made pickled herrings were truly excellent, each variety confident in its identity. I followed these with Danish meatballs served with creamy potato salad. The chalk-white mayonnaise dressing on the potatoes was not great, but the meatballs were light and subtly seasoned. Chef at Lundum's is Alsace-born Franck Dietrich, who has worked as executive chef at Denmark's highly regarded restaurant Faakkelgaarden. I much look forward to returning to Lundum's for dinner when Dietrich's French spin on Danish ideas can be enjoyed more substantially and intricately. Some of the dishes on the dinner menu looked to possess that rare virtue - originality.

Lundum's
117-119 Old Brompton Road, SW7 3RN