If you were keeping up with the Jones’ recently, you may have heard that they have a new addition to the family. Modern steak restaurant The Jones Family Kitchen is already a firm favourite in Belgravia, and they have now launched sister restaurant The Jones Family Affair in Covent Garden. We ventured down to theatreland to give their menu a good grilling, excuse the pun.

The Building

Just a stones throw from Trafalgar Square and Covent Garden, the restaurant is perfectly placed for a pre-theatre dinner and drinks. Spread over two floors and around a central atrium, a long marble bar with deep green tiles leads you to an eclectic interior which mixes modern victorian florals, industrial brickwork and walls laden with various contemporary pieces of artwork. The combination should feel conflicting but it kinda hangs together well.

The fantastic and well accommodating Vlad (manager of The Jones Family Affair) gave us a short tour of the space, making sure to pause on the main staircase for us to guess who the face was on the pop-art covered wall. The clue is that it’s two faces combined but we’ll let you guess for yourself. With cosy tables for two overlooking the atrium, to a small room to hire for private dining, there are configurations and options to fit all group sizes.

The Food & Drink

The menu takes after its sister, with meat for the charcoal oven provided by the Ginger Pig and focused around grass-fed longhorn cattle and Tamworth pork. The fish is provided by Flying Fish and arrives daily to the south coast. Before diving into the food, we veer towards a Negroni just to get warmed up. Vlad steers us in the direction of the Lost Negroni, the restaurants spin on this classic which includes their own in-house blend of vermouths. The result is actually silky smooth and dangerously drinkable, we get food ordered before getting too comfortable with the glass.

The Octopus salad is a reasonably substantial tombola of rocket, concealing prizes of octopus chunks in its leaves and dressed in sweet chilli. Our recommendation however, goes to the Pan-fried Scallops and Black Pudding. This shish kebab style dish is like a train of soft, warm scallop then deep and savoury black pudding, then glorious smoked citrusy orange. Dressed in a truffle butter and garnished with samphire it’s a winner.

When in Rome, have steak (or something like that), so that’s what we did. On recommendation, we opted for sirloin, medium-rare. Often medium-rare is overcooked but this was just perfectly tender and pink yet sill cooked enough for that glorious charred crust. Triple cooked chips were as you’d want them, crispy and fluffy and a red wine jus was perfectly rich and sweet. We didn’t overdo it on the jus as the steak flavour was too good.

The vegetarian option is a pretty good and inventive slow-roasted pumpkin, accompanied with a lentil stuffed cabbage, parmesan flan and cauliflower tempura. Sounds like an odd plate but the collaboration of sweet and savoury works really well. It’s nice to see more non-meat options given the creativity they deserve.

Requesting a more imaginative dairy-free option than sorbet, dessert is a tweaked version of the pear tatin, replacing vanilla ice cream with a mango sorbet. OK sorbet still featured but it sang beautifully with the soft sticky pear.

The not so dairy-free Chocolate and peanut cream cake stole our hearts though. it’s like if Ferrero Rocher went a lot more up-market, a dreamy rectangle of velvety cocoa stuffed with peanut flavour, hazelnuts, cashew and a hint of cherry.

Our evening at The Jones Family Affair was a good affair, we were well looked after by Vlad who was a great example of how good service goes a long way. If you are looking for a friendly place with great food before a show, a pre or post-theatre menu is available offering 2 courses for £19.50 and 3 courses for £23.50. Maybe you want to forget the show and sample some classic cocktails with a twist, you wouldn’t go too wrong with this place.

Website: www.jonesfamilyaffair.co.uk

Address: 40-42 William IV St | London | WC2N 4DD

Written by Rick Hartley