Eat in beautiful surroundings at Apsley's

Rating: 3/5

Is it just me, or does everyone else who eats at Apsleys feel slightly awkward? Watching people enter The Lanesborough hotel’s

relaunched restaurant, even the smarter set look overawed when faced with the bizarrely decorated, gargantuan dining room and gauntlet of eager staff. Despite smiling, seamless service, there’s something uptight about the place that gives me the willies.

Not that there’s no good reason to go – Apsleys has just been taken over by Heinz Beck, the triple Michelin-starred German chef whose take on Italian food is good enough to get the Italians swooning at his Rome restaurant La Pergola.

Retitled “Apsleys – a Heinz Beck Restaurant” (as if anyone’s going to call it that), they’re clearly aiming for more stars with an inventive, astronomically expensive menu of delicate but rich Italian haute cuisine.

Pretty much everything is gorgeous – a starter of lobster and artichoke heart with strips of mild liquorice jelly and Jerusalem artichoke cream. Sounds weird, but the perfumey artichoke and tangy liquorice blend perfectly. Carbonara fagotelli – delicate pasta ­parcels filled with a wobbly, whipped cheesy custard, sprinkled with flecks of ­pancetta and courgette – are rich enough to knock you flat. For a main, wonderfully firm turbot fillets crusted with olive paste.

There’s a slight hint of ­molecular gastronomy ­silliness, though. A dessert called “milk” is four piles of titbits modelled on cheap confectionary: a Mini Milk-like ice cream, some ­Raffaelo-style fluffy coconut things and what tastes like half a Kinder egg filled with ­passion fruit ­banoffee – cute, but hardly moreish.

This would all be great fun if Apsleys learned to chill out. Staff scurry around with crumb-catchers and constantly ask if you’re enjoying the meal. The sommelier seems almost reluctant to let diners read the wine list. And while there are new brooms in the kitchen, the OTT decor (scarily massive chandeliers like robot ­jellyfish, deep pile carpet) ­remains the same.

Then, of course, there’s the price – 150 smackers for two with wine and coffee.

Is it worth it? Well it’s not much above the standard rate for this level of studied fanciness. But if, like me, you’re not rich, you might come away thinking the place offers rather less ­trouser than talk.

Apsleys, The Lanesborough, Hyde Park Corner, SW1, 020 7333 7254 Tube: Hyde Park Corner Meal for Two: £150