Gavin and I ate at Flesh and Buns in Covent Garden not long after it opened, in the mystical time before children where we drank cocktails and stayed out after 10pm and with fond memories we booked a table at the Oxford Circus branch in the lead up to moving out of London. I’ll say one thing for them, they’ve got an awful lot of gold wavy hand cats.

It’s a bit dark and sexy inside, the food is billed more as Japanese/Peruvian Fusion than the original and the tables are pleasantly large enough to hold a feast for two which often isn’t the way of central London restaurants. Lots of dishes are for sharing and there’s an emphasis on smoked meats that come on big heated trays with a smouldering piece of charcoal underneath so it’s lucky really.

I’ve never been to a fancy culinary school but I’m pretty sure rule one is, don’t forget the plates. They did for our mains. They also gave our chicken wings to someone else and then to us and then tried to bring us a second portion. After this we were ignored for the rest of the evening and had to chase them to get the bill. Gavin was insistent that we do a runner but they had my email address so I felt this might be a bad move. The food is good but the service was so haphazard it was hard to pay attention to it.

What’s good? The Korean chicken wings, the gnocchi, the tempura corn, the dessert platter (it serves about 4 people fyi, we had it between two and almost died). The press for pisco sour button.

Kid friendly? Surprisingly. We didn’t bring ours with us on this occasion however, it’s spacious, accessible, has highchairs and an enormous disabled loo. I guarantee you will be able to get your kid to eat a bao because ours does and he is fussy with capital F.

✗baby change facilities – there’s no changing table but a decent sized accessible loo.

✓highchairs available

✓cool with breastfeeding

✗loads of other parents

✓space for buggies

✗children’s menu

✗toys/play area

Rating ????