At Tate Dining Room chef-owner Vicky Lau treats each course as an “ode” to a single ingredient, layering story, texture, colour and temperature into every plate. The dining room is compact and intimate, wrapped in soft neutrals, gold accents and botanical-patterned wallpaper. The cuisine combines French technique with Chinese and occasionally other Western references into concise and visually vivid tasting formats. Successful dishes include the Ode to crab opening course – which pairs steamed snow crab with consommé jelly, and crab and pepper bisque with peanut sprouts – and the pan-seared Normandy scallop with Osciètra caviar and a coconut sauce. Both of these prove that Lau’s exacting technique works in service of flavour rather than empty spectacle.

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