It was not the most auspicious of starts. When my dining comrade and I descended on Bellazul it was pouring with rain. We arrived soaked. Welcome to England in April. It’s about as far from the Mediterranean as one could imagine. Open only for two months, Bellazul has the laudable intention of transporting diners to the sunnier climes of southern Europe. The venture is well-intentioned but does not totally succeed.
Bellazul occupies a large space on two floors on Blandford Street, a popular location for restaurants (both Trishna and Jikoni can be found doors away). Its design team has certainly gone to town creating a space decked out with ocean-coloured interiors. There are marble tables, plush seating and big windows. It’s almost as if the owners want you to believe you’re by the sea. We enjoyed our counter seating and the opportunity to people-watch. However, diners beware, even here the spacing is somewhat cramped and lots of small dishes can make the table feel quickly crowded.
Diners at Bellazul may be rightly fearful of tyranny of choice. The Med clearly spans from Spain to Greece and covers a broad geographic expanse. No surprise then that customers can feast on everything from Spanish tortilla to Greek hummus via Italian arancini. For bigger appetites, there’s pasta, pizza and a spectrum of grilled meats and fish. We kept it simple and ordered just from the ‘tapas and cicchetti’ section of the menu.
From our quintet of dishes there were certainly the odd flashes of brilliance, but one abject fail too. Begin with the positive. Both vitello tonnato and tuna tartare (the latter features in the background of the picture) were masterpieces of delicacy and flavour. Melt-in-the-mouth tenderness combined with a judicious citric presence. The obligatory hummus and arancini left us feeling rather indifferent, however. When it came to the tortilla, a single mouthful was sufficient. This simple dish had been rendered utterly flavourless. The texture was akin to unpleasant sponge. To the credit of Bellazul, their apology was profuse and they removed the offending item from the bill. Nonetheless, diners should not reasonably expect to encounter inedible dishes. Pricing seemed fair and a return visit might argue for a broader perusal of the menu, but with around half of London’s new restaurant openings shutting within a year of launch, Bellazul may be among the unlucky ones.