Pico Bar — Restaurant in London

We regularly ate at Pico Bar & Grill when we lived in London a few years ago, and like most places we used to enjoy & frequent they're all still in business and still offer the same great food and service, and some like Picos have added outside wining and dining.

Pico, a Portuguese restaurant and tapas bar, was very busy on Sunday evening. It's just a two minute walk from Vauxhall Station and has a number of Santander Cycle docking stations scattered nearby, always our favoured mode of transport.

The menu hasn't changed a great deal, why change something that customers enjoy and that clearly works. Also the management is the same so the emphasis on good service runs through the heart of the business in the same way that the railway line runs above it, not that it detracts in anyway as the trains rattle by above.

The garlic mushrooms to start with were a solid starter, nothing too flamboyant, the monkfish lightly cooked in chilli 🌶 was great and the duck breast in red wine sauce was cooked rare and just right.

The Portuguese lager, Sagres, is very light and refreshing. A relaxing couple of hours, enjoying our meal and watching the world go by, as well as Jaguar Land Rover group cars passing on their way to and from the Wimbledon tennis dedicated hotel in Westminster 🎾 almost every couple of minutes or so.

Great food 😋 and great service...

Been visiting Pico for several years and at first was excellent even recommended and was also very pleased, sadly over the years service and quality has slowly been dropping. Last visit 17th Dec '23, main course for two people Duck Breast was ordered with mushroom cream sauce, one came back plain, other had a red current sauce, one cooked well other well under cooked when mentioned waiter returned saying it was cooked as medium, ( thought was a bit rude from waiter) Two same meals ordered both came back different. At the time we was the first in so Pico were not that busy. Waiter needs more training to get order correct. It was only two people ordering the same meal, at a non busy time. In these difficult times of expense of cost of living a better service on quality would have been appreciated. Having paid our bill the another waiter then gave us a menu for dessert. Sadly as we have seen standards fall over the years we will be going elsewhere for future meals, and will not recommend Picos. As for temperature it was on cold side for both of us, It was not busy at time of booking as we had booked 12-00pm, staff was still arriving shortly after. TV showed Football of a Premiership Game...

This well-established Madeiran restaurant is reliable, and I always look forward to their grills, professional waiters and real cotton napkins.

I chose "medium rare" lamb cutlets, and the kitchen lost its fifth star by bringing lamb so rare that it was inedible for me-- but they quickly gave it extra grill time and my six cutlets were delicious. As a huge plate of veggies always comes included with most dishes, I didn't need a dessert (or starter).

And the giant serve of bread with olives as an hors d'oevres, for only about £3, allowed me to take much of it home.

You can view their many cold desserts in the fridge at the back of the dining room.

They do cater for the many local Portuguese speakers by continuosly playing tele with footie matches in the front bar (if want just a snack) . But the volume is never too loud and annoying.

Parking in the streets behind is pretty easy if you come after hours, or it's easy walking from Vauxhall tube station.

On some evenings I would give Pico a fifth star, as it's ridiculously good value for...