BLACK DICE, MAYFAIR

When somewhere in London has been open for nearly 20 years, and is still going strong, that's a pretty good sign. Places come and go so quickly in London and just when you've found your favourite new restaurant/bar/hang out it seems to close or move. However I've got a new favourite bar and it's not going anywhere! Black Dice is the newest addition to the Momo collection on Heddon Street, having opened a year ago and been flourishing ever since under the management of Michael Lucombe (who used to look after the bar when it was the famous Kemia bar). Upstairs is Momo - the main restaurant, and a gorgeous North African inspired tea room with low seats, little tables and beautiful lighting. Downstairs is Black Dice - a late night bar open Wednesday to Saturday from 7pm til late that also serves food and has live music on Wednesday nights. I went along to try out the food with some friends recently and discovered great eats, excellent cocktails and the kind of bar I can see myself hanging out in a lot. It really is my perfect spot for cocktails, yummy eats and dates with friends.

The menu at Black Dice is similar to that at Momo, with a few tweaks and extra dishes (merguez tacos and stuffed baby squid both sound amazing), and is available til 11pm each night. We tried a selection of the cold and hot mezze, which range from £5-12, and were really impressed. Everything was packed with flavour, super fresh and made with great quality ingredients. We shared plates of crab tacos, stuffed with crab meat, avocado, bergamot, coriander, tomatoes, onions and mayo:

A simple looking salad that was really, really good - finely chopped tomato and red onion with radish, halved cherry tomatoes, cucumber, deep fried pitta, a lemon dressing and the tastiest Kamalata olives I've ever tried:

Cured beef croquettes that don't look like much here but were perfect little cigar like béchamel and cecina croquettes with saffron and parmesan cheese:

King prawns wrapped in k'taiffe and deep fried, without any greasiness at all, served with avocado veloute and mango chutney:

And duck skewers with dates and a pomegranate and sesame marinade. The duck was perfectly pink and so deliciously meaty:

The cocktails are brilliant - our mojitos were the perfect balance of sweet and sharp and strong!

Wednesday nights are funk nights and have the brilliant vocalist Lifford Shillingford singing his heart out with a band made up of session musicians - last time it was Jess Glynne's guitarist and Paloma Faith's drummer. The next live music session is Wednesday 23rd, so get down there for 9pm if you want to catch that. And maybe see you there?!