Words: Charlotte Philby

If you weren’t looking for modern Peruvian restaurant Coya, chances are you’d never find it. And if you were after a lovely spot for a lazy weekend meal with the brood, chances are even slimmer that you would be looking for Coya in the first place. Because, located in the basement of an enormous building at 118 Piccadilly opposite Green Park – looking more like an embassy or private members’ bar than a restaurant that is calling out to families with a blow-your-socks-off never-ending Sunday brunch menu – this is better-known as a place for smart evening cocktails, or pricey, intimate evening meals.

But, it turns out, there is more to Coya than first meets the eye (if you can ever find it in order to stare it in the face). As we discover on a sun-kissed Sunday in Autumn. After traipsing the street with an increasingly irate four-year-old and baby in tow, we finally arrive at the entrance – huge steps and gigantic doors – where we are escorted downstairs to a slick, richly-stocked bar where, at the end of the rom, there is a soft cushioned area with a screen playing kids’ cartoons. Before our daughter catches wind of what she is missing, we make a beeline for the restaurant beyond, and our table which is happily positioned in a discreet corner of the room, giving us enough distance from the other diners not to feel self-conscious about our reckless offspring; but not so much distance that we feel like we’ve been hidden in the stock cupboard.

Peruvian food is quite the thing at the moment, what with the recent opening of Lima Floral – sister to the original Rathbone Place restaurant – not to mention the continuing success of Martin Morales’ Ceviche. But, you know, we’ve been busy, so I can still hold my head high while admitting I have absolutely no idea what to expect from the imminent three-course-brunch menu – or our children’s reactions to it. Thank heavens, then, that we are seated far enough away from the open kitchen that no chef will possibly hear any potential hacking and wheezing should our children take against any item we dare place within a metre radius of their plates. Thanks, also, for the kids’ menu, from which the little ones happily pick out homemade fish fingers and chips.

Let’s just say we were pleasantly surprised. After ordering two children’s meals (£8 for two courses) and two weekend brunches (£36 a head) – we were virtuous, deciding against the unlimited wine or champagne option for £47 or £55 respectively, including food – a tsunami of delicious dishes soon start pouring in. Along with a couple of glasses of some sort of punch cocktail, on the house, which soon evaporates. For starters there is sea-bass ceviche (raw fish), with a touch of Asian seasoning, and tuna tiraditos; chicharron, which is slow roasted pulled pork; sweetcorn fritters; a quinoa and pomegranate salad; and Peruvian beans.

We order and soon a tsunami of delicious dishes starting pouring in, along with some sort of house punch cocktail which soon evaporates

By the time our mains arrived, I am grateful for being a preternaturally glutenous pig. The corn-fed baby chicken, and chargrilled sea bream with fennel salad, are both served with various side dishes, so irresistible that by the time dessert arrives, even the children pale at the offer of polishing off our platter of perfectly-baked brownie, homemade sorbets and exotic fruit. Having made light work of their enormous portions of fish and chips – followed by what can only be described as a vat of fruit and ice-cream – the poor buggers looked like they might keel over.

When we finally stand to leave, it turns out we have been at the restaurant for two hours. Given that we have a not yet one-year-old and an ordinarily withering four-year-old perched up at the table with us, this feels like progress. Not once did either of them get bored, or cry, or randomly throw something across the room. With the low lighting and rich colours of the restaurant together with the buzz of the atmosphere – and unstoppable tide of amazing, colourful food – there was no time to fuss. Or even to hunt out the cartoons on constant loop at the bar. If that’s not the sign of a successful lunch, then I for one don’t know what is.

118 Piccadilly, Mayfair, London W1J 7NW; 020 7042 7118; coyarestaurant.com

Food – 4
Service – 4
Value – 4
Kid rating – 4
Adult rating – 4

More in Eat