Cavo, The Now Building, Outernet, Denmark Street, London WC2H 0LA. Sharing plates £13-£28, grilled dishes £19-£90, cheesecake £9, wines from £35
When you immediately feel sorry for the staff, you know something is up. At Cavo my sympathy hydrant is fair gushing from the off. Skilled professionals have turned up to work in a restaurant the size of a Swindon call centre, only with more glassware and napery. And it’s empty. It occupies a yawning fourth-floor space in the golden Vegas edifice that is the Now Building, a name which feels like a declaration of high-fashion intent as scripted by Charlie Brooker. It’s part of the Outernet development, on the corner of London’s Charing Cross Road. Deep in the basement there’s a 2,000-capacity music venue. At ground level there’s some weird cavernous, open-sided space clad in 8K screens filled with trippy images that gently morph into adverts for WeTransfer. Stand there for long enough and you will hate yourself.
