Tate Modern restaurant, Switch House, Bankside

Many people are excited about Switch House, the Herzog and de Meuron-designed extension to Tate Modern. Some of these people are aficionados of London's best restaurants, as, after years of running one of London's most interesting (yet curiously under-appreciated) cultural spaces to eat, the new establishments at Switch House promise to raise the culinary game. Hopefully, this will finally alert people to the fact that restaurants in art galleries can be just as exciting and innovative as those outside them.





Under the auspices of Stephen Goodlad, the executive chef, the emphasis will be on both traditional upmarket dining in the new ninth floor restaurant (and spectacular views), where dishes will include duck pastrami with dates and a blood orange salad, cured haddock with golden beetroot and cockle and samphire consommé, and a kind of deconstructed Victoria sponge. Downstairs, in the more casual first floor bar area, we're promised rotisserie chicken, lamb, and craft beer. Hopefully the standards will be sky-high in both cases.

One area where the Tate has always excelled is in its wine lists; under head sommelier Hamish Anderson, the tradition of serving unusual vintages and excellent bins at sensible prices with comparatively low mark-ups should continue, and chances are that the wines will be just as dramatic and interesting as the surroundings – and, of course, the art. We can't wait to see what they do.