Mews of Mayfair – A Fine British Brasserie

Posted by Vilma

Tucked away in a charming cobbled courtyard just off New Bond Street, Mews of Mayfair is bustling with the drink-after-work or a bite-after-shopping crowds. It’s winter, it’s pretty chilly and everyone is supposed to be detoxing, but the people here are obviously ignoring any New Year’s resolutions… Almost every table outside is busy and the ground floor bar is heaving with merry ladies and gentlemen downing cocktails since the early evening.

Mews of Mayfair is spread over four floors of two converted mews houses. A brasserie, private dining room called La Cave, Chef’s dining room, a bar on the ground floor and a lounge in the basement – all in one place in central London. You can happily spend an entire evening here, starting with dinner on the higher floors and making your way down as the evening progresses – the lounge is open until 1am.

The brasserie on the first floor has recently been refurbished – cosy and flattering lighting, soft colours and a relaxed atmosphere – the restaurant is beautiful and much less formal that its predecessor.

The Brassiere pays tribute to British delicacies. Chef Richard Sawyer (previously the Executive Chief of British restaurant Rules) has created a menu that showcases some favourite traditional dishes with local ingredients. The sourcing of local produce is taken very seriously here and on the back of every menu one can find a map of the United Kingdom, proudly detailing the areas where different products come from.

The prices are decent for Mayfair and the portions are very generous – my Devon Crab Mayonnaise on toast starter was almost the size of a main meal (£11). My guest Paul ordered Hand Dived Rye Scallops and declared them top quality – they came served with cauliflower purée, roasted penny buns and sultanas (£12.5).

The flavours were subtle and perfectly combined with our drinks – a Sipsmith G&T with cucumber, my English Garden cocktail (champagne, citrus vodka and Elderflower cordial) and a lovely white South African wine (The Journeymaker Chenin Blanc 2012, only £22.50 for a bottle) that I couldn’t stop smelling, tasting and then smelling and tasting again…

We ordered steaks for our main courses and the subtle tastes were changed by the defined and strong aromas of meat. My fillet (£24) was superb – soft, juicy and cooked just as I requested. My guest who grew up in South Africa announced that he is a serious lover of meat and indulged with a really really really big portion of T-bone… And even managed to finish it (just). We found out that the restaurant uses the finest Galloway beef from the Yorkshire Game Company dry aged for a minimum of 35 days.

The best part of our evening was experiencing some of the most friendly and attentive service that I’ve experienced in London. We were in Assistant Manager Gregory Lakatos’s care and somehow he knew what we wanted, and as if materialising from thin air, he appeared at our table to top the wine, bring extra sauces for the meat and offer excellent suggestions of what else we could order.

That’s how we ended up eating Stilton with oatmeal crackers and drinking a fantastic Pedro Ximenez sherry. An explosion of rich sweet flavours that cut through the almost overpowering taste of blue cheese. We also tried some Port and then were happily swinging our way downstairs to the lively party in the ground floor bar for a night cap… The headache was pretty bad the next morning, but the pleasure of the night before was definitely worth the pain.

Concierge tip: Go for dinner, drinks and a bit of boogie in one place in central London.

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Condesa Restaurant Review

Posted by Sophie

Sophie McLean visits Condesa restaurant in Covent Garden.

Leaping on to the tapas flushed scene on Covent Garden’s Maiden Lane, recently opened Condesa restaurant brings a Mexican twist to all those Spanish themed places we’ve also seen of late.

Here, alongside South American roasted coffee, Venezuelan hot chocolate and cake (where you’ll find free wifi too for long afternoons spent ‘working’) you can also tuck into a simple variety of soups and bocadillos.

The décor is predictably laid back, with projected images of beach-baked Baja California at one end of the bar, and a stylish wooden-come-shiny metal decked apartment theme throughout. During the daytime and evening the petite space at Condesa restaurant (with capacity for around 30 people, seated) serves up a variety of hot and cold bites.

Dueño Daniel Caballero, originally from Mexico, has managed to stay away from the hotter climes since, mainly though his gastronomic adventures through France and Spain, meeting aptly named business partner Rafael Serrano en route.

What I’m most keen about in this place is that next to a couple of other Hispanic choices, it has three reasonably priced La Cetto Mexican wines on the menu – including a Chenin Blanc, a Zinfandel, and a Nebbiolo – all showing very well.

The zinfandel is fresh and comparable to something from Sonoma, redolent of squashed strawberries and ripe fruit, and the Nebbiolo, a lighter, more floral version of the beloved bottles I used to know in Italy, but still with prominent violet characteristics.

Food-wise you’ll find classic lomos, choizos and cheeses, an interesting Cecina de Leon (12 month old cured beef, akin to Italy’s bresaola), and Mexican ingredients such as agave syrup that comes drizzled on the blue cheese salad, green tomato salsa served on the pulled pork sliders, and a weekly changing ceviche.

Changing specials include Mole chicken tostadas – not quite what you’d imagine if you haven’t been to Mexico before. The good news is that you don’t have to order food here with drinks just yet, so it’s an easy early pit-stop or place to nibble prior to more substantial meals elsewhere.

Address: 15 Maiden Lane, WC2E 7NG

Phone: +44 203 601 57 52

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The House of Wolf Restaurant

Posted by Frances

Frances Cottrell visits the House of Wolf restaurant in Islington.

The House Of Wolf, named because wolves have a pack mentality, thus representing the team, and because the owners have always thought them ‘cool’ is a new drinking and dining concept in Islington.

The House Of Wolf is a three storey building on Upper Street with a ground floor bar, a mid level cocktail den and a top floor loft restaurant. The idea of cool runs through the concept from the juxtaposition of the venture in a traditional pub, to the website and design, the presentation and description of the fantastical cocktails, and the choice of chef residences it houses.

Our evening began in the Apothecary Cocktail Bar which serves ‘experimental elixirs’ largely inspired by Victorian themes. The bar is very dimly lit and even reading the menu was a bit of a struggle, but the decision to order a David Bellamy was an easy one. The creativity is evident, and the level of effort which goes in to each drink is really quite extraordinary.

So, quite some time later, our drinks arrived, undoubtedly fabulous and we greeted them with real enthusiasm. It was a shame that staff here weren’t so effusive and ultimately the wish to engage with them about the drinks dwindled rapidly.

So then upstairs to the chef residency: Blanch & Shock (although each month a different collective will be invited to host). Thankfully the lighting and staff were much improved here, and the room itself is beautifully understated with light touches of quirkiness.

The six course menu began with hunks of homemade bread, which were delicious and moreish. The second course was sadly a serious low-point though, and raw prawns wrapped in lardo were almost inedible. But, fortunately the following seabass, duck and then exquisite beef courses were absolutely delicious.

A lightness of touch and creativity with good quality (often foraged) ingredients was a pleasure, and the chefs personally presented the majority of dishes to us. These charming men proudly presented each plate, expertly communicating the construction of the dish, and this added a real sense of occasion to the evening. Textures of apple for dessert were scrumptious, but as with all courses, you were left wanting slightly more.

The House Of Wolf is about to launch a Sunday lunch menu that is bound to be an antidote to the traditional roast dinner, and the Blanch & Shock run has been extended, I assume due to its popularity. The space is very interesting, and I think with a little more charm from the cocktail bar, could become a great success.

Address: House of Wolf, 181 Upper Street, N1 1RQ

Phone: 0207 288 1470

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Quilon Restaurant Review

Posted by Emyr Thomas

Michelin-starred Quilon, which is based on Buckingham Palace Road near Victoria, was as famed for its terrible décor as it was for its superb south-west Indian cuisine.

Having closed at the beginning of January, Quilon London re-launched in March following an extensive refurbishment from designLSM. With a stylish, slick interior to match the quality of the food, Quilon should be high up on your restaurant hit list, as Emyr Thomas recently discovered.

Seafood is central to the menu at Quilon London, with plenty of meat and vegetarian options on the a la carte menu as well, but Chef Sriram Aylur regularly offers diners their own tasting menu of a selection of starters and mains, so we left our choices in the hands of the experts.

We started with a selection of mini pappadams with fresh chutneys (coconut and coriander and a tomato chutney), which was a delicate start to the evening, but somewhat lacking in real flavour.

From the starters, we were offered crispy fried cauliflower tossed with yogurt, green chilli and curry leaves, coconut cream chicken (marinated chicken fillets with ground coconut, chilli and cumin, cooked over a griddle) and char-grilled scallop with mango chilli relish.

The starters were the real highlight of the evening and the selection was an excellent demonstration of the kitchen’s skill with a wide variety of ingredients. I often find scallops to be rather dull, but these scallops were simple yet exquisitely prepared with a mango chilli relish.

Cauliflower as its own dish would not normally appeal to many, but this is a dish I would certainly order again – the batter was light and crisp, the delicate spicing just right and the yogurt a perfect complement.

As a palate cleanser after the starters, we were served a hot, slightly spiced tomato consommé in a glass, which was full of flavour and refreshing.

While the mains didn’t quite reach the standard set by the starters, each one demonstrated how mild spicing, light sauces and subtle, clean flavours can create masterful Indian dishes. The standout main course was the Quilon fish curry, which featured cubes of halibut simmered in coconut, chilli, and raw mango sauce – a delight.

London seems to do high-end Indian restaurants very well, and Quilon is up there with the best of them.

As part of the relaunch, Quilon also unveiled the stylish new Q Bar with a bar canapé menu to accompany the cocktail list. There is also a new private dining room, with a separate entrance, bar and kitchen.

Address: 41 Buckingham Gate, London, SW1E 6AF
Phone: +44 20 7821 1899

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Cut at 45 Park Lane: Restaurant Review

Posted by Bon Vivant

Bon Vivant reviews Cut at 45 Park Lane.

Having spent several decades in the gastronomic wilderness, steakhouses are currently enjoying a spectacular renaissance, with a new breed of sophisticated, contemporary and unapologetically glamorous restaurants.

In London the leading proponent of this revival has been the burgeoning Hawksmoor empire, with its emphasis squarely on meat of British provenance. But last September saw the arrival of a New World contender in the form of Wolfgang Puck’s CUT at 45 Park Lane.

(Wolfgang Puck is a culinary heavyweight in the US where he is now in charge of the restaurant at the gorgeous Hotel Bel-Air).

A legend on the US dining scene, Puck’s reputation most definitely preceded him and his first UK venture was one of the most hotly anticipated openings of 2011. I am pleased to report it did not disappoint. (Cut at 45 Park Lane also appeared on Bon Vivant’s list of the best new restaurants of 2011.)

Housed in one of Mayfair’s most prestigious addresses, Cut at 45 Park Lane occupies the ground floor, although there’s a bar-dining option available in the library on the floor above at Bar 45.

Mirrors elongate an already long, thin dining room at Cut at 45 Park Lane but the double-height ceiling offsets any sense of claustrophobia and clever use of curtains, booths and panels inject intimacy into the grandeur.

The event (no other word comes close) began with moreish Parmesan breadsticks and an amuse bouche of blue cheese pastries, washed down with a deliciously crisp glass of Billecart Salmon Reserve Brut.

My partner needed only seconds to decide on the maple-glazed pork belly with Asian spices but I had to make further enquires about the Dorset crab and lobster ‘Louis’ before committing.

Charmingly described as a ‘posh prawn cocktail’, this stalwart of the seventies steakhouse was reworked to perfection. Balancing the delicacy of crab and lobster meat with the punch of a well-seasoned dressing takes skill. Marie Rose never attained it but Puck’s Bloody Mary certainly did and this dish is deservedly his signature starter.

And so to mains at Cut at 45 Park Lane. On the basis that ‘if you see it on a menu you’ve got to go for it’ my partner opted for the rib-eye of 100% pure breed Chilean Wagyu, cooked rare.

At £85 a pop, the decision to ignore the Chef’s medium-rare recommendation proved an expensive mistake because although it delivered on its butter-like promise in terms of texture, the flavour was found somewhat wanting. Further proof, if it were needed, that timing is everything.

I had greater success with a ‘Tasting of New York Sirloin’ (£55). Tasting plates, while increasingly ubiquitous, are the saving grace of anyone prone to food envy or indecision and I am susceptible to both.

All three pieces – USDA Prime Angus, Casterbridge Angus and Australian Wagyu/Black Angus – were seasoned and cooked to perfection, with the latter so unctuously rich it was more akin to foie gras than steak.

The accompanying tray of three sauces (in addition to standard-issue trio of mustards) was a masterstroke that neatly solved the problem of which of the potential eight to choose from.

Sides of tempura onion rings and French fries with fine herbs were served in characteristically American proportions but with none of the vulgarity, and the Californian Cabernet Sauvignon chosen by our sommelier was the perfect partner, tasting as it did of “Christmas memories, aged in oak” (my words, not hers).

By this point, dessert was officially surplus to requirement. But that didn’t stop us from indulging in the Banana Cream Pie and Warm Passion Fruit Cheesecake, their retro-kitsch appeal proving too powerful to resist.

Amongst a glut of high points, perhaps CUT’s most significant achievement is that it manages to reconcile two seemingly irreconcilable tensions with remarkable deftness. It is at once both bold and brash but also reserved and refined.

And, despite the undeniably steep prices (you’d be hard pressed to get change from £100 per head including wine and service) it still manages to feel generous, both in terms of the food and service.

So the next time you feel the need to splurge on a fine dining experience but ‘morsels of this’ and ‘soupçons of that’ simply won’t cut it, you know where to go: Cut at 45 Park Lane

Address: Cut at 45 Park Lane, 45 Park Lane, London, W1K 1PN
Phone: +44 20 7493 4554

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Manson: A Fabulous British Brasserie

Posted by Vilma

By Vilma Darling

Let me begin this review not with the description of the place or the reason why I went there, but with the food and drink. My starter was the nicest piece of fish I had tasted in a very long time, if not ever. The generous portion of Caraway Cured Sea Trout with pickles, cabbage and dill (£7.00) was fresh, full of flavours and so delicious, I didn’t want to stop eating.

And… after the first sip of the fabulous British Sparkling wine Ridgeview Bloomsbury 2009 my taste buds went straight to heaven. It was actually so good I wrote down the name, Googled it, and bought a bottle the very next day from here. The wine is really fizzy, dry and perfect for everyday drinking and special occasions.

My friend Diana was equally impressed with her starter of leg of partridge, quince, honey and oatmeal (£7.50) and also claimed it was a long time since she had eaten such a lovely dish.

So where did we taste these fabulous things? The place is a British brassiere called Manson at 676 Fulham Road in London. The new chef Alan Stewart, who previously worked at Launceston Place and Michelin starred Chez Bruce, took over the command of the kitchen in October. He is championing a ‘field to fork’ philosophy of local and seasonal produce, and so the menus are constantly changing.

Many of the ingredients are picked from the restaurant’s own allotments and Britain’s woodland and hedgerows. The kitchen staff bake their own bread twice a day, smoke their own meat and fish, butcher the whole animals and even churn their own butter.

The menu is so fabulously British that sitting in a busy London restaurant I could close my eyes and imagine a relaxing weekend in the countryside and the beautiful scenery where the ingredients come from.

Dreaming about the beach and the sea (in summer months, mind you!) I ordered Wild Black Bream, Norfolk mussels, sprout leaves and smoked bacon (£17.00). Diana was up for some more gamey meat and chose Roast Gurnard, salt baked parsnip, black cabbage and fennel seed yoghurt (£14.50).

I got a bit more than what I had dreamt about, because my meal was so full of the flavours of the sea, it was almost too much. Add the smoked bacon to the taste of seafood and your palate is incredibly busy working overtime. Diana was very happy with the strong flavours of her wild duck – the meat juicy, soft and perfectly cooked.

We shared a piece of apple tart with clove ice-cream (£6.50) to finish off our British meat and seafood feast. It was divine! We cleaned off the plate with delight and had some port to wash down the delicious dessert.

Manson’s warm light, taupe and cream colours, wood-panelled bar, chestnut leather banquette seating and wooden tables create a cosy and quite grown-up atmosphere. It’s a perfect place for dinner on a dark winter night. In warmer weather, the brasserie’s doors open out onto the Fulham Road for alfresco dining.

Address: 676 Fulham Road, London, SW6 5SA
Phone: +44 20 7384 9559

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Bond and Brook Restaurant

Posted by Vilma

Our guest writer, Vilma Darling, continues her culinary tour with a visit to Bond and Brook in Mayfair.

There’s no better cure for a disastrous visit to the hair salon (no blonde wants to go seven shades darker!) than a generously sized Bellini cocktail served in a proper champagne saucer.

The hairdresser had decreed that I could go blonder NEXT TIME, so to drown my sorrows I went to the Fenwick department store on New Bond Street, where my friend Veronica joined me and my terrible mood for lunch at the Bond and Brook restaurant.

To calm my nerves, I asked our waiter for a glass of Prosecco… “What about a dash of fresh peach juice in your Prosecco?” he asked, obviously seeing that the lady was in distress.

And yes, ladies (and gentlemen) a great Bellini cocktail can definitely lift your spirits. I have tasted the Bellini cocktail at its birthplace, the famous Harry’s bar in Venice, and I can say truly that the one at Bond and Brook is far better.

The Bellinis and our talk about clothes, shopping and a tiny bit of politics made my hair disaster seem ridiculous (I could go to the salon again tomorrow, right?).

Like proper ladies who lunch we ordered three small tapas plates to share for our starters: grilled squid with chilli and spring onions, artichokes with goats’ curd and mint and well, not so ladylike, the Hoisin pork belly with Napa cabbage (three tapas plates for £16.00 or £6.25 each).

“The artichokes! Well, that was the triumph!” declared Veronica, also very much impressed by the pork belly and its crispy crackling, which, even in the best of the best restaurants, is often lacking in crispness. I fell in love with the squid and its great smoky flavours enhanced by the spice of the chillies.

We both ordered the sea bass L’Oriental with ginger and soy on a bed of leafy greens (£18) and new potatoes for our mains. And, well, that was truly amazing.

I really hate bland sea bass, which is often the case in more traditional restaurants, where they expect you to relish in the taste of the fish and sea – here, I loved the saltiness, the ginger hit and the crispiness of the dish, and cleaned my plate with excitement.

I was very impressed with Veronica’s reaction, because she always complains about food and has a long list of unacceptable foods: red meats, eggs and parsley are among the foods that she hates with the kind of passion a hard working drama student could only dream of mustering.

To finish our lunch at Bond and Brook we asked for coffee and Veronica went for the ‘skinny girl’s desert’ – mango and coconut sorbet (£1.50 / scoop) and I went for the full fat chocolate fondant served with light cream mousse and prunes (for better digestion, I suppose…). No need to mention here which desert tasted (much, much) better.

Bond and Brook’s menu offered plenty of choice from breakfast (tomatoes on toast and Croque Mademoiselle) to more tapas, set menus, afternoon tea options and other great cocktails.

The Bond and Brook restaurant is the result of collaboration between “Rhubarb” caterers and the Evening Standard’s food critic, Fay Maschler’s restaurant consultancy. Its ex-Le Cafe Anglais chef, Daniel Taylor, won the Malton Chef challenge this month and will be heading there with his £10,000 investment prize to help him open his own restaurant.

But for me, tucked away in the ladies’ department on the second floor at Fenwick, Bond & Brook’s white and elegant interior, friendly service and delicious food is a calming oasis away from the Oxford Street madness and irresistible allure of the Mayfair shops.

A true all day dining experience for ladies and gentlemen who love to shop and lunch.

Website: www.fenwick.co.uk

Address: 63 New Bond Street, London, W1S 1RQ

Bar Nearby: The Polo Bar at The Westbury or Claridge’s Bar (see below)

Hotel Nearby: Claridge’s is a very short walk away.

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Read some of our other restaurant reviews including Coya, 34 Restaurant and Portal.

Hollow Legs: Recommended Food & Restaurant Blogs

Posted by Bon Vivant

Continuing with the theme of restaurant and food blogs that I enjoy reading, here’s a Q&A session with Lizzie from Hollow Legs.

Name: Lizzie, Hollow Legs

How would you describe your blog? I would describe the blog as food experiences, recipes, restaurants and ramblings.

What’s your favourite restaurant in London? Favourite restaurant in London is a mighty tricky one, but I guess I would say The Ledbury; it’s the only place I’m happy to repeatedly drop large wads of cash. Usually with other fine dining establishments once I’ve been I tick it off the list, but this place… I go back time and time again.

Photo: The Ledbury

What makes the perfect restaurant for you? This would depend on the occasion. A meal, for example, with family would be very different to a meal with a date. However, I think Polpo or Polpetto in Soho are pretty perfect restaurants to me though; lively, buzzy atmosphere, wait staff that always make you feel comfortable, and delicious food. And wine! Wine served by the carafe. Brilliant.

What’s next on your hit list? Next on my hit list is Le Wei Xiang, a little-known Northern Chinese restaurant in Lewisham. I’m big into my local places; I have several places lined up in Deptford and Elephant and Castle that I’m going to try.

Are you excited about any new openings during 2011? I’m not hugely up on what’s opening in 2011. Pollen Street Social maybe? (The new venture from Jason Atherton, opening in February). For me, 2011 is going to be mostly about decent cheap and exciting eats.

If you could give a new restaurant advice before opening, what would it be? Hire a really, really good chef and source your produce wisely.

Which of the newspaper reviewers do you like / hate? I like Marina O’Loughlin best. I’ve always read her reviews avidly; she’s acerbic and witty and the anonymity is something I really respect about her. I also like Jay Rayner, but I am rather ashamed to admit they are the only ones I read. I haven’t got any strong feelings against others, but I lost a lot of respect for Matthew Norman when he said “The last thing you anticipate from even the finest Chinese chef is the showing of respect to the veg.”

What’s the future direction of your blog? I don’t have a game plan for my blog; I’m just aiming to keep discovering new things and keeping it honest and interesting.

Which other blogs, food or otherwise, would you recommend? Other blogs I love are Cheese & Biscuits, Food Stories (some might say I’m biased as they are very good friends of mine!), Cooking the Books, Tamarind and Thyme and An American in London. Otherwise, I read a few blogs about advertising but that’s mainly for my job.

Chris Pople from Cheese and Biscuits

Posted by Bon Vivant

In this instalment of my recommended food and restaurant blogs, I would like to introduce Chris Pople from Cheese and Biscuits.

Name: Chris Pople, Cheese and Biscuits

How would you describe your blog? A place to find hyperbolic, ill-researched but hopefully entertaining reviews of mainly London restaurants.

What’s your favourite restaurant in London, Chris Pople? The Ledbury for fine dining, Chilli Cool for Chinese, Polpetto for Italian, Tayyabs for Indian/Pakistani and for sheer frothing madness, Bob Bob Ricard.

What makes the perfect restaurant for you? It depends what a place is going for. The noise, queues and stress of Tayyabs doesn’t make it any less brilliant, but I wouldn’t want to queue up in the cold for 45 minutes anywhere else.

I think the best places are all about value – The Ledbury is expensive, but you get what you pay for and then some – the extra surprises, the extra mile that the very best restaurants go, in all price ranges, these are the things that mark out somewhere special.

Are you excited about any new openings during 2011? Heston’s new place, obviously! Other than that, I’m not really as clued up as some people about new openings, and usually find out about a new place just as I get the press release email.

Russell Norman’s Spuntino should be worth a look-in though, if it ever actually does open.

What has been your worst restaurant experience? Worst food was probably Aberdeen Angus, but worst experience overall, for various reasons, Dego in Fitzrovia. I had a diabolical meal – stale bread, catastrophically ill-advised dishes, incompetent in almost every respect.

And I said as much on the blog. But it was the reaction of Dego’s PR people, who set about rallying staff and friends to leave angry shilly comments on the post that really surprised me. Their defensiveness only served to underline how bad the place was of course.

If you could give a new restaurant advice before opening, what would it be? Try to do something different. Don’t over-reach. Keep your menu short. And if you get a bad review, respond politely or not at all. Oh and do US BBQ please – everywhere else in London is crap for that.

Which of the newspaper reviewers do you like / hate the most? Giles Coren and AA Gill are probably the best writers of them all, although I’m not sure I’d use either to decide where to eat.

For reliable reviews from people whose tastes most match my own, Marina O’Loughlin in the Metro or Jay Rayner in the Observer.

What’s your favourite post on your blog? It probably doesn’t mean much to anyone else, but I enjoyed writing up this little bar that does pork cheeks in Catalonia.

What’s the future direction of your blog? There’s no plan, really. Just keep going to restaurants and occasionally writing them up. As long as I enjoy doing it, I will carry on.

Which other blogs, food or otherwise, would you recommend? Far too many to list here, but for similar reasons to Marina and Jay above, Hollow Legs and Food Stories have very similar tastes to my own and have the added bonus of being extraordinarily good cooks and recipe bloggers too. I

always look forward to the Dos Hermanos reviews, and thirtyoneseventyfive.com and Hugh Wright’s TwelvePointFivePercent are also excellent reads.

Chris Pople’s blog Cheese and Biscuits is one of London’s most popular food and restaurant blogs.

The Crown at Bray – Restaurant Review

Posted by Vilma

Vilma Darling visits The Crown at Bray.

The village of Bray near Maidenhead (30 miles west of London) is world famous for hosting The Fat Duck and The Waterside Inn, two of the four three-Michelin-starred restaurants in the UK. Down the road in Littlefield Green, legendary broadcaster Sir Michael Parkinson owns the one-Michelin-star pub, The Royal Oak, so this tiny area in Berkshire has seven Michelin stars in total – more than Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Sheffield combined.

But this review is not about one of the award winning restaurants, but about a local pub, that is one of the loveliest and unpretentious eating establishments I’ve visited in a long time. The Crown at Bray was bought by Heston Blumenthal earlier this year and he promised to preserve its intimate and local feel.

The celebrity chef owns another pub in the village called The Hinds Head and according to the food maestro himself, it has quickly become a culinary destination.

Culinary destination or not, our cosy lunch at The Crown was delicious. Like proper pub-goers we started our meal with pints of larger and tried not to bang our heads on the low-beamed ceilings when standing up (it is a 16^th century inn after all).

I had potted duck and grilled bread with cornichons (£6.95) to start, which was a little bit too rich for my taste (and waistline) as the bread was heavily buttered. The potted duck was great, but probably should have been shared by at least two people.

The Brixham mussels in white wine sauce with garlic and parsley (£8.25) had an excellent broth, but could also have been shared with another person.

I decided to continue the ‘potted’ theme of my lunch and ordered lemon sole with potted shrimp, cucumber & dill (£17.50) for the main course while my companions unanimously went for baked suet, steak and ale pie with creamed potatoes (£14.50).

The lemon sole was fresh, juicy and rather large, and I particularly enjoyed the touch of dill, but I couldn’t finish the fish after my feast of potted duck. We didn’t have any desserts though were very tempted by the Eton Mess with bananas, lime and hazelnuts (£5.75).

Apart from the food, one of the best things about The Crown at Bray was the cosy atmosphere created by the beautiful furniture, open fires and incredibly friendly staff. There’s a fine line between being helpful and annoying, but our beautiful waitresses seemed genuinely lovely and happy.

We didn’t really feel like leaving The Crown at Bray at all and probably would have stayed there until supper, but we HAD to go for a walk and experience the joys of country living for at least one short weekend.

Website: www.thecrownatbray.com

Address: The Crown, High Street, Bray, Berkshire, SL6 2AH

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