Finally managed to get to Pollen Street Social last night and it was exceptionally good.
It's Jason Atherton's place, who was head chef at Ramsey's Maze. His training has come courtesy of Gordon Ramsey, Marco Pierre-White, Oliver Peyton, Boyd Gilmour and he is the only British chef to complete a stage at El Buli under Ferran Adria.
This is his first restaurant. He wanted to create a stylish, classy yet informal and interesting restaurant with top quality food and he's pulled it off superbly. There is no dress code at all, you can wear what you feel most comfortable in.
There is a bar area with informal dining and a menu designed for sharing, like Tapas and there is the main restaurant, which also has a dessert bar. Lots of wood, clean lines, sleek and modern with lovely white table cloths (i do like white table cloths). One of the most pleasing things was that we had a very spacious table. I hate it when you can easily hear conversations on the tables around you which leads to feeling claustrophobic.
The food was exceptional. We had the 7 course tasting menu, which at £65 per person is incredibly good value.
1) Chilled San Marzano tomato soup, crab toast, grain mustard ice-cream
2) Scallop ceviche, cucumber & radish, yuzu soy dressing, apple
3)
Full English breakfast
4) Roast cod, broad beans, peas, cockles & squid, parsley emulsion, creamed potatoes
5) West Country ox cheek with tongue & sirloin, carrots, caper & raisin purée, horseradish
6) Parfait, cherry jam, creamed rice puffs
7) RWild strawberry & vanilla cheesecake,
The service was attentive, friendly and slick. The sommelier was helpful when trying to select 4 glasses of wine to accompany our meal perfectly and delivering them at the right time.
Our final bill came to £240 for two, which after 8 good glasses of wine, 2 glasses of champagne and two tasting menu's, was very good value.
At the end of the meal we were presented with a small key to give to the front desk on our way out, which we were told was a little present for our journey home. The key opened a small little box and a white bag was inside. As we only live about 20 min walk from the restaurant, we opened the bag when we got home and it was (edited, should leave this as a surprise).
I'd put in in my top 5 meals i've had in London, i'm usually pretty scathing when it comes to reviewing restaurants, but last night was a good 8.5/10 (i very rarely give over 7 and the highest only give one 9 and one 9.5)
I highly recommend Pollen street. If the standard and quality of last night is consistent, i'll be a regular for sure.
http://www.pollenstreetsocial.com/