This is a quiet and cosy restaurant with the feel of an upmarket cafe but serving carefully crafted food. The service was warm from start to finish and I loved the cocktail and wine options as they have clearly thought about making people comfortable, in a relaxed environment but not forgotten the importance of being able to have very good options (for e.g. the explanations of all wine options and selected upper echelon wine choices by the glass so that one can try. Pleasing products and a venue which I think would be even better with a set menu.

Although you could argue that the snacks should be gratis as an amuse bouche they were sublime; in particular the white truffle and gruyere cheese macaroon and chicken skin with liver parfait, both at £1.50 each. I thought these were delightful and so I ordered another couple and was glad as a result they were not complimentary as I wouldn’t be able to do that otherwise(!).

Although you could argue that the snacks should be gratis as an amuse bouche they were sublime; in particular the white truffle and gruyere cheese macaroon and chicken skin with liver parfait, both at £1.50 each. I thought these were delightful and so I ordered another couple and was glad as a result they were not complimentary as I wouldn’t be able to do that otherwise(!).

I opted for a starter and one side for my first course and another starter and a side as my second course as I wanted to try as much as possible. The first being sashimi of halibut, buttermilk and black radish which was satisfying and the baby gem, herbs, radish and buttermilk seemed the obvious partner (nothing fancy here but a pleasant buttermilk glaze). I thought the salsify, mangalitsa pig, comté was pleasant but slightly less pig on the plate as I was hoping as only a few shavings but agreeable none the less. The real hero of the day though was the remaining side ratte potato with montgomery cheddar which came as a delightful airated sauce. This was beautifully done. The dessert of hazelnut éclair was a fine finish no question – wonderfully flavoured cream and crispy outer layer with salted nuts and sugar on the top.

All in all I thought this was a pleasant experience and I’m sure the mains would have been equally so and I will come back to do one of those when I can. I do feel the menu would benefit from having a set menu at lunch as this would give a bit more variety to the food options, however, I did find all these well done on the day.

https://major-foodie.com/portland-fitzrovia/
https://instagram.com/richardbagnold