Where to go for a celebration? Not a knees-up, exactly, but a place which not only offers decent grub, but a bit of jazz to boost the good-times vibe. Head for a proper music venue – say Soho’s famous Ronnie Scotts – and you usually find that it’s considered good form to focus on the music. Perhaps that’s why the food’s usually so bad.
In fact, so ingrained is the feeling that music and good food are incompatible, that we were astonished by the culinary standards at this grand Notting Hill townhouse (which, for many years, traded as Leith’s). The place calls itself a brasserie, but isn’t, at least not in any normal sense of the word. If its use here means anything at all, it’s that the overall approach is ever so slightly mechanical. Even if the staff are smart, efficient and professional (which they are) they forego some of the ceremony which you might typically expect in such a gracious setting.
The menu is small, and Mark Jankel’s cuisine is not in any way fancy: typically a lump of protein, with a few morsels of veg and a slick of jus. But everything we sampled was intensely-flavoured and really beautifully plated: in fact, the very opposite of your classic ‘party’ venue. One of our guests, indeed, was even murmuring something about ‘best London restaurant meal ever’. He is not – on his own proud boast – a foodie, and the claim might invite derision from those who value novelty or innovation. But, actually – if your’re looking for straightforward contemporary fare – it’s difficult to see how the dishes could be done much better than here.
