Pollen Street Social, Pollen Street, W1S

Sorry for the lull - three- and four-day weeks make for laziness, and then returning to work makes for high stress! Plus I've been helping out a friend by subbing her master's thesis, as you do, so when I have a moment to myself, all I want to do when is sit in front of the telly playing Playstation (damn you PS3 network, when will you be back up?!) But anyway.

The hype that surrounded the Pollen Street Social before it was opening was quite incredible, so I was desperate to go. And with good reason - former shining star and top chef at Gordon Ramsay's Maze, launching a brand new restaurant just off Regent Street in Mayfair, promising a gorgeous bar for tapas-style munching, or a mix-and-match style menu so you can create your ideal meal from, and a dessert bar? Oh my God. But we'll get to that. All in good time. 

Inside - dessert bar on the left and glass-fronted kitchen on the right

We arrived for the lunch menu, on the day of the Royal Wedding (no comment) and made our way inside to a surprisingly empty dining area. Considering how fraught the booking process seemed to be for many trying to secure an evening table, on a bank holiday, this seemed pretty surprising. It was pretty nerve-racking trying to take some covert snaps, as we were so well attended to by the staff. The main room was as promised - huge, light and airy, decorated tastefully.

What I absolutely adored about the décor above all other things was the use of glass-fronts. The front of the main kitchen is entirely glass, so you can watch the chefs skilfully smearing a teaspoon of purée, or mashed potato across a plate, then carefully building the meal around it, intensely wiping stray drops of sauce from the dish. For me, it was an utter joy to be able to watch it (the best view is from the dessert bar). Then, head downstairs to the bathroom and there's the second kitchen. A glass fridge visible from the corridor to the bathroom acted as a window into the kitchen, with big meaty hocks of lamb and pork hanging off gruesome-looking butcher hooks. All in all a totally fun experience. 

Before we sat down we were given a key - for something to take home at the end? We didn't know! It was a novelty I really liked. To start things off we enjoyed some complimentary bread, for which we were shortly after given a dip which I cannot remember the name of - the waiter said something about smoked trout, and potato, I believe? It was definitely a little bit weird, but quite an interesting addition to the usual butter-and-olive-oil fare.  

Salmon with jersey royals, avocado

The three course lunch menu (£23.50) offered a nice variety, although dishes were almost slightly under described. Ordinarily a restaurant will faff about with pan-fried this and locally sourced that on a bed of whatever. I ordered salmon with jersey royals, and was presented with a thick slice of cured salmon with cucumber, slices of potato, some ice shaving (I think?). It looked incredible, but I would have liked to have known what I was actually having. Also, as a fan of strong flavours I desperately found myself wanting more seasoning. This may be a side effect of drizzling every piece of sushi I eat in soy sauce, but I kept looking for a smokiness or a sweetness, and found very little. It was tremendously refreshing, and a lovely light dish though. 

Salad Lyonnaise

My boyfriend's starter on the other hand - Salad Lyonnaise with roasted quail was fabulous. I kept nicking pieces off his plate. A gorgeous tower of creamed egg, game and salad with some thin crispy bread, oh it was truly amazing. Probably my favourite dish of the entire experience. Ooh la la. 

Shortly after we finished up, the mains arrived. I opted for spiced braised pork cheeks with turnip, celeriac and a coffee purée. The pig cheeks were divine, cooked to perfection and melting off the fork, and the whole dish was presently beautifully, with tiny little purple flowers atop a little mountain of meaty goodness. I didn't discover any coffee-flavours, which was disappointing as I was very curious about it, but a lovely well-rounded dish. 

Braised spiced pig cheeks - the gravy was poured over at the table, beautiful presentation.  

Boyfriend was temped by the Cornish brown crab risotto, with seaweed and samphire. It packed an incredibly salty punch and was right up his street, and again was beautifully presented, in a silver pot that was left on our table for top-up as and when needed. It was a nice touch - it's always fun to feel involved in looking after your food. 

We finished up, and ordered a dessert each - me opting for Eton Mess and boyfriend being brave and going for the Fruta Cru (we'd no idea what it was) with basil sorbet. "Would you like to eat your dessert at the dessert bar?" Why hell yes, we would. 
And it was the total highlight, 100% fantastic. Sitting on a row of bar stools, six or seven or so, full kitchen view, in front of us a lovely chef, working away, chatting intermittently. "What I'm doing here is .... ", "and this is a little drizzle of balsamic syrup..." and so on. It was an absolute delight, as were the puddings. 

Over-exposed shot of our dessert chef making my Eton mess

The basil sorbet in particular was outstandingly delicious. Highly recommend it - plus the presentation of the fruta cru, which turned out to be a compressed fruit dessert drizzled with ginger syrup and caramelised herb leafs tarragon oh my god, was placed in front of us with quite a dramatic flow of dry ice over the counter. My Eton mess was fantastic, quite complex creation for a simple dessert.

Fruta cru. Not pictured: dry ice wafting out bowl

Overall, the Pollen Street Social served really excellent food, but the portions were incredibly small, particularly compared to the Riding Street Cafe, which was where I last reviewed.  Still though, quality over quantity, and that's what you get with fine dining though, I find. Plus, big flavours can often more than make up for small sizes. However, I'd be lying if I didn't mention how the prices were pretty damn high. Although we went with the lunch menu, wine and coffee prices were very off-putting - two black Americanos (not even a froo-froo cappuchino or anything) coming in at £4.00 each, and £7.50 for one fairly small glass of wine, meaning that the Pollen Street Social is most definitely a budget-buster, and best saved for a special occasion.
But the addition of the dessert bar, and the other extra touches, means that you're definitely getting more than the food - like at the end of our meal, we presented our key, and got two little brown scones with some tea, "Afternoon tea, on us". Lovely! There's a wonderful atmosphere, so if that doesn't make it up for you, it'd be wary to recommend going. But you could easily drop in off the street on an afternoon, and enjoy a drink and pudding without spending your life savings, and still enjoy the lovely kitchen view as well. 
The Pollen Street Social, 8/10 Pollen Street, London, W1S 1NQ, 020 7290 7600

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The Riding House Cafe, Great Titchfield Street, W1

So thanks to gradually building up a fairly steady list of good food twitter-types that I follow, I was alerted, in a roundabout way, to the opening of the Riding House Cafe - and not only that, but a 50% off soft opening offer! 

For starters, it's in Fitzrovia/Noho/what most people call "North of Oxford Street", which is sorely lacking in good places to stop in for a bite to eat. Plus it's big inside, with one area (a long, rustic wooden table) purely for walk-ins - although the waitress I spoke to said that if demand is high, they might reserve spaces on that too. For now, though, that's the plan.

I liked the interior. Red leather sofas, proper wooden tables and no tablecloths, heavy silver candlesticks, fringed lampshades, reminding me of the bar area in the Hawksmoor Seven Dials. The other area is a high-ceilinged, and quite a bit noisier, with a bar where you can choose to eat if you prefer, plus the long table which is saved just for for walk ins. Although I do like the 'stripped down' rustic type decoration, I felt the authentically-chipped white water jug was a step too far, as were the authentically-damaged mirrors in the bathroom.  But crucially, it did all work, especially when factoring in the music that played over the sound system (the XX was playing while ordering, hah), which gives the place a nicely informal atmosphere.

Onto the food - we both had a cocktail while perusing the menu. I had a Raspberry and Elderflower Collins which was sadly a bit too much for me; a huge glass with no trace of elderflower, a strong whack of gin and fresh raspberry, which was still delicious but not the elegant concoction I'd hoping for. My boyfriend got on much better with a Pirate Daiquiri (lol) containing mostly Angostura bitters, rum, honey. The bread we ordered was gorgeous, lovely asparagus puree dip to go with, although I thought the olives were bland compared to the garlic-rosemary-salt-oil marinaded monsters I'm used to, so I'd skip those. 

I liked the type and layout of the menu - nice choice of wines on the back too. 

For starters, we absolutely hammered the small plates, ordering six dishes which was probably far too much. Each dish is £3, £4 or £5, so it's hard not to over-order when everything sounded amazing, I promise.
The standout for me was the sea bass ceviche with chilli and lime, sharp, tangy and fresh, then finishing on a wonderfully creamy sheep's ricotta with beetroot and the inspired addition of sunflower seeds to a dish, which gave it a wonderful earthiness usually imparted by an overabundance of watercress. 

Pork belly on the left, squid in the middle and poussin on the right

I was horribly disappointed by the pork belly though, I'm sorry to say. I love pork belly, when it's done right, and I'd heard such good things about the Riding House Cafe's one, but alas. Although the crackling was perfect, the meat was almost inedible for me. It was so dry that I ended up leaving most of it.
We also had a squid, chorizo and tomato dish, which was wonderful, and was my boyfriend's favourite, plus an anchovies-on-toast type dish (which needed more salt to feel properly anchovie-y to me, but that could just be my strange tastes.) The last small dish we had was the grilled poussin kebab with lemon and couscous, which was delicately smokey and quite tasty. 
That alone, if you're wondering, would do lunch I feel, although I'm sure that's not the point. For main, I had a glass of Chenin Blanc which was excellent, and Heritage tomato tart (or 'heirloom tomatoes' as they're sometimes called but this isn't the post to get into it). The tart came with some outstandingly fresh, crunchy rocket on the side, a smear of glorious pesto, a few salad leaves and yellow and red little tomatoes scattered about. 

It was utterly delicious - no heavy pastry, but rather a round of cheesy, crispy, buttery, flaky heaven, baked with some thin slices of tomato, topped with two generous quivering mounds of milky mozzarella. It was just perfect for me.
On the other hand, my boyfriend ordered the rack of pork with lentils and spicy sausage. For starters, the rack of pork was absolutely enormous. He doesn't tend to leave food on his plate all that often (even managing to salvage the uneaten pork belly earlier by dipping it in the squid and tomato sauce) but even he couldn't finish this mammoth serving. So be warned.

Tastewise though, the sausage was meaty and smokey, just what it should have been. The horseradish was creamy, and could have been a little hotter, but overall the dish was nice balance of the pork, the crispy skin in particular adding fantastic crunch.

Bad photo, sorry!

For dessert, we (just about managed to) order the Chocolate Praline Semifreddo and mother of god, I'm so happy we did. Every good restaurant should send you home with at least one dish that you talk about on the bus, and that was this dish for us. A glorious rectangle of creamy, cold praline chocolate, edged with a brownie-type cake, with raspberry coulis and an amazing crunchy circle of cold caramel with nuts (almonds?) and pistachios. It was so perfect in the balance of texture, the sharpness of the raspberry, the richness of the chocolate. And a huge portion too - after all that, me and my boyfriend were quite stuffed and glad we were sharing.
The bill was also most reasonable. Around £60 for all the food for two, and we also sank about £25 into drinks. Then the magic of the soft opening happened where it's 50% off, so in total we paid about £63 including service charge.
They're doing the soft opening offer until May the 3rd, so if you can nab a table, I would definitely recommend doing so. And unlike Nopi, (where I also availed of the soft opening offer), I still think it was great value for what it was. Plus there's no reason to order six bloomin starter plates. Or alternatively, skip on the main. I'm keen to go back some afternoon and just have a bunch of teeny plates at the bar. 


The Riding House Cafe,  43-51 Great Titchfield Street London W1W 7PQ 020 7927 0840

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