It's with a remorseful sigh that I publish this review some fourteen months late - a theme that's sure to recur over the course of 2014. However, 2012 is now accounted for, so if anything that's one of the monkeys off my back. Additionally, the wife and I find ourselves in a position that this year is unlikely to involve much eating out. Whilst this is sorrowfully indicative of the grown-up hard times we have hit, it does give me a chance (or an excuse) to drag out 2013's reviews across the next ten months.
The first weekend of last year presented a happy opportunity to take Sunday lunch at a place we had thoroughly enjoyed ten months earlier. As with so many respectable Michelin-Starred neighbourhood restaurants, the value on offer at Kitchen W8 is as appealing as somewhere like Launceston Place. Food of such a standard at £30 per person is something which cannot be ignored.
The wife couldn't resist a Sunday lunch classic and chose the rib of Ayrshire beef with Yorkshire pudding (right). The beef was medium-rare and gloriously meaty as it should be. The pudding was flamboyantly large and puffy which is always a treat. It was a filling dish but it retained enough rustic charm and genuine quality to be worthwhile. The vegetables on the side reminded me that, when you can get a Sunday lunch like this as part of a £30 menu, lunching at pubs becomes increasingly unappealing.
Our friend was in the mood for more fish and chose the bream fillet served atop a bed of Shetland mussel & brown shrimp chowder (left). This was possibly a little too summery given the season for my tastes but, taken as a dish in isolation, it was lovely. The fish had properly crispy skin and was moist throughout. The chowder was creamy and rich but I would have felt a little unsatisfied had I ordered it. However, as a lighter, more refreshing option, it certainly hit the mark.
My dessert leapt off the page and I was again excited just by reading about it: egg custard tart with medjool dates and Clementine (right). This was a case where the fairly simple description didn't do the actual dish justice. The Clementine portion of the dish was some acidic ice cream (not a sorbet, which was the right call), adding texture and temperature contrasts. The date component was a purée, providing smoothness and a richness which contrasted beautifully with the tart. The pastry was firm but crumbly, the filling exactly a mixture of subtle spicing and comforting custard. It was precisely the sort of dish one would go to Kitchen W8 to eat.
If any restaurant is worth its place in London's upper echelons, it has to be able to deliver on the simple things whilst simultaneously opening the eyes of its patrons. Exciting food in a simple way or simple food in an exciting way... either works but the fact is there aren't a huge number of restaurants out there able to do it. Kitchen W8 is a restaurant vital to London's upper-middle tier of restaurants. It may never win a second star. I hope it never wins a second star. They should just keep doing what they do.
Following this visit, Kitchen W8 qualified as a restaurant eligible to enter my list of top five restaurants in London. (The only criteria is that one has to have been somewhere more than once to qualify as a 'favourite'.) It will be no surprise at this point to learn it has remained in the top five ever since. Click the link below and check out their more up-to-date menus: there will be something in there for you. It is intelligent, sentient, enjoyable food. It is food everyone should be eating as often as possible. It is the kind of restaurant that should be full every night of the week. I just hope I can get a table when I next want to go.
Kitchen W8
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