Evening Standard
David Ellis marvelled at the “astonishingly, masterfully good” debut restaurant from high-profile chef Sally Abé, finally free to do her own thing as boss after head chef stints at the Harwood Arms, the Pem and the Bull in Charlbury.
Opting to create a “British bistro”, she has created something “unmistakable, idiosyncratic, singular”, proving that our national cuisine goes “beyond Sunday roasts, chippy teas and crap pies constantly at risk of extinction”. Dishes include the likes of beef sirloin with wild garlic or Cornish mussels out of their shells with sweet Jersey royals, cauliflower and spikes of romanesco broccoli. A starter of bone marrow baked with snails, garlic and parsley prompted David to wonder: “Might Abé be the only chef cooking bone marrow properly in London?”
He went even further in his praise, declaring: “Sally Abé could be said to be London’s greatest female chef. I’d prefer to say she’s one of London’s greatest chefs.”
David Ellis - 2026-04-05The Times
Jay Rayner was mightily impressed by the “earthy” English food filtered through the sensibility of classical French cuisine at this new spot from chef Sally Abé (ex-Savoy, Claridge’s and Bret Graham’s Harwood Arms). She is already well-known from her TV appearances and a prize-winning memoir, but “this feels like Abé’s breakout: the small but perfectly formed platform allowing her to be very much herself.”
A version of angels on horseback, for instance, was a “perfect mouthful” that summed up for Jay all that is good about Abé’s cooking: “The soft, toffee-ed date comes bound in a crisp corset of streaky bacon and filled with the silkiest of chicken liver parfait, like it’s a savoury-centred chocolate.”
Tempura oyster, Scotch egg (a Harwood classic), an “exuberant” devilled crab, fat mussels in seafood broth, and a “perfect golden-skinned chicken breast” were followed by a whimsical dessert that was a grown-up take on the Tunnock’s teacake.
Jay Rayner - 2026-06-28
