Hidden-away just off Regent Street, Jason Atherton’s second Mayfair restaurant offers a clubby vibe very different from his uncompromising Pollen Street Social, just over the road – for all-round charm, the experience at the newer restaurant is arguably superior.
Jason Atherton came to prominence as the chef at Maze – initially at least, perhaps the most impressive restaurant concept ever to have come out of the Gordon Ramsay stable. And since he struck out on his own, it is notable how he’s never really set a foot wrong – all the more of an achievement when you consider how quickly his empire has expanded, from Shanghai to London to Singapore’and now back to London for two new openings, in Mayfair and Soho, in 2013. Rather than this rapid expansion being the result of some towering cheffy ego, it seems it may be the work of a master-strategist. Is it fanciful to think that Atherton might, just might, become the UK’s most important native-born chef?
Atherton’s first Mayfair operation was the cacophonous Pollen Street Social. For the second, he’s taken over a site all of 20 metres away, formerly occupied by 5 Pollen Street – a nice but middle-of-the-road 2011 debutant that might just have pulled through’ if it hadn’t been so obviously bettered by the local competition.
Athteron doesn’t seem to have done a great deal to the interior he inherited – it had been nicely done, and its clubbiness was arguably always its strongest feature. The feel of the place, however, has been transformed, and everything now hums. It helps that the service steers that tricky course between technical correctness on the one hand, and amiability on other – easy enough to evoke but surprisingly hard to find in practice.
So often in Mayfair the food turns out to have no more than a supporting rôle, but you suspect from the moment your excellent, crusty bread arrives that that ain’t going to be the case here. And so it turns out: a brandade of cod is not of note just for its subtle-but-clear taste, but also for its pretty-as-a-picture composition. Unctuous pork belly, offset by a refreshing apple ‘coleslaw’, is in the same vein. And so is a dessert which an Englishman might describe as Eton Mess, but which here has a longer Frenchifed description which, to be fair, is justified by the evident skill which has gone into its composition and presentation. Our companion’s meal was pronounced no less satisfactory.
This is already a restaurant for which, as they say, early booking is already very much advised. On the basis of our visit, you can certainly see why.
