From King’s Cross to Kingsbridge
The restaurant on the 7th floor of The Stratford hotel was meant to open back in the summer, but The Dumbwaiter can gladly report that it’s been worth the wait.The interiors of the restaurant overseen by chef Patrick Powell are stunning and the food is sublime.The smoked eel pithivier is going to be a signature dish and is worth the visit to Stratford alone.
The South Hams can be a tricky place to run a hospitality business, so frenetic are the heights of summer and ghostly quiet the winters. There has to be something special in the mix to make it through the low season and out the other side. Lazy Susan is happy to report that Hope Cove House – the new restaurant and hotel from Six Portland Road’s Oli Barker – is serving up the kind of food that is sure to see them through. To start there was a plate of chiffon-like charcuterie followed by beetroot with yoghurt and dill, then polenta with girolles, sweetcorn and grilled radicchio. For dessert there was a beautiful pear and almond tart and some stolen spoonfuls of their stellar chocolate mousse.
It has been one of, if the not the most, influential restaurants in London over the past decade. No reservations, small plates, moody lighting (squirrel cage lightbulbs!), loud music and Negronis – did these even exist pre 2009? Fast forward 10 years and POLPO founders Russell Norman and Richard Beatty hosted a special dinner to celebrate the Beak Street restaurant’s 10th birthday with food from guest chefs such as Angela Hartnett and Stevie Parle.
He recently won the chef category at the YBFs awards, so Lazy Susan was keen to try what Santiago Lastra has in store for his forthcoming Kol restaurant. In his west London test kitchen, she was wowed by everything on the experimental Mexican menu from a kokotxas snack to chocolate tamale with corn husk ice cream dessert (washed down with mezcal, natch). This danger sauce was mighty powerful with a whole grilled octopus.
