Three of London’s best restaurants for delicious food at affordable prices
- Kerridge’s Bar and Grill attracts the likes of actress Penelope Cruz but is still good value, while Art Yard has a generally healthy feel to its menu
- Brat in Shoreditch is all about fire, with chef Tomos Parry previously working at Singapore’s Burnt Ends
Given the fall of the pound, there has rarely been a better time to dine in the UK, making new London restaurants a relative bargain when compared to many places in Hong Kong. Today’s exchange rate hovers around 78 US cents to the pound and means that diners can enjoy a three-course lunch from Tom Kerridge, one of the UK’s hottest chefs, for about US$38 per person, at Kerridge’s Bar and Grill in the very swanky setting of the Corinthia Hotel.
So swanky, in fact, that when we went for dinner, one fellow diner was Penelope Cruz. The brasserie-style dining room is an absolute beauty thanks to vaulted high ceilings and generously spaced tables with leather banquettes in burgundy and dark green. Elegant tiles in the original 19th-century mosaic floor in the bar may be overlooked by many but are also worth seeking out.
Kerridge – who visited Hong Kong for last year’s Taste festival – was the gregarious, big-name chef lured here to his first venture in London, following in the footsteps of his renowned Michelin-two-star pub, The Hand and Flowers, in Marlow. He has installed his long-time sous chef, Nick Beardshaw, as head chef at Kerridge’s Bar and Grill.
To start came terrific soda bread with equally good butter. It’s surprising how often this critical marker of a meal is overlooked. Soda bread can be dense, but here it was light, nutty and almost cake-like in consistency and crumb. Then came a tiny amuse-bouche of a cheese and onion tart, like a Welsh rarebit in flavour, punching above its weight.
There’s no doubt that meats are the star of the show. One wall of the restaurant features an impressive rotisserie with large joints, as well as fish and vegetables, slowly turning and roasting, while there are also fridges with selected cuts supplied by Kerridge’s butcher in Marlow, The Butcher’s Tap.
After an unremarkable pumpkin soup, a main of Cotswold lamb was a carnivorous work of art. The base was a heady mix of minty cabbage with a deep jus – OK, gravy – with the perfectly pink saddle placed on top. It was then crowned with a lamb cromesquis, a sort of breadcrumbed and fried croquette. As if that wasn’t decadent enough, there was a little black cast iron cocotte of perfect shepherd’s pie, with elegant peaks of mashed potato piped on top. It all made for a glorious and proudly British dish which lives long in the memory.