Restaurant Review: Kerridge’s Bar & Grill, London

Tom Kerridge is one of those chefs who are famous in their home countries but not well known beyond their borders. So the arrival of his first London restaurant made a fair splash in the UK but hasn’t generated much ado elsewhere, except among travelers who follow the British dining scene – and who may have seen Mr. Kerridge on television or traveled 35 miles west of London to one of his Michelin-starred pub-restaurants in the town of Marlow.

Photo by Cristian Barnett

His new restaurant could hardly be less like a pub: Kerridge’s Bar & Grill is in the splendid Corinthia Hotel, in a grand vaulted space the breadth of half a city block, adorned with columns and pilasters. Within this imposing hall, the décor by David Collins Studio contrives to be simultaneously spacious, clubby and cozy, with a good use of leather banquettes to mark off discrete areas in the dining room. A view into the busy kitchen (led by head chef Nick Beardshaw) with its impressive rotisserie, helps define the restaurant. The rotisserie in turn defines quite a lot of the food and yields meats including beef rib, saddle of lamb, stuffed quail and seasonal game.

Glazed lobster Thermidor omelette. Photo by Cristian Barnett

The food at our late-September dinner was mostly terrific. A first course of Glazed Omelette “Lobster Thermidor” caught our eye, and I’m glad it did: Composed in layers, it arrived in a little skillet. The foundation was soft, still slightly runny eggs, which were topped with tender, ocean-flavorful chunks of lobster meat and a lightly cheesed béchamel-cum-hollandaise sauce, all glazed and brown. The lobster was barely cooked: a daring way to present lobster outside of a sushi restaurant. I asked whether customers send it back as underdone, and the able, enthusiastic waiter said they occasionally do, which pains her – and the cooks who have worked hard to get the doneness just right. This dish was perfectly balanced and perfectly delicious. It was also perfectly rich, and we were right to order just one for sharing. (It would make a luxurious main course with a side of excellent french fries and rotisserie vegetables.)

Those vegetables are worth mentioning, in part because they are not actually vegetarian-friendly: They hang around under the roasting meats and grow intense and savory with their juices. Come to think of it, the fries are worth mentioning also: They’re big (so they retain an earthy potato flavor) and are almost uncannily crisp after multiple fryings.

We had them as part of an order of fish and chips, here made with a superior flatfish unavailable on the left side of the Atlantic: brill. Its meaty white flesh is perfect for batter-frying, though it’s too costly to be used in everyday neighborhood fish-and-chips shops (depending on the neighborhood, of course). In a stylish restaurant like Kerridge’s, though, it’s ideal. Along with the fries, the enduringly crisp battered fish comes with three sauces that are references to non-fancy fish and chips: tartare, natch, as well as a fluid version of pease pudding (made with dried peas) and a subtly zesty variant on the curry sauce that’s so popular with takeout fried fish.

Savory pies have always been part of British cooking but have sometimes been undervalued in the more ambitious sort of restaurant. This has changed: Pies are now a Thing, and the pig’s cheek pie by Mr. Kerridge and his chef de cuisine Nick Beardshaw is a beautiful object, if not a perfect one. It is a hefty spheroid whose core is long-cooked pork cheek encased in sausage meat, wrapped in Savoy cabbage leaves and finally enrobed in crisp golden-brown pastry with a whimsical lid that recalls a pig’s snout. There’s a drizzle of well-seasoned sauce and a little pot of creamed potatoes topped with crisp crumbs of black pudding (blood sausage). Despite its diverse strata, the pie grows monotonous half-way through; it comes across as unrelentingly uniform, and there’s a lot of it. More and brighter sauce might add a little needed sparkle, but some of that sparkle belongs in the filling itself. Now, half a pie wouldn’t be monotonous at all, so consider swapping plates with your dining partner at mid point – a companionable act in any case.

Tom Kerridge and head chef Nick Beardshaw. Photo by Cristian Barnett

When it’s time for dessert, though, you will not want to share your blackcurrant soufflé if it’s on the menu and you’ve been wise enough to order it. The fruit is of an intensity rarely encountered in a soufflé. The accompanying cream (made of blackcurrant leaves, an ingredient you don’t see every day) makes the dish smoother and creamier. The deep berry flavor is lifted by a fine lemon sherbet. A perfect dessert.

It’s a fact of life that the dishes that sing out from Mr. Kerridge’s menu are the richest ones. If you’re determined to eat less overwhelmingly, there are a few first courses from which you could compose a satisfying meal, such as salmon with apple pancake and caviar or perhaps coronation chicken terrine with mango and celery. But, no: I wouldn’t have wanted to forgo that lobster omelette – or indeed the first half of that pig’s cheek pie.

Kerridge’s Bar and Grill, 10 Northumberland Avenue (Corinthia Hotel), London WC2N 5AE; +44 (0) 20 7321 3244; https://www.kerridgesbarandgrill.co.uk/. Open for lunch and dinner every day; bar open all day from noon. Dinner for two, including a nice bottle of wine, about £220 ($280)