The Riding House Café

A modern café & bar in Fitzrovia, London serving breakfast, brunch, lunch & dinner. Plus a cocktail bar & private dining spaces for events

A Modern Café & Bar in Fitzrovia, London - Restaurants | Riding House Café

http://www.ridinghouse.cafe

A Modern Café & Bar in Fitzrovia, London - Restaurants | Riding ...

The Riding House Cafe, 43-51 Great Titchfield Street, London | The ...

On the corner of Great Titchfield Street and Riding House Street, it occupies what was once a branch of the Slug and Lettuce chain (pubs, like boutiques, can gang up on you).

Café might be a bit misleading – this bustling, modern place may be casual, but it's most definitely a restaurant.

Anyway, the menu's the thing: there's a deal of good things on offer – from chorizo hash browns to spiced whiting to steaks to rack of pork – once you're past the small-plate bit (which I daren't comment on, for fear of boring myself I've banged on about it so much).

Me, I'm in the restaurant bit, about to plunge a steak knife into today's special, a 6oz fillet with Béarnaise sauce, thin-cut crisps and a cursory grilled tomato (£25).

Scores: 1-3 stay home and cook, 4 needs help, 5 does the job, 6 flashes of promise, 7 good, 8 special, can't wait to go back, 9-10 as good as it gets The Riding House Café, 43-51 Great Titchfield Street, London W1, tel: 020 7927 0840.

Riding House Café, London W1, restaurant review - Telegraph

Apart from being handily positioned for a chap keen to rebuild his fashion career, possibly as a trainee buyer or third-string cutter, this is as achingly voguish a joint as has opened in town in a while.

Everything about it – from the breakfast-until-late opening hours, via a dreadlocked manager who reminded us of the ultra-cool French tennis star Yannick Noah, to the menu – screams “strike a pose”.

For all that, the room buzzes seductively and feels as fashionable as a menu dominated, although not monopolised, by that restaurant fad du jour, the small plate.

Several of the best meals I’ve eaten in the past year, most memorably at the nearby Polpetto, involved a large sequence of small plates and, but for a couple of misfires, this one would have been in the same league.

Superfoods – and some reservations about a large plate of spiced whiting that shrugged off the attentions of chilli oil to taste primarily of cardboard – aside, all else ranged from the good to the excellent.

The Riding House Cafe | A NYC Style Brasserie In Fitzrovia ...

The Riding House Cafe | Fitzrovia Brasserie For residents of Bermondsey Street there’s usually a choice to be made when dining out locally: The Garrison or Village East.

Both restaurants are owned and operated by the personable duo behind Village London Group, who also – having ventured away from Bermondsey Street for the first time – run The Riding House Cafe on Great Titchfield Street.

The location of The Riding House Cafe – just off Oxford Street – is ideal and the Modern European menu is, as expected, outstanding (particularly the crackling on the slow roasted pork belly and the Titchfield burger with foie gras).

The exposed brickwork, industrial feel and smart waiting staff (wearing ties that look suspiciously like those worn by the Village East team) is offset by quirky design touches that combine to create a warm and stimulating London brasserie suitable for any meal of the day.

The Riding House Cafe | 43-51 Great Titchfield Street, Fitzrovia, London W1W 7PQ   Like this?

The Riding House Cafe | Soho, Fitzrovia, Covent Garden ...

The Riding House Cafe, 43-51 Great Titchfield Street, London | The ...

On the corner of Great Titchfield Street and Riding House Street, it occupies what was once a branch of the Slug and Lettuce chain (pubs, like boutiques, can gang up on you).

Café might be a bit misleading – this bustling, modern place may be casual, but it's most definitely a restaurant.

Anyway, the menu's the thing: there's a deal of good things on offer – from chorizo hash browns to spiced whiting to steaks to rack of pork – once you're past the small-plate bit (which I daren't comment on, for fear of boring myself I've banged on about it so much).

Me, I'm in the restaurant bit, about to plunge a steak knife into today's special, a 6oz fillet with Béarnaise sauce, thin-cut crisps and a cursory grilled tomato (£25).

Scores: 1-3 stay home and cook, 4 needs help, 5 does the job, 6 flashes of promise, 7 good, 8 special, can't wait to go back, 9-10 as good as it gets The Riding House Café, 43-51 Great Titchfield Street, London W1, tel: 020 7927 0840.

Riding House Café, London W1, restaurant review - Telegraph

Apart from being handily positioned for a chap keen to rebuild his fashion career, possibly as a trainee buyer or third-string cutter, this is as achingly voguish a joint as has opened in town in a while.

Everything about it – from the breakfast-until-late opening hours, via a dreadlocked manager who reminded us of the ultra-cool French tennis star Yannick Noah, to the menu – screams “strike a pose”.

For all that, the room buzzes seductively and feels as fashionable as a menu dominated, although not monopolised, by that restaurant fad du jour, the small plate.

Several of the best meals I’ve eaten in the past year, most memorably at the nearby Polpetto, involved a large sequence of small plates and, but for a couple of misfires, this one would have been in the same league.

Superfoods – and some reservations about a large plate of spiced whiting that shrugged off the attentions of chilli oil to taste primarily of cardboard – aside, all else ranged from the good to the excellent.

Restaurant: The Riding House Cafe, London W1 | Life and style ...

As I've said before, eating out is like a mild, benign form of adultery towards your own cooking, and small plates are part of that.

Answer: a restaurant such as the very on-trend Riding House Cafe, round the back of Broadcasting House near Oxford Street.

You don't have to have the notorious small plates – there are normal-sized mains, and a choice of steaks, another very 2011 trend – but, if you do, you'll encounter the pleasant fact that the plates cost £3-£5.

On the other hand, salt cod fritters really did taste of salt cod (they're often mainly spud) and came with a lively aïoli, and the only pudding we could manage, a rhubarb and raspberry fool, was a mess – but in a good way, like an Eton mess, a large, fruity meringue in a glass that crunched together when you stuck in your fork.

It would be great, as the small plate fashion rolls inexorably on, if everywhere that joins the bandwagon does so as professionally as the Riding House Cafe.

Riding House Café | Restaurants in Fitzrovia, London

Riding House Café really does have a bit of everything.

You can sit at individual settings, or on the grand candelabra-lit communal dining table; in the more secluded dining room, or on low chairs in the lounge – or soak up the action at the buzzing bar.

You could drink a coffee, a pre-dinner cocktail, a Riding House mocktail, something from the wide-ranging wine list, or a beer.

You might eat full-sized brasserie dinners, tapas-like sharing plates, or bar snacks.

The cocktails, on the other hand, are creative concoctions topped with mini salad sculptures.