Kensington Place

Visit Kensington Place, a seafood restaurant in the heart of London's Notting Hill.

Kensington Place | Restaurant In Notting Hill | D&D London

http://www.kensingtonplace-restaurant.co.uk

Restaurant Review: Parabola at The Design Museum in Kensington

Alexander Larman follows Rowley Leigh’s legendary British cuisine to the new Parabola restaurant at The Design Museum in Kensington Anyone who visited Kensington Place in the Nineties or Noughties, or indeed Le Café Anglais, is likely to smile and speak nostalgically about Rowley Leigh’s cooking.

Leigh has forged one of the most interesting careers of any chef working today, combining culinary brilliance, literate menus and a wry sense of chuckling at life’s absurdities.

Leigh’s evening menu is concise, well priced (four courses for £45, or individually priced) and plays to all of his considerable strengths.

Leigh’s previous restaurants were notable for their excellent wine lists, and Parabola is no exception.

Cost Dinner for two around £120 Good for Sampling one of England’s best chefs cooking in a fine setting What to eat Leigh’s pasta dishes are some of the best that you’ll try outside Italy What to know Out of hours, the restaurant is normally accessed by a lift at the building’s side

Kensington Place restaurant review 2010 February London | British ...

With its striking, cavernous open space with picture windows, and dishes later regarded as classics like its scallops with pea puree, this was a pioneer amongst British cooking when it opened in 1987.

This was very good, the pasta perhaps a little soft in texture, but the Puy lentils cooked well, and the pheasant tasty and decently seasoned (14/20); the portion size was on the modest side, as was the case with the soup.

Sea bream was of good quality and carefully timed, served with excellent Charlotte potatoes, and a smear of enjoyable Bordelaise sauce, made from red wine, bone marrow and (according to the menu) truffle.

This was a successful dish, the fish tasting good, the sauce having reasonably good flavour, the potatoes a pleasing texture, though the celeriac was a little unusual, being neither puree nor regular celeriac, but something in between (14/20).

The rhubarb itself was good, though the financiere were a little dry, but the problem was with the ice cream, which had good taste but a grainy texture.

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Parabola restaurant review: Designs on a new direction | London ...

The building’s redesign also incorporated a top-floor restaurant, by Universal Design Studio, a handsome long hall, with an open kitchen at one end, the bar at the other, with tall windows on both sides looking out one way over the lime trees to Holland Park, the other back into the museum.

The Design Museum’s restaurants are run by Prescott & Conran — the museum ultimately owes its entire existence to the lifelong commitment to both design and restaurants of Sir Terence Conran — and it began operating with a staff chef in the daytime but also a series of “guest residencies” by favoured stars including Rowley Leigh, Shaun Hill and Valentine Warner, mainly contributing to the evening menus.

There was great food there — those pike boudins, those parmesan custards with anchovy toast — yet it never had the Kensington Place buzz.

There was also the fact that Leigh believes very much in the unhurried lunch, a lunch so leisurely few busy Londoners can contrive it these days.

From the menu, prawn, cuttlefish, red pepper and lentils (£11) was a cold salad, the lentils in a sweetish vinaigrette, the prawns apparently substituted by crayfish, the cuttlefish nothing special, some strips of soft pepper over-perked up with flashes of chilli.

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Wild Honey, off Hanover Square This tiny restaurant just opposite St George’s Hanover Square serves thoughtful seasonal food - try the delicious rabbit pork and apricot terrine - and has a wine list so impressive you wonder where they keep it all.

Contact: 020 7758 9160, Honey A tiny restaurant just opposite St George’s Hanover Square that serves thoughtful seasonal food - try the delicious rabbit pork and apricot terrine - and it has a wine list so impressive you wonder where they keep it all.

St Martin’s converted its 18th-century crypt into a cafeteria-style restaurant some years ago – it feels almost like a gallery café – and does hearty English food: proper teas, big breakfasts and nice soup-and-a-roll options.

Coq d’Argent Restaurateurs D&D know their market and this rooftop restaurant, bar and brasserie on top of James Stirling’s pink-and-terracotta striped building, No 1 Poultry (you can’t miss it; it looks like a Frazzle) does classic French food during the week, but relaxes with jazz and brunch at weekends.

The restaurant serves modern European food, with Asian accents – there’s an Asian feel to the surroundings, too, lots of sleek wood and exotic flowers – but does a three-course lunch menu for £19.95 and one of the best value hotel teas in London at £15.95.

Kensington Place | Restaurants in Kensington, London

‘Holy the sea’ says a wall-mounted slogan at this landmark establishment, and it’s clear from the bright, colourful interior design – heavy on the piscine motifs and maritime paraphernalia – that fish is the religion of the rejuvenated Kensington Place.

These might be grilled and served with a raucous beurre noisette or a smoky sauce vierge, heavy on the capers.

On recent visits, we’ve been particularly taken with the sea bream and the lemon sole, teamed with triple-cooked chips and a pichet of blanc.

True to theme, the water is served in fish-shaped jugs, which glug rewardingly every time you pour.

KP also contains a pleasant bar: a fine place to cradle a tawny port after an epic seafood session.