Crescent House
Above: Crescent House in Tavistock Crescent, W11
The most ambitious restaurant to open in the area for some time is Crescent House, on the site of the Mother Black Cap in Tavistock Crescent, next to what long-time residents of the area still call Muggers’ Bridge.
I remember the building as the Frog and Firkin, where bus loads of students from the Warwick University Real Ale Society would turn up on a Friday night, drink copious quantities of Dogbolter, sing a few drunken choruses of American Pie and – inevitably – throw up on the pavement before staggering back onto the coach.
Had you told me back then that it would become a stylish restaurant serving Dover sole at £22.50, I would have sputtered into my pint.
The restaurant is upstairs: downstairs is a slightly less formal bar/restaurant (although the rather stiff staff still wear ties) with a nice garden. Upstairs is dominated by a huge moose head: when I arrived for dinner, he was the only other occupant of the somewhat funereal room.
The moose-oleum (sorry) livened up a bit with the arrival of the food, from an ambitious – and ambitiously priced – menu.
Starters hover around £10, mains around £20, and luxury ingredients like scallops, girolles, foie gras and wild sea bass pepper the list, with white truffle and summer truffle featuring in four out of ten dishes. I cannot see the point of serving white truffle, presumably in its oily form, at this time of year, and I cannot see the point in serving summer truffle at all: it is a pale shadow of truffle, all grit and no perfume. Perhaps the chef’s idea was to live up to his ‘summer’ menu: otherwise, the carte had a distinctly autumnal feel about it.
Anyway, the food was very good, especially slow-cooked pork belly, which was properly sticky and offset nicely with girolles and a cauliflower purée: the kitchen is fond of smooth, baby food-like purées, with comma-shaped variations turning up on several plates.
My main course – fillet of beef with shallot purée, tomato fondue and a herb potato galette – featured beef that was (even for fillet) light in flavour, but correctly cooked and harmoniously partnered. Duck breast, this time with carrot purée, was equally accomplished. There is clearly a talented chef at the helm.
Cheeses were good, and the wine list sensibly arranged and not overpriced, but I wonder – even in the upwardly-mobile hinterlands of Westbourne Park – whether Crescent House’s upmarket leap will be rewarded with scores of loyal diners. I hope so.
I went back a few days later for lunch: the bar menu features some excellent, robust British food at reasonable prices. I had a suckling pig sandwich with red onion confit and apples, and jolly good it was, too. It was still served by a chap in a tie, though. ‘Loosen up’ was the phrase that sprang to mind. Bill Knott
Dinner for two, with wine, around £110
Crescent House, 41 Tavistock Crescent, Notting Hill, W11 1AD
020 7727 9250