REVIEW: Picture Restaurant, Great Portland Street, Fitzrovia

You should know by now I’m very fussy when it comes to my bread. If a restaurant doesn’t realise that first impressions count, it shouldn’t be in business. Bread, normally is the first thing you encounter when dining. Picture has got it spot on. I wouldn’t go as far as saying the bread was amazing, but it was a very solid offering. Crunchy, full of flavour and fluffy on the inside. A great way to start our meal. That and the fact you can BYOB of wine on a Monday without absolutely no corkage charge – who can resist such a temptation.

The thing I love most about Picture restaurant is that they don’t get silly when it comes to pricing their food. For the six course tasting menu you’ll be leaving with change, because they only charge a mere £35 for it – hows that for a bargain. And they don’t skimp on quality. To start we were served a squash veloute. Very smooth, delicately flavoured, laced with cumin powder and drizzled with a little yogurt. My only complaint would be it could have been a little more seasoned, otherwise a perfect start. Soups and veloute have become my new favourite thing. I often used to completely overlook such dishes when ordering in a restaurant, but I learnt that more times than not you get so much flavour, it’s filling and you get lots of it – mostly for very little money.

Grilled tenderstem broccoli, fresh goats curd, plum tomatoes and capers was a dish which should be the foundations of how to make simple food, taste amazing. I expected a good plate of food, but not this good. The tenderstem was perfectly cooked, had a good bite, crispy around the tops and with some serious smokiness running through it all. Best broccoli ever, yes. Goats curd rounded all the flavours together and left the mouth salivating while the capers brought saltiness. A small, but perfectly formed plate of food.

Most of the dishes here looked stunning. But this shoulder of lamb with merguez sausage, coco beans and tomato, looked less inviting. When it came to flavour though, it wasn’t cutting any corners. The lamb was beautifully cooked, tender and very meaty. The marguez sausage brought overall flavour to the dish, but itself I didn’t quite enjoy. I assume it was slow cooked with the lamb which meat it turned quite soft. A more firm, grilled version would have worked a lot better. This was a dish made for bread. By the time I’d finished with it the plate was spotless.

If things weren’t serious enough already, they threw all the stops out and served us this pan-fried sea bream with puy lentils, fennel, white turnip and dill. Expertly cooked fish which was pristine white, as fresh as a daisy and grilled on one side which gave it a lovely meatiness. The soft puy lentils were perfect for soaking up all the juice on the plate and the streaks of dill flavour running through the dish were lovely. Visually it looked stunning too. A great dish which really showed off some of the talent from the kitchen here.

I’ve actually been to Picture before. About a year ago now and had a two course lunch menu. I remember leaving neither particularly impressed, or dissatisfied. It was a bit ordinary. So a year on seeing a revamped menu and a kitchen going all serious on me was a lovely thing to experience. The 28 day aged beef, curly kale, salsify (doesn’t every restaurant now use this) and red onion. A gorgeous medley of flavours, good tender meat and a nice sweetness on the plate. Oh and the beef ‘bites’ were very sexy.

Picture restaurant was also awarded a Bib Gourmand this year by the Michelin guide. If you didn’t know already Bib Gourmand’s are awarded for excellent value – and very true words they are here. A bargain doesn’t do it justice. I’m a huge sweet tooth fan but this chocolate mouse with banana and peanut butter cream didn’t quite tick all of the boxes for me. I think what Picture needs here, especially in their tasting menu is something that looks, and is more creative. Dessert is always a dish which is the easiest to play with and for a restaurant serving already great food, it would be a good way to raise the bar even more and leave that lasting impression for that final course.

Apart from me wanting more of a surprise from my dessert, the meal here at Picture restaurant was an extremely accomplished one. From when I first came here the food seems worlds apart. And while it’s all very serious in the kitchen, the service is still very personal, relaxed and not one bit stuffy. After a bottle of wine and some good food you can quickly feel at home here. If I hadn’t had to get through my meal at the speed of lighting to meet other plans, I’d have dragged myself to the bar and perched on the end till closing time. When people talk about local restaurants, for locals – I think of Picture. You don’t ever want to leave.

8/10