There’s nothing more exciting than eating at a restaurant whose menu adds the word smoked on to just about every dish – you just know it’s going to be good. Tredwell’s, if you didn’t already know comes hot off the heals of the one, the only – Marcus Wareing (I’m sure he’ll love that little introduction). This time though he’s not in the kitchen, but instead taking a back seat, leaving only his name on the door. Looking after the place is Chantelle Nicholson (GM at Gilbert Scott) and head chef, Andrew Ward. A great team – who have produced some impressive things here already.
And the name you may be wondering, well it’s named after the butler in Agatha Chritstie’s book, The Seven Dials Mystery. Inside its been decked out very well, not mind-blowingly so, but good, very current and bang on trend. Dark walls, low lighting and lots of copper. With seating on the ground floor and a sumptuous bar to perch on, the best seats are still upstairs in the balcony area. Once sat down, drink in hand we started to toil through the HUGE extensive menu. The concept, is one I hate – sharing plates. But, Tredwell’s offer most of their small plates, as large plates too for those who hate the concept as much as me. A meal here isn’t complete until your order their charred bread with chorizo jam. Smoky, full of flavour, a little sweet and darn right delicious.
The smokiness didn’t stop there – it was only the start. Squid, courgette, peppers and bottargo (fish roe) crumb. All the plates we ordered here were of the small size and personally I think you get a lot of food for your buck. This dish actually arrived a little bit cold, but the squid was cooked perfectly, very tender and those grilled sweet red peppers whose juice was dripping over everything left us salivating for more.
The curried lamb sweetbreads was to say the least, a thing of beauty. One mouthful and you’re left dribbling all down your shirt – sexy I know. A strong lamb flavour, juicy, very tender and the curry sauce not letting the side down. The sauce also not overpowering but complimenting the lamb every bit and only made every mouthful a sheer delight to eat. Tredwell’s has had some bad press recently, and I have no clue why – perhaps a certain newspaper critic *cough* *no names* must have been mourning through the loss of taste buds through old age. I’ll stop it now.
Polenta, really – apart from vegetarians who really enjoys it? Well we did after one bite. They looked like potato fries, but these polenta versions were just as good, if not better. Golden in colour, crispy, fluffy inside and seasoned to perfection. Again, smokiness still fluttering around the table, in this guise as a smoked tomato dip. It was a lovely accompaniment. For those of you who long for the potato kind they do offer a sweet potato and skinny fries option.
You’d think this next dish was a large plate looking at it, but again the portion size on these small plates continued to surprise us. Char-grilled chicken with peanut and cucumber cost a mere £5 and was practically giving it away in both terms of value for money, and flavour. The chicken could have been a little more moist but otherwise I couldn’t fault it. The shavings of cucumber on the top were refreshing, the chicken a little smoky, but the real star was that peanut sauce. It was a little like eating chicken satay from your local take out – but one which was ten times better, and with a rocket full of flavour up its backside.
Out of everything we ate here there was one dish which I just didn’t really get. And neither do i think will many of Tredwell’s diners. Avocado and white chocolate, chia and chocolate cornflakes. The dish wasn’t bad, but it was a bit something or nothing. Avocado puree was the base, delicate in flavour and a little sweet – cornflakes were hardly pushing foodie boundaries and the chia element was a bit too tame for me. A dish of the future perhaps but I still don’t think London is quite ready for an almost completely savoury dessert (apart from cheese) – the British do have a very acquired sweet tooth – and I’m no exception.
On comparison the pain perdu with maple cream and crispy bacon was in a completely different ball game. I wouldn’t go as far as saying it was amazing, but it was very enjoyable. Tredwell’s do food very good here and desserts still need a little work, but this can easily be rectified. But on the whole – this may be one of my new favourite restaurants. There were so many dishes to try here and we only got through a tiny section of the menu. Maybe it’s too large, but in the same way it means you can eat here a lot, try new stuff every time and when you finally do try exhaust everything on the menu, it will have probably changed by then. Pre-theatre dinner or not, Tredwell’s is an excellent new addition to the are.
8/10
