REVIEW: Bonhams Restaurant, New Bond Street, Mayfair

Unique dining experiences are all the rage these days. Whether it be dining 100ft in the sky, at the top of a sky scraper, in a weird and whacky fortress such as Sketch in London – or in this case inside one of the worlds most exclusive auction houses – Bonhams. Bonhams Restaurant will be turning one year old shortly and in such a short space of time the restaurant and its head chef, Tom Kemble have done the impossible and been awarded One Michelin star. Tom (a history of art graduate) has got bags of experience under his apron –  having previously worked at Michelin star-studded establishments such as Faviken in Sweden and Hedone in London – more than one reason why I got excited. The entrance to the restaurant isn’t through the main auction house, but on a great sounding slip road round the corner called, Haunch of Venison Yard.

We dined here at Bonhams Restaurant on a Thursday evening when they host a supperclub dinner of five courses priced at £50pp. Thursday is the only evening the restaurant opens, otherwise you’ll have to visit for lunch only. Apparently the dining room here is rather new, designed by architects Lifschutz Davidson and titled “sleek” in its design. Personally however I think the room feels cold, sterile and with far too much brushed metal around – it’s all very reminiscent of the 1990’s dining scene and for a restaurant which just received a Michelin star, the room needs to up its game. To start our supperclub journey we tucked in to a gorgeous selection of snacks and our first course – Cornish crab with cauliflower, curried bisque foam, pistachio and quinoa crisp. A lovely sweet and refined medley of flavours which while tasty, it wasn’t particularly exciting.

A solid offering here at Bonhams Restaurant was the slow cooked Burford brown egg with charred sweetcorn and roast chicken juices. I’ll be honest and get it out there now – I’m not a huge fan of egg dishes. It’s not that I don’t like eggs, quite the opposite – I just find more often than not dishes made with them are incredibly underwhelming. Untill now that is. The egg itself was beautifully cooked, soft in the middle and with not an ounce of snotty albumen lurking. The charred sweetcorn was simply heavenly and the chicken juices muddle amongst piles of soft mushrooms meant for a plate of food which has converted me into a slow cooked egg lover – the crunchy golden crisp crumb may have helped a little too.

All that deliciousness being said, one dish rather disappointed me – in the form of a slightly messy plate of juniper smoked Highland grouse with Amandine potatoes, blackberries & elderberries. The dish was by no means a bad plate of food, but neither was it particularly memorable. The grouse was perfectly nice, strong in flavour as it should be but the texture wasn’t as soft as I’d have hoped. The sauce on the other hand had a good depth of flavour, with all those berries bringing a nice mix of sweet and sour. The biggest disappointment on the plate was the Amandine potatoes which are essentially a posher breed of the new potato, but with an incredibly bland flavour. Why would you serve such a dull potato with a plate of otherwise very nice tasting food? If I’m coming for a memorable dinner, I want to remember it for all the right reasons and not for the wrong ones – which is sadly how I parted with this dish.

Dessert was a very neatly sliced egg custard tart with a damson and plum sauce – it looked picture perfect. As far as custard tarts go, I’ve had better in my time but this was still very accomplished. The tart was incredibly well made, had a good texture, a very good wobble and sat on a lovely rich base. The damson and plum puree was the sort of stuff you’d want to jar and take home – but sadly that’s not an option. This was certainly the highlight of my visit to Bonhams Restaurant and one you should all order if it happens to ever pop back on the menu.

We finished up our meal with some very nice caramel truffles and more dessert wine than we needed. In fact our meal at Bonhams Restaurant was mostly very nice – but something about the whole experience was a little lacking. While parts of our meal were spectacular, others seemed far too safe and a little restrained. Would I come back to Bonhams Restaurant? Yes, but probably not of my own choice, nor at the expense of my own wallet.

7/10