REVIEW: Bird of Smithfield, Smithfield Street, Smithfield, London

I absolutely love it when I come across hidden little gems, and yes Bird of Smithfield is one of those. Alan Bird is the head chef/owner here (clue is in the name) and comes from a previous position as former executive chef at The Ivy, the man knows his food. From the outside Bird of Smithfield is quite unassuming, but it’s very attractive as you get a closer and inside it’s rather huge which isn’t expected. Set within an old Georgian townhouse and spread over five floors, it even comes with its own roof terrace which overlooks Smithfield Market. Some of the rooms here are perhaps a little plain and could do with a lick of fresh paint but the dining room upstairs is a lovely hidden retreat, especially come an evening when dimly lit by candle light.

Before heading up to the dining room we spent a good hour downstairs in the bar area, perched up with the bartender. What did we order? Well just about everything, though a few stood out, most notably the Cointreauversial. A delicious blend of Cointreau, Remy Martin, VSOP cognac, apricot brandy, lime, Angostura & Cointreau chocolate. The Chill’ini was also smashing, featuring a good dousing of vodka, fragrant sweet passion fruit juice and a tiny kick of chilli to get the lips tingling. I’m already imagining me sipping on all of these on that roof terrace during the summer.

So what about the food? Well it was quite frankly all rather stunning. Everything was so well cooked, oozed flavour, very colourful and each dish had such a depth of flavour. It’s not fussy either – this is simple cooking, using quality ingredients and attention to detail like nowhere else. We started our meal with one of the best steak tartare’s I’ve ever eaten, mixed with radish, capers and who knows what else, but the intensity and acidity of it all was fantastic. The whole thing was then topped with crispy deep-fried shallots and four confit egg yolks. Just as good was the chargrilled squid with pickled heritage carrots, beats and green sauce. The squid was perfectly cooked and that green sauce was heavenly. I’m not entirely sure what the mix was of, but I’d guess lots of parsley and mint played a key part. Two must order dishes which you shouldn’t miss out on.

And it didn’t stop there. Food here continued to get better and better. I’ve eaten so much steak over the last couple of weeks and so I decided to continue my carnivorous ways and see if Bird of Smithfield’s “market steak of the day” lived up to all my meaty hopes & dreams – which it did. A huge 550g rib-eye was cooked to utter medium-rare perfection, seasoned very well and had a lovely smoky flavour running all the way through it. My bernaise sauce was utterly divine too and even simple things like the field mushroom was banging out flavour, and while a side of fries looked very pale, surprisingly they were still perfectly crisp. Whole lemon sole was again cooked incredibly well, had lots of meaty flesh to it and shimmered in the light from the flickering candles. I’m not a big fan of working around the bones on a fish such as sole but this was well worth the effort – the lashings of butter may have helped too.

Dessert was yet again, dare I say – delicious. Full of all of my favourite flavours and encompassed into one magical bowl of food. They kitchen really needs to work on making this dish less salty – as it was rather intense at some points but that still didn’t detract from just how enjoyable this was. Salted caramel, banana & coconut cake, rum & raisin ice cream – I rest my case.

Bird of Smithfield is magical, enticing, unassuming and utterly delightful. The menu here reads so plainly and ordinary but the food is anything but and head chef & owner, Alan Bird (ex Ivy executive chef) knows exactly what he’s doing here. I’ve read a few negative reviews online from the critics back when it first opened in 2013 and maybe all those three years ago it was all over the place, who knows – but now it’s simply perfect. Bird of Smithfield is a hidden gem and one you should all be seeking out to discover. I can’t wait to come back.

8.5/10