Pollen Street Social

Judging by all the previous reviews, I must have had a bad experience. We started in the bar which was great, good cocktails and fantastic service. In the restaurant however, while the service was very good, the food was disappointing. My group have done a number of the tasting menus around London and this really lacked the wow factor. My crab starter hadn't been properly de-shelled and every other course seemed to have a serious lack of seasoning, barring my friend’s duck which appeared to have been seasoned for everyone and was ludicrously salty. I also tried the other main course option which was lamb, liberally sprinkled in cumin which was also underwhelming. The only reason I rated the service as 8 and not higher is because the waiter seemed totally unprepared for my “not good” response to his question of “how was it?” At £220 a head (we had some good wine) it was not a patch on Le Gavroche or Hibiscus – the 2 previous tasting menus we had.

Superlative. Thoroughly enjoyed the dining experience with every detail taken into account with friendly and efficient service. Delivious cooked food with a twist and some nice twists. Would definitely go back. Ordered the lightly cured salmon and the Black Angus Rib Eye, smoked potatoes, charred egg plant – delicious. Good buzzy informal atmosphere. Most people were dressed for business but it really wasnt that stuffy a place. Look forward to my next visit. Pretty faultless all round.

One of the best restaurants in London!

Being a Londoner, I find myself very spoiled with the choices of restaurants in this city. We really do have a great selection. That said, Pollen Street Social really stood out by far.

My boyfriend and I went there last Friday night on a recommendation from a colleague. We go out for dinner a lot and therefore not that easily wowed. This time we were. The whole experience was just very impressive. The staff were very friendly and knowledgable and not in the least bit pretentious as they are in some other fine dining restaurants. We decided to skip the bottle of wine and went on the sommelier's recommendations to match the wine with each item of food we ordered from the menu. My boyfriend had the English Breakfast as a starter and he said it was just incredible. I had the cauliflower and squid and that was amazing as well. For the mains he went with the duck and I had the cod. The explosions of taste in the mouth was such a great experience. Don't get discouraged by the small portion sizes. The food is very rich and by the end you are full. We both had desert but chose to eat our deserts at the desert bar. I would highly recommend this. You get to talk to the pastry chefs and watch them in action. It's such an interesting experience. They really take the time to explain everything and answer all questions. You can tell just how passionate they are about food.

The restaurant is loud and buzzing. You can see the chefs in action as there is a glass door which leads to the open kitchen. Each dish is made indiviually to order so no mass production takes place. The decor is very cool. Very bright but it suits the buzz of the place.

This is the first solo venure of John Atherton, the head chef who used to work for Gordan Ramsey. He's really managed to get his first solo project completely right. To create a restaurant were everything is impressive, from friendliness and knowledgeability of the staff to the amazing food is very imperssive indeed. You don't get just a dinner at Pollen Street Social, but you get an incredible experience. For food lovers, this is a must!

I feel rather late to the party with this: everyone has reviewed Pollen Street Social and, given most of them have enjoyed the experience, I did wonder what I can add, but never one to let that deter me here goes!

It’s wonderfully simply decorated; for once the designers don’t seem to have gone over the top – cream walls, wood floors and those wonderful fish bowl lights that look like they’ve come from a 50’s sci-fi film.

The staff are fantastic, they seem to know and understand everything that is on the menu, get on with delivering with a minimum of fuss or intrusion and things arrive as expected without confusion. When one dish was sent back on account of it’s having truffles, undocumented on the menu and unwanted by one of our party, there wasn’t a second of difficulty.

The atmosphere is buzzy – some might say loud – and that’s probably the biggest downside of the whole experience. Tables are too closely packed and too many hard surfaces give lots of reflected noise – still I did learn how to negotiate a business deal in India via the table next door – so not all bad as long as I ever find myself doing business in India! Personally I’d rather they took out 10% of the tables and added 10% to the prices – they’d not lose out by doing it and the experience would be just a bit nicer.

But the key to dining out is really the food and that didn’t disappoint. The evening we went Jason Atherton himself was in the kitchen – a bit of a novelty for anywhere with a ‘celebrity’ chef as I think I’ve probably been in one of Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants more recently than he has been, but a very pleasant one.

I started, after the usual round of bread, pre starters (which are a slightly curious mix, tasty, but hard to deal with e.g. the lightest pork scratchings ever) with Jerusalem artichoke velouté, celeriac, chanterelles, wet walnuts (and those undocumented truffles) – it was fantastic, light and with every single flavour being distinct but working together rather than overwhelming each other. This was followed by Atlantic halibut “bourguignon”, bacon, mushrooms, onion, red wine – a slight mis-description given the onion was a shallot and the bacon was more akin to pork belly, a crisp, fatty square of heaven – but absolutely fantastic; often fish, even in Michelin starred restaurants, can be bland but here it was a star attraction. Dessert was White chocolate and coconut panacotta with mango, pistachio oil and lemongrass granita – again a whole mass of flavours but each one discernable and distinctive.

Value for money was perfectly reasonable – roughly £90 per head for 3 courses, wine, water, service and a drink to start. Would I return – yes 100%; it's fantastic food and service and not fussy, precious or obsessed with how clever it is – just please take a few tables out!

Really loved Pollen Street Social. Very friendly welcome whilst he had a drink at the bar. A bit nervous that we would be rushed through dinner as we were quickly moved to the table but that was not to be the case. Service was attentive without being in your face. Sommelier was excellent and knew her stuff. Cant beat English breakfast anytime of the day, esp as a starter!! The Red Mullet and paella rice was superb. Great atmosphere and very good value for the quality of the food.

This truly did not disappoint. Fabulous, friendly and knowledgable service throughout and a menu that makes you want to go again just to try the dishes you missed first time round. Pricey? Maybe, but value for money? most definitely.

I can see why Pollen Street won SM's Restaurant of the Year Award. The atmosphere inside couldn't be more of a contrast with its tiny, quiet, Victorian novel, blink and you'll miss it side street setting: contemporary, clean lines dominate everything from the seating arrangements to waiters' outfits; it's positively alive, humming with buzzy chat; cool, without being “cool”. We all had the feeling that this was THE place to be. Food really lived up to expectations: I tentatively tried the ox cheek & tongue which has now banished all childhood memories of greying, chewy cuts, being instead tender, melt-in-the-mouth beefy-ness with well thought through flavours in the accompaniments; the boys looked very happy with the kilo of beef they shared (and I'll get a second third opinion on that from The Dog when she gets the leftovers today); starters didn't blow us away but the tiramisu with rich hot chocolate got a chorus of Oohs from all 3 boys! The little extras let you know you're in a place which is still “high dining” (absolutely delicious and original amuse bouches/palate cleansers/petit fours) with a wine list which was a slightly intimidating tome. It was good to see The Man Himself in the kitchen, behind a glass wall like a man in a zoo, checking all the dishes and, charmingly, shaking many hands who came in to see him up close. Service was generally good although a bit absent and cool at times; I prefer the smiley approach of the sommelier lady and the man who takes your money, but perhaps that reflects on their jobs. At £70 a head for 3 courses, bottle of mid-price wine, drink before and after, I think it was good value for a night of fine dining. They are going to need to work hard on maintaining the informal feel which is the restaurant's purported raison d'etre as there are small signs (credit card required for booking plus follow up calls, we need your table back by 10.30pm stuff, occasional cool service etc) that it could start getting a little too big for its boots, but for the moment, those boots are very big.

Given some of the comments below, I was expecting a frosty reception on a cold November lunchtime, but nothing could have been further from the truth. The reception, the service and indeed the room were all warm.

The restaurant is approached through a lovely looking bar area and has a mixture of modern art on the walls and those intricate light bulbs found dangling from the ceiling in Spuntino and the like, only here encased in glass fish bowls, rather than left bare, faux industrial chic like. Fortunately there is no muzac, and the buzz from the all but full restaurant worked well. I can imagine that late of an evening, however, the noise level (aided by hard wood floors and minimalist walls) could rise to annoying for romantic tables a deux.

Seating is either banquette style around the sides, or a couple of awkward tables in the middle of the room, next to the service counter. Alas, it was on one of these latter tables that we were sat, too close to the champagne bucket as is decent without a straw. Not the greatest table in the house, but it did afford one of us a great view of the kitchen and the other a table of lunching ladies, all fur and jodhpurs, who decamped on masse to the kitchen to have their photos taken with Jason. Fun for them (and him, I am sure), but not so convenient for the waiting staff, all of whom have to get the nod from the great man before a plate leaves the kitchen.

This seems to be a bit of a thing here, like allowing passengers to go into the cockpit to see the pilot (pre 11/9 that is): there was a succession of punters going in to see the chefs at work. How much cooking JA actually got done is hard to tell, as he seemed as much interested with glad handing as he did with setting to at the stove. He was at least there though, which is more than can be said for most Name Chefs.

Having been sat next to the champagne bucket, our white wine was placed by the wall, too far away to discretely nip over and get when the service of this was slow. I have had my gripes before about wine service; it annoys the hell out of me when it arrives after the meal has started. Here the wine arrived, as it should, in time for a little snifter before the food turned up. Then it sort of disappeared. Either leave it on (or near enough to) the table so that I can serve myself, or make sure that you keep an eye on the flow. You don’t have to top it up after every sip, but don’t let the glass go dry.

This is but a trifle annoyance with the service, which was otherwise excellent throughout.

The menu has both a la carte and a set lunch which, should you be there at the right hour, is by far the best way to go: three courses for less than the price of all but a couple of the a la carte mains. All the dishes we tried were lovely: slow cooked egg yolk with smoked haddock and curried puff rice (sort of reinvented kedgeree) had a good combination of flavours, and an added crunch from the curried rice krispies. Ham hock terrine was enlivened with some beans and piccalilli and had a rich streak of foie gras running through it.

Mains too kept up the high standard. Cod came with squid and some pesto spuds which was a terrific combination. I’d never have thought of partridge with bolognaise, but it worked supremely well; rich tasting partridge and a deep reduction of bolognaise, set off with a thick smear of carrot puree. Say what you like about the man, but JA is not afraid of bold tastes. So the bread sauce mousse that came with the partridge might not have worked, but didn’t amount to a total disaster.

Whilst the wine list verges on the serious, there are some good wines in the £30-40 level and, when combined with the set lunch menu, you can get an excellent meal for less than you’d imagine.

As a nod to the ladies what lunch brigade, there is also a special stool provided for hand bags. Whilst the Victoria Tote may look splendid on this, nobody batted an eyelid about the sweaty gym bag we deposited, just to try it out. Maybe when we come back, we’ll put something a bit more befitting on it.

Very good food !

Went on a Monday for dinner. Monday must be chef's' night out (James Martin and AW-T both there). Jason Atherton was in the kitchen. Can't say better than that really.

You can summarise this restaurant in one word… fake. Sure, I love the venue, the ambiance, the lighting and even the fashionable clientele. What fails is both the food and service which can only be likened to fast-food haute cuisine, Mc Atherton’s maybe? We waited 30 minutes for the staff to take our order, yet once ordered the first dishes arrived in less than 3 minutes and was poorly assembled. Both the starter and main courses were far over seasoned, to an extent we had to send one dish back. The waiting staff also resembled those from a fast-food chain; one had the ambition to get the meal over as soon as possible, the other so excited by his new role he offered us bread 5 times. The sommelier we had was simply uneducated and amateur and failed to provide any inspiration. So, if you want a restaurant that’s all hype, glamour and glitz, yet you’ve no interest in exceptional food, Mc Atherton’s is the place for you… Jason, get back into Gordon’s shadow.

This beautiful, contemporary space – roomy bar adjoining a comfortable but modern dining area – is a first-rate addition to the London dining scene. And that’s even before the food arrives. Lively, well located and hitting the right price points, this is understandably popular but it is the food that plays centre stage, with bells and whistles aplenty and flavours that mock other diners of similar standing. Escabeche of quail, chicken liver cream, nuts & seeds had a moreish opulence while the richness of a scallop ceviche with cucumber & radish was cut through by a searingly fresh yuzu soy dressing that added zingy intensity. A tomato gazpacho pre-starter was pretty as a picture and simply delicious. Roasted halibut was soft juicy and yielding and came with a Catalan paella which was broodingly earthy and exquisitely rich too. And by all accounts the lunchtime set menu is a deliciously flavoured bargain, too.

Service is efficient and well informed – hardly surprising when the sommelier and maitre d’ have come with Jason from Maze.

Good private dining room in basement. One caveat: hard-edged glass frontage and no ‘soft furnishings’ means noise bounces off the walls and will prove painful for the hard-of-hearing.

This is a very cool place, i loved the fact you could eat really inventive food with great service with out all the fuss typical of fine dining places, loved it cant wait to go back

Well obviously we were excited to be going to Jason Atherton’s recently opened restaurant, the amount of media hype, rave reviews and our own love both Maze and Maze Grill, first impression were astounding, a lovely space and a menu that seemed to combine the best of Maze and the Grill.

The menu seemed to be spawned from Jason’s recent past restaurants, which was no bad thing. Having read the reviews here and reading the restaurant’s own web site we asked about how many starters we should have and about making them into a tasting menu as the menu itself suggested, however we were told that they were really a traditional restaurant and that we should have a starter and main only.

So we plumped for the full English and the foie gras, for starters. The full English consist of a poached egg yolk, which to be fair was super yummy, with a tiny bit of bacon on top and a little mushroom and tomato puree but due to its lack of size was gone in less than two spoonfuls. The foie was a little more generous, two nice slices of foie pate with toast, a safe but perhaps boring choice.

For mains we had halibut with paella, which was by far the highlight of the evening, a succulent moist piece of fish, and the paella was perfect and an absolutely gorgeous seafood flavour. I myself went for a steak with duck fat chips and salad. As steaks go it wasn’t bad and nearly as good as Gaucho.

Desserts started with disappointment, with all the “you must visit the dessert bar” talk prior to our visit we thought this would be an interesting take or twist on serving desserts. But given how it has 6 seats and the restaurant has 100+ covers at a guess, it is never going to work as planned. So we were given dessert menus at table and both opted for the cheesecake, which was served with a cheffy take, the cheese topping in a long square strip on the plate with the biscuit ‘base’ crumbled around it. A good taste but I would have preferred it served in a more traditional style.

Whilst dining we were however a little perplexed as to quite what it was that the restaurant was trying to achieve in terms of style, but looking at the restaurant’s web site now it describes itself as “A contemporary bistro offering deformalised fine dining” which I think they failed to pull off. The menu varied from deconstructed English breakfast, 60c poaching to steak and chips, I think it was a little too eclectic trying to merge the high end dining with bistro dining. While I originally said the menu seemed to be born of Maze and Maze Grill it was unfortunately proved to be in an illegitimate back stairs sort of way. The mains were all served with an array of unneeded props, for a bistro, my 9 chips were served in a small silver vase, the steak on a bread board and salad in a bowl, nothing actually arrived on the plate! Similarly the paella was served in a small copper pan, which might have its place in a fine dining restaurant but not a bistro. Not only that but the tables aren’t huge so with all the paraphernalia on the table there isn’t a lot of room for anything else.

The petit fours was a similarly over the top kind of affair, that would have been at home in a fine dining restaurant but in the confines of the “contemporary bistro” was again a little stuffy and out of place. After at least three waiters coming and going from the table to nudge plates and moving bottles away from the table a huge cantilevered box turned up full of chocolates, a large tray was placed on the large cleared area in the middle of the table, my greedy gene was twitching wildly at this point but that was brought to quick arrest as a tiny platter was placed on the tray. Chocolates were then put onto the platter, a few put back in a taken out again as the waiter apologised as he “struggled with the light” and the identity of the chocolates. Incidentally petit fours (£4) weren’t offered when coffee orders were taken, it was only when we remembered to ask for them having seen them listed on the dessert menu.

The Pollen street social tried its best to be the best of both of fine dining and bistro experience, but unfortunately failed on both, although did of course succeed on fine dining prices with our meal coming in at £255.95, although £168 was the drinks bill.

Two things caused me the hump on arriving at Pollen Street Social, the new restaurant from Jason Atherton: 1) they had no olives for a martini and 2) we were sat in the naughty corner.

I say naughty corner, it was actually a hidden nook behind the back-slate of another table. The restaurant was less than half full and we’d made our booking over the telephone weeks in advance.

After our martinis (with a twist, no olives!) we were led to the hidden table, away from the dining room and the action. Nothing to look at except a white wall. We asked if we could be moved and to the waiter’s credit he shifted us to another, more central, more ‘sociable’ table. They couldn’t forget about us here.

The menu is split: starters and mains. Nothing abnormal there, but we’re advised to pick from the starters to create a tasting menu. An eclectic splash of sexed-up European ingredients with Asian-inspired twists create posh tosh. Smart tapas. Small plates are divided into cold and ‘warm & hot’. There are 16 plates in total.

They are the kind of plates that proved popular at Atherton’s previous restaurant, Maze, and no doubt include some of the skills he picked up from his period under Ferran Adrià at elBulli, for there are foams and swirls and presentation of the highest.

Fowey oysters are served “hot & cold” in a dish that explores beyond the standard serving of a cold, fresh oyster. It’s a success in as much as it educates you in what can be done with a single ingredient, something you’re used to seeing served with simplicity. Oysters are not easy to improve on. I preferred the ‘hot’ oyster, served in a spiky dashi broth. The cold oyster blended eel and was reformed as a sorbet, clever but not as tasty.

Service remains a work in progress. While the general manager, Michael West (previously of Maze), is charming and top-rate, and head sommelier, Laure Patry (also previously of Maze) is one of the best in the business, some of the staff appeared overwhelmed, one in particular appeared to have entered a couple of feet behind his smile.

I asked for his recommendations, he suggested four plates he felt were most suited, I added, “Can you please include the ‘full English breakfast’ as I’ve heard good things.” His response, sharply, “Well, do you want to pick the rest?” “Erm, no,” I thought, I simply asked for your advice as you work here and I’m about to invest in the region of £200 and someone who I think very highly of suggested that I try the ‘full English breakfast’, so I’d like to order that and as I don’t know the contents of the rest of the menu I’d like you to recommend for me. Capish?

None of that previous sentence I said, but his response seemed aggressive and unnecessary. I think he warmed to me throughout the evening?

The ”Full English breakfast” arrived but it’s not as ‘full’ as you might imagine, more a deconstruction of the Great British ingredients you’d expect. Roasted tomato puree bedded a slow-cooked egg, when pierced, oozed its glowing yolk across the plate. On top was crisped Alsace bacon and all finished with a toasted bread sauce. It’s the kind of dish you expect from Atherton; considered, constructive and amusing, while typically British. We sunk it all down with a Bulgarian Pinot Noir, Edoardo Miroglio, Nova Zagora, 2007 (£35.00), as recommended by Richard Vines.

Scottish halibut was served as Catalan paella in a copper saucepan containing crunchy broccoli, lip-smacking pork-ham fat and a mussel stock. It’s distinctive, a fine mix of fish and pork. Braised Irish ox cheek with tongue & onglet is something else I recognize from Maze, there it was just called ‘tongue in cheek’ served with ginger carrots. Here it’s served with, well, ginger carrots, and raisin purée and horseradish mash. It’s not just the staff Atherton’s taken with him from Maze but dishes too. The horseradish mash was fragrant and light, very different from the mash and bacon at Maze.

For dessert we moved to the Dessert Bar. Yes, a bar solely erected for puddings and sweeties. PSS suddenly becomes ‘social’ and it’s the best part of the restaurant where the staff is of a much higher quality. They are real people: talking, prepping and sharing in conversation with you. Tiramisu is decadent, served with a hot chocolate coffee served in dinky espresso cups, while
“PBJ” Parfait is expertly crafted with cherry jam, creamed rice puffs and peanuts. It’s beautiful and could hang in MoMA.

Dishes prior were plates intended for sharing, but rather amiss. They were all delicious but challenging to share: too small, too formal and too expensive (mains start at £19.50). None of the other tables were sharing or reaching across to pick at plates.

It remains early days and Atherton himself has admitted to a few needed tweaks. Box-up the bar with olives, fill-in that void corner of the restaurant (perhaps with the boxes of olives?) and decide which plates have a future as sharing initiators. Nothing should be altered with Atherton’s cooking however; he’s a chef of the highest quality weaving British, Spanish and Asian nuances with flair to produce some of the tastiest, most vibrant plates you’re likely to find.

After so many hyped up new openings this year, I wasn't sure what to expect at PSS. Maze had been extremely enjoyable so expectations were high yet PSS managed to exceed them to the fullest. First up, the atmosphere at the restaurant was lively and there was a definite buzz about the place. It was busy but service was attentive, and there was lots of background noise from chatting customers. The menu was interesting and varied but what really stood out was the execution. The food was presented beautifully and every element of the dishes was tasty and delicious. It was a treat to the palate! I had the Scottish halibut, Catalan paella, sprouting broccoli, pork-ham fat, mussel stock which was excellent, as was the Traditional English rice pudding, hay ice-cream & lime jelly. Both are highly recommended.

All in all, an extremely enjoyable evening and I look forward to our next visit.

Incredibly terrible acoustics from the low ceiling and hard interiors – we nearly asked to leave after 10 minutes in the dining room. It was beyond deafening! Service was prompt and good but the same could not said of the food. My starter of mackerel came in a small narrow piece of black slate with everything threatening to spill out onto the table. There were too many flavours piled onto the tiny plate so I was not sure what I was meant to be tasting or eating. It was a mish mash of flavours and textures. My main course of black bream was no better. Fish was cooked well but I am struggling to remember what the rest of it was. Many of the starters were in the tapas menu. Not sure why they chose to do tapas – far more exquisite and authentic tapas across the road in Aqua Nueva or Terra Brindisa. On the bright side their wine list was very extensive (but pricey at above £40 for most bottles) and their sommelier was knowledgeable and friendly. Just wish the food matched the quality of the wine list. I am sure it's just early days. But not sure what they can do about the awful acoustics …

Reminds me of why Mr Atherton is so missed at Maze , he's a culinary genious.

The dining room is beautiful, tables not too squashed and really cute touches like a key they give you to hand in when you leave which you exchange for a bag of ‘afternoon tea’ – a tea bag and scone.

Food was as delicious as expected with the squid rissoto proving a real hit for our party (no rice the squid makes the risotto). Mains were equally delicious but the desserts were to die for. Some old faves like a re-incarnation of his PBJ from Maze and some really unqique things like hay ice cream.

delicious – will certainly be returning. It isnt cheap, but worth every penny.

First impressions of the pollen st social were good and I have to say maintained throughout my visit.

The decor is amazing, elegant and contemporary. The attention to detail is fascinating. Check out the bag stands they give you, and the art work scattered around. You feel like you're somewhere very special, very swish without the pretencious feel and crazy mayfair prices.

We were greeted by friendly staff and immediately made to feel at home and relaxed. The atmosphere was very warming and laid back. We had a cocktails, mojitos, to start, delicious and very reasonably priced considering the venue, situation in central London etc.

When seated we were taken through the menu by very friendly and knowledgable staff who were great in advising us re taste and quantity. Likewise the sommelier was equally as helpful and a real asset to the team adding huge value to the experience.

The food was second to none and again very reasonably priced. I could eat the full english breakfast and the lamb every day for the next year and never tire of it!

I highly recommend the PSS for a all round fantastic and fun dining experience. Oh and make sure you check out the weight of the toilet doors, I want one in my house!

Someone much funnier than me described the current phenomena of small plate dining as “50% of the food for 75% of the cost”. I see a more worrying trend… The revival of nouvelle cuisine. Think about it. Austerity budget, mass unrest in Egypt, rising unemployment, strikes, riots and a royal wedding. We're back in 1981. With iPhones.

The menu at Pollen Street Social makes the point heavily. A full two pages of small plates (or starters as I uncoothly call them) followed by 5 or 6 large dishes (or mains, keeping up?). We were told that it was entirely up to us, we could create our own menu. Maybe to go with 3-4 plates to begin, then to either take a main, or a few more small plates, or leave it there should you so wish and have a dessert or two instead. At least so decreed the man in the kitchen in the pre launch PR, but this insouciant attitude doesn't translate to the insistent restaurant staff and anyway, I really can't see anyone going to the bother of getting a table here only to pop in for a light snack. Except maybe the models flocking on the arms of their Mayfair monied rich boys, fairly joyless, overly gussied up rich people who don't really want to eat.

And that brings me, finally, onto the food. A few notable exceptions aside, it was sadly also fairly joyless, overly gussied up, rich and model thin. I wanted so much to like it, but just couldn't find enough to praise. Reading some of the critics and other bloggers who have been already I may be in a minority of one, but while they're preparing the way for the pitter patter of tiny Michelin stars, I spend my life entertaining at these joints, hence the need to know the latest places and I really know what I love, and don't love, about restaurants.

With the air-con off and a hotter than average London early evening outside, we went for some of the lighter plates. Despite being designed for sharing, they're not all designed to share. Fowey Oysters, hot and cold gave us only 2 crustacea, one submerged in a dashi broth, the other blended with eel and reformed as sorbet. An interesting concept, but the lukewarm mushroomy broth took more than it gave the oyster and the sorbet was a small scoop of non event, a slight and subtle briny tone overwritten by the eel. A single scallop, again with the sharing plate!, came with two denuded Jersey royals, their royal skin flayed, crisped and presented on top. The cabbage pesto alongside was interesting, big and bright. The scallop sadly was rubbery and overcooked. Crab salad was bright, sparky and everything a small portion of fresh shredded pearly white meat should be, the thinest slices of pickled daikon (a Japanese radish) gave it crunch and the look of a deconstructed Chinese dumpling and the quality of the meat shone through. The almond and crab sorbet accompanying it was a ferocious own goal, I left most of mine.

The low point came with a miserly pair of emaciated red prawns, sat in a bamboo steamer on a bed of seaweed. a teapot of consomme was poured through the slats of the steamer, the ‘reveal’ coming after we'd eaten the two prawns – a pair of dumplings sat underneath in the rapidly chilling ‘tea’. blitzed fish in odour, scrambled egg in texture, nothing to tell of in taste.

The kitchen almost, almost redeemed itself with the final two dishes. The only two I would go back for from the menu we sampled, a simple onglet steak with a tiny cube of dauphinoise and a platter of smoked foie gras on thin slices of preserved apple with a raisin ‘jam’. Perfectly sourced, perfectly cooked and near as damn it faultless. This was the meal I was looking for from Jason Atherton. It was clever without feeling the need to shout about it, still clearly containing the perfectionist elements and subtle twists, but these supported, surrounded and shouted the quality ingredients that deserved to be centre place, and that we should have been there to enjoy.

A clue about the concept, lies in the title under ‘Social’; the very crux of this new establishment is built upon a foundation of informality and an unpretentious venue and staff serving good drinks and food, much of which is meant for ‘sharing’. God how I bloody hate sharing. I am an only child; I never had to share anything as a kid and I’m not quite certain I am ready for the trauma of having to share anything with anyone as an adult. Especially not my food!

The restaurant is tastefully decorated and although trading on the sociability factor, it does still have an element of fine-dining, both in the décor and the rather formal service. Guests are enjoying Tapas in the bar area as we are seated at our table covered with a delicate linen cloth (fine dining alert!) Our waiter is French and explains things to us a little too quickly which when paired with his otherwise nice accent, was a little too difficult to catch in such quick succession. He volunteers to us that he is ‘very nervous’ and apologises, which was very sweet although he probably didn’t need to reveal his nerves to us.

The menu is a bit strange… half a page of cold starters (or ‘sharing’ plates, as they are referred to) and another half a page with all hot dishes. A very minimal selection of just five main courses with an almighty fail for me who was looking forward to the Turbot with Paella which has now been replaced by Halibut (Boooooooo). Another five dishes are listed under the heading ‘vegetarian; although I was thinking that perhaps they were more side dishes being touted as vegetarian just because they coincidentally were? Per the waiter’s suggestion, we each decide to order three starters each as our meal to get a good selection of different dishes and combinations.

The wait staff circle our table at least 4 times offering us bread; at first, we weren’t entirely sure why but as the meals came out, the reasoning behind the excessive generosity of bread service became apparent. The portions are pretty tiny in some dishes which baffles us as to how and why these dishes could possibly be shared? Luckily none of us were into sharing, but there were some big disappointments with many of the dishes. My ‘Tomato and tomato with vanilla’ was a small bowl of 5 small half slices of different tomatoes at fridge cold temperature (the worst way to serve tomatoes, as you know) with a splodge of tomato pulp and a last minute immersion in ice-cold Gazpacho and no detectable presence of vanilla. It was fine but at £9 you do have higher expectations from a dish like this. Similar icy temperature comments came from those eating the crab and also the smoked foie gras dishes too.

My next dish was the Cauliflower and squid with clear roasted squid juice; The dish was explained to me as a ‘sort of risotto’ but there was no rice present. In principle the dish was absolutely delicious and something I would happily eat again but despite being chosen from the ‘hot’ selection of starters, the dish was rather cold and the squid juice consommé poured over the top was rather like warm, which was a shame. More feedback coming from my fellow diners regarding more ‘colder than necessary’ dishes as well as a rather bizarre concoction entitled ‘Full English Breakfast’ – a ‘deconstructed’ (I HATE that word) dish of egg, which a few lardons and the promise of a ‘fried bread’ sauce… I’m told this dish didn’t hit the spot and when quizzing the waiter, the fried bread sauce was just buttered toast blitzed with milk. So not actually fried then? **sulks**.

My last dish was the a crab salad with almond and crab sorbet and pickled daikon radish. The dish was again far too cold; for those who don’t know why I keep rambling on about cold temperatures is because when food is too cold, the depth of flavours are masked and you cant really pick up on the true and intended taste of the dish. I couldn’t fault the dish flavour-wise, except for a rather unpleasant almond and crab sorbet, the bulk of which remained uneaten on my plate. My friends Mackerel was again ‘fridge-cold’ as she said and not up to it’s best potential but the resounding ‘no-no’ of the evening had to be the ‘Red gambas seaweed tea consommé, dumplings & ginger’. Served on bed of rather pongy seaweed that we were expressly told was inedible (begging the question as to why it was on the dish) on a bamboo steamer with two small prawns, not quite the large gambas I am familiar with, concealing a bowl underneath with two dumplings filled with scallops and mussels. A broth was poured over the top layer (yes, through the bamboo steamer basket and the seaweed) and the smell was so off putting that two of my friends barely touched it.

Rather than retreat to the dessert bar, a novel area that you are moved to after your starters and mains, we retreated to the main bar for another cocktail before heading out to Hix restaurant in Brewer Street for a few more drinks, where shamefully we order several plates of fish and chips with curry sauce as we ended up being rather hungry!

I know we should have stayed for dessert as I have been hearing excellent things about many of the sweet treats on offer but we were a little underwhelmed by the savoury part of the evening, especially as we had all gotten so excited for the big night. I wouldn’t write Pollen Street Social off by any means although attention to detail is a little lacking. People say “Oh but it’s the first day” and “It’s just a soft opening” but we paid full price for dishes that did not deliver as much as they should have and to be honest, I think more restaurants should place extra emphasis on perfecting dishes during opening because that is when the bulk of people come flooding your way. So, I am divided and not sure what I feel about Pollen Street Social right now. I am a huge fan of Jason Atherton, of that there is no doubt and perhaps I will return to the bar for Tapas and cocktails but would probably need to return a little later on in the year when things have settled and I can have another go at getting the best experience for my money.