Dabbous

Delicious, inventive dishes cooked perfectly and presented beautifully, all served by friendly and attentive staff. Beef tartar and coddled egg were excellent, halibut with beetroot (with ingenious reductions) and barbecued lamb with runner beans & crushed acorns (yes, really) were very good indeed. The chocolate & hazelnut ganache dessert was very cleverly presented, and together with the custard cream, tasted just as good as they looked. Iced lovage isn't something you see everyday but is fresh and zingy and was a marvellous palate cleanser. Couldn't have a decent go at the wine list unfortunately (weekday lunchtime) but the malbec served by the carafe (half-bottle) was smooth, rich and made me wish I could have cancelled my afternoon meetings. Really liked the industrial pared-back decor and the atmosphere was buzzy despite the small number of tables – all-in-all a great experience. So much so that we immediately booked for the next available dinner slot – that'll be August then (so we're clearly not the only ones who think this place is really good!).

We went to this new restaurant a few weeks ago and it far exceeded our expectations. Service was exceptional. The food just fantastic and more importantly different and original. You have to try the pork, the coddled egg and the truffle mash…in fact try everything. We will be going back again and again. Thank you for a great experience

Basement bars are always difficult to get right, as there is little chance of passing trade. Dabbous is a wonderful bar, with a restaurant attached. I'm sure that's not the way it would want to be known, but, whilst the food is good, it is the fabulous cocktails whisked up in the basement that will get me back.

Whilst the upstairs dinning room is white and airy, the basement is an industrial bunker: exposed air conditioning ducts, bare concrete and metal (the loo is secreted away behind a wall of steel, marked by an almost hidden sign). The cocktails are terrific and inventive: the glass for the Accomplice comes rubbed with a sage leaf, the Thriller in Perilla has a shiso (perilla) leaf poking out of it and Cat Diesel is a rum based short, heightened with cigar syrup. On its own, the syrup is just another sweetener. When mixed with rum and egg white, the rich tobacco flavours come to the fore.

The restaurant is perfectly pleasant, without being outstanding. The chef (and owner) is ex-Texture, and it shows; the style being very modern and light. Small plates, lots of flavours, lots of interesting ingredients. Plates are all pretty as pictures. Jackson Pollock ones mainly. It is all well presented and well structured, without ever really being outstanding.

The menu structure is very a la mode, with a list of starters and mains, but no real differentiation. We were encouraged to take four or five of these, mixing and matching between the two lists, so between us we managed to go through most of the menu. And this really adds up: at an average of £11/12 a dish (and there is little difference either in cost or size of the starter/main dish), this can mount rapidly.

Steak tartar (with more cigar flavours, this time oil) was a lovely mouthful of meat. The fab egg was a hollowed out shell, restuffed with the yolk and a few mushrooms, nestling in a bed of hay, no doubt intended to invoke thoughts of the farmyard. Goose was terrific: a thin slice of breast, sweetened with Manuka honey; the lovely, sweet scallop came with a perfect quarter of Jerusalem artichoke and the Iberian pork slice with some turnip tops. Celeriac wasn’t such a hit; decried as being too watery.

Deserts were very pleasant: fig ice cream came with a twig which, whilst resembling a vanilla pod, was spun sugar, coloured with squid ink; a chocolate and moss number; some nice cheeses.

That the stand out dish was the mashed potato sums up everything really: ok, it was covered in sliced truffle, but it is still a spud. Inventive use of interesting ingredients is all very commendable, but they need to be very much more than the sum of their parts, not just being used as they are outlandish.

The wine list is short and priced well at the mid-range, although oddly contains no non-sparkling roses. They don't serve tap water as “it doesn't taste good”. Rubbish; London tap water is perfectly fine. At least they don't charge for the mineral water. But still.

Service is friendly, although the lovely waitress in towering heels isn't going to survive long on them. The place has only been open for a week. I'd give her no more than another one max before she's in flats. It would have been nice too to have been told straight out that their credit card machine was down. That it was left to the end of the meal is daft: fortunately one of us had a cheque book. I wonder what they'd have done had we not?

Given location, it is hardly surprising that the crowd feels very media, and I'm guessing it will be a great expense account lunch place for the offices around. I really hope that the restaurant fairs well, but as well as the mess with no credit cards, it was incredibly difficult to book. It took half a dozen phone calls and an email. I was persistent, as I really did want to try it. Others won't be.

Went to Dabbous for dinner last night. The food was absolutely exquisite, the service was fantastic – very friendly and attentive. All in all we had a fabulous evening. The pork, the coddled egg, the beef tartare and the crab were real highlights.

I was really really impressed with this new restaurant and also the bar. Having been following the press in the build up I was fortunate to get a table in the first week. The tasting menu was superb, particularly the Iberico pork – have I ever tasted food as good as that? Questionable! One other thing that I was unusually impressed with was the quality of the house wine, particularly the white Spanish verdejo.

The service was very relaxed and friendly and I am itching to go back.

Great new restaurant… Basement bar was spacious, lively and friendly with a fantastic and very original coctail list. Had the tasting menu in the ground floor restaurant which was good value with well matched tasting wines.. Food both light and very fresh with innovative dishes that I've not seen elsewhere. Will definately return.

A great restaurant, sure to be a hit in this buzzing part of town. Great food and a fantastic bar, the decor is on trend, natural yet industrial at the same time. Cocktails are excellent, particularly dillusion, very fresh. The food is original, the tasting menu was fresh and original. Will return very soon.