Dabbous

Outstanding Restaurant

It's probably the most difficult restaurant to book in London but it's worth the fight to get in. The cooking is outstanding, comforting and surprising. The tasting menu is fabulous. It's in a league above most restaurants.

The most overrated restaurant in London

I'd booked this restaurant in August last year and promptly forgot about the reservation until a couple of weeks ago when I started to get excited. It had so many accolades but now, having been there, that leaves me perplexed.

There is a singular lack of atmosphere throughout this abandoned warehouse minimalist design. It feels unfinished and a little disconnected. That permeated the dining room and quite frankly I have never seen so many miserable people all eating dinner in the same restaurant. We were sat right behind the reception desk as well so essentially we had someone's back (and bum) facing us the entire meal – not a great start. We chose the tasting menu though we were told all the dishes even on the a la carte menu were tasting sized…I'm confused, why not then just do a few tasting menus – instead of charging a la carte prices and insisting diners order 6 or so (expensive) dishes? Moving on. My friend asked for wine advice – he had been looking at a Rioja and the Sommelier chose to point him to a totally different type of red (as if all red wines were interchangeable) and eventually said why not go with the original choice.

And then the food arrived.

I can only imagine that Oliver Dabbous has an obsession with nuts because 3 of the 7 dishes had nuts in them and these were not subtle additions. The avocado and lemon balm was overpowered by the pistachios. The infusion was nice but too gentle to compete or make an impression and the avocado seemed like it was just plonked in as an afterthought. Overall, a pointless dish. The roast salsify was equally overpowered by the brazil nuts and by the time we got to the Iberico pork (lovely meat – horrendously walnuty sauce), I had reached my nut quota. The only dishes we liked were the crab which was succulent and the buckwheat waffle with fudge sauce which was nice but utterly uninspired. On first glance this looks like an interesting menu but the flavours do not marry together most of the time and sometimes clash in a way I would expect from someone's first efforts in the kitchen rather than Michelin-starred chef type way.

I can only imagine that it is curiosity that prompts people to visit this restaurant but with the sheer amount of choice in London, there are far better options to pursue.

The Good, The Bad and The Uh Oh

The menu veers from absolute brilliance to complete disasters – to the point where you really wonder if anyone had tasted the food before it went out.

Starting with The Good: The staff are absolutely fantastic – friendly, knowledgeable, never intrusive. Some of the courses (we had to have the tasting menu) were genuinely truly innovative and delicious. It began with the highlight of the meal; a starter of Avocado, in a white onion and Chinese tea broth was utterly incredible. All parts working harmoniously together, flavours jostling for pole position with it being a photo-finish between them all by the time you reach the end of the bowl.

A frozen sorel leaf covered with icing sugar took me back to the 2p flying saucers dished out at the corner sweet shop. Again, interesting both texturally and in taste. A wafer thin layer of crispy pork crackling was delicious (when is it not?), whilst the use of roasted nuts in a couple of dishes worked incredibly well to add another layer of flavours and crunch.

The Bad: Being a table of 8 we HAD to have the tasting menu. Annoyingly most of the things I would have chosen from the a la carte menu were not on this list, and of course, you pay a great deal more. The buckwheat waffle was tasty but it came with creme fraiche and a smoked fudge sauce. The first two elements were hardly ground-breaking though. The third though left an aftertaste of Marlboro! What a shame! Hot fudge sauce would be absolutely delicious – why smoke it? It was totally ruined. Our table would not even finish the mini jugs of sauce we were given (and leaving food for us is unheard of – let alone fudge sauce). Salsify with burnt hay was another miss. Fairly tasteless apart from the roasted brazil nuts, all that was left by the end was a puddle of sauce that had turned grey with black flecks from the addition of burnt hay.

And finally, The Uh Oh: I hate flabby, flaccid, wet fish skin. The chunk of halibut (I'd like to know if it was real halibut or the cheaper immitation, Black Halibut) had, I think, been cooked in gadget-trend-of-the-moment, the sous-vide. A tepid piece of white fish which was, debateably, undercooked with the aforementioned woeful skin. With the fish came a pickle with dill, with some mustard mayo. The pickle was too strong and over-powered the fish.

But the worst bit of cooking was the mango chutney that came with the pork belly. On paper, it is a great idea to substitute the usual sweetness provided by apples with small pieces of mango. However, whoever had prepared this chutney must have been suffering with a cold, as it was so heavily laced with cloves that it was almost inedible. No one on our table (8 of us) could finish this small splodge that accompanied the pig.

So is this a restaurant worth going to? Our party were all very excited as we had waited about 6 months for this reservation and were willing it to be great. Unfortunately there are too many negatives about the food that would put us off eating here again, which is a shame as there are glimpses of brilliance. Perhaps the new Dabbous venue will fine-hone the successful dishes and remove or amend the faulty ones.

The most over rated and pretentious dining experience in London. To be avoided at all costs. After a six month wait to get in, this place was so disappointing – cold cabbage and mayonnaise does not 5 star dining make. A total cuisine wank.

The interior seems based on the interior of an All Saints shop complete with artfully stained and chipped industrial concrete floor. It's an environment more to be expected in a Shoreditch Burger joint. The service throughout was was extremely good, very relaxed and highly professional. In fact many big name restaurants should come here for a service master class.
The food was interesting and very skillfully cooked. I suspect it may be an age thing, but some of the ingredients seem to be there for the sake of effect rather than exceptional taste experience. I started with a wedge of Hispi cabbage< which I was advised to eat with with my fingers and ‘dunk’ into a savoury dip. Fortunately I have form with hoknobs so know how to ‘dunk’. The mackeral with lovage and samphire was very goog and my dish of the day, the beef was interesting and the milk curds and figs pleasant. I regularly try and eat my way through the range at La Fromagerie and am rarely disapointed, but the entire selection on my companion's cheese board was rank!

Overall I think this experience will suit those who favour Shoreditch over Mayfair Restaurants.

Best meal I've had all year hands down and I don't offer that praise lightly. The food was innovative and delicious. We ran through the taster menu and every dish was absolutely faultless. I'm going to be a food bore and break it down as it was that good. all the dishes in my opinion were undersold on their description but maybe this is one of those placed where the reputation is built on word-of-mouth so they don't need to try too hard on the descriptions cause it's all going to be amazing. And it was. Peas and Mint – sounds simple, It was a concoction of different flavours, textures, temperatures of fresh garden peas and mint that totally delivered – there was a lot going on here with just a few simple ingredients. Mixed Alliums In a chilled pine infusion – probably the weakest dish but this was probably more of a pallet cleanser; coodled free range egg with woodland mushrooms and smoked butter – like a fry up in an egg shell and presented in a box of rustic farmhouse hay – deliciously rich, I could have eaten this twice., braised halibut and coastal herbs – again undersold, Poached Halibut in a flavoursome seafood bisque / foam; BBQed lamb, runner beans and less calermint -, perfectly executed piece for the carnivore. Artisan cheeses, Ripe peach, Custard cream pie – absolutely delicious take on a classic. Apparently this place is booked out for months, I can see why… the head chef Ollie Dabbous himself came out and checked up on our table to see how we enjoyed the meal which was nice touch and he patiently answered all of our questions. Hope they go from strength to strength and look forward to the next visit, free slots at the restaurant permitting.

I was disarmed by how small and informal Dabbous was. Downstairs is an informal wood-rich bar with by far the most original armchairs I have sat in London. I felt like I was sat in the comfortable nose cone of a 50's fighter plane. Cocktails were varied and really good. I had a gin-based one called a Beverly Hills 90210 but with more digits served in a Waterford tumbler and it was balanced and moreish.

I chose the Tasting Menu for £54 and though not cheap was perhaps the best I have had rivalling Tom Aitkens or Heston Blumenthal for range and sheer vitality. Fresh peas in the pods on a bed of puréed pea and mint oil was a stunning palate cleanser. It out-pea'd a fresh pea which in cooking terms is the ultimate achievement. Coddled eggs was new to me and Ollie Dabbous came out to demonstrate the egg guillotine that allows the presentation to be so magnificent. The yolk is mixed with enough butter to build an all butter croissant and mixed with intense woody, deep mushrooms. Utterly exceptional.

Maybe I am getting old but I really really didn't get this restaurant. I loved the bar downstairs and thought that the cocktails were unusual and tasty . The barstaff are really enthusiastic and friendly. But the cooking upstairs is pretty mixed. We had the halibut , the salmon, the pork and the lamb dishes and for me only the pork stood out -it came with acorns and frankly tasted like upmarket satay. The other dishes were fairly bland and unmemorable. The cheese course was so small that I could have ordered it 3 times over and then just been given the portions that a Chez Bruce serves on their memorable cheeseboard.

They also tell you up front that the portions are small so one should order 3-5 starters and 2-3 main courses each. This is nonsense . You can easily just order half that amount and be full.

Its nice cooking but nothing earth shattering.

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