E&O

The food at E&O has always been pretty good, even though it misses a certain edge. It doesn't serve the most outstanding asian fusion food in London and the menu certainly isn't the most groundbreaking, but not many restaurant can do sexy-dining-room as well as they can, even if their most popular dishes are ever so slightly more delicious somewhere else. Last weekend was no exception. We arrived for saturday dinner to a buzzy bar and a street filled with beautiful people.
Nobody rushed us to get to our table (reservation 9.30) so we had a drink first. Once we were seated, service was friendly and professional. Everything we ordered was nice, but nothing was crazy-delicious – typical of E&O. The seabass sashimi with truffle dressing and yuzu, was too light on both the truffle and the yuzu. Black cod was of course very good, but then I found the tempura a little oily. The pumpkin and shiitake vietnamese lettuce parcels (choi bau) were lovely and fresh but too disparate: too much pumpkin v too little shiitake. We found the Pad Thai a little too sweet and in need of more spring onions. Finally the wagyu beef tataki was delicious as were the asian greens in garlic we ordered to go with it.
Overall you do leave E&O satisfied and full and with a feeling that, that night, you have dined at a cool place, so I will continue to go back there as I have done in the past, mainly for their nonchalant ambience.

Updated

Went back again a few times here – constant table turning has really annoyed me, plus the whole table allocation meant i was given tables near the loo/bar area where you just know youve been placed because you dont seem hip enough or ‘look’ right! Its a shame because the food is good – id recommend insisting you dont get those particular tables when you actually book or just go elsewhere to some of the many other haunts in Notting Hill. Its sad because i think the treatment of customers in this way has really put me off recommending this place anymore.

Previous review

I'd wanted to go to E&O for ages having heard the great reviews. I called up on the Thursday morning and the only tables available were half 6 and 10 so took the earlier option. For anyone else, remember to book early to get yourself a reasonable time. When we got there, the dining area was empty but many had congregated at the smaller bar area.

Foodwise – i started with baby pork ribs which didnt have too much meat on them and seemed covered in black bean sauce – nothing special. My main was much more delicious – a medium rare sirloin steak with some sort of horseradhishy sauce and soy, together was ‘proper’ egg fried rice and bok choi. I thought it was beautifully prepared and the flavours worked together perfectly. My friend had squid to start which again didnt seem much to rave about but had the biggest plate of pad thai you could imagine! Also extremely tasty but in my opinion, very gingery.

Pudding, i had the non Japanese chocolate pudding which was divine – though i felt myself thinking a la Masterchef ‘Ive had this soooooooo many times before, it had better melt in the centre’ – but it did and was excellent, together with… More