Suzy's review of Arbutus

I am a bit behind with my review of Arbutus, my husband and I went there in April, but here it is: We had wanted to go for a while and expectations were quite high. After having cocktails at Sanderson we were looking forward to a lovely dinner.

We got a nice table and were quickly introduced to both menu and wine list. The restaurant was quite busy but not full. We had a nice glass of champagne while we decided on the menu and wine.

My husband decided to go for pork belly with red onion jam ravioli followed by stuffed saddle of rabbit and tapioca with mango for dessert. I ordered razor clams, beef bavette and cheese.

When you go to a Michelin starred restaurant you kind of expect the food and service to be extraordinary good. My husband liked his starter, but there wasn’t anything “Michelin” over it. The razor clams were gorgeous but towards the end of the dish I had sand in my mouth, which I don’t like – Michelin or not.

The starters must have been called away midway, because our mains arrived just after the waiter had cleared the table. It felt very rushed and left us with a lot of unfinished wine. However, main courses were really good, we enjoyed it very much.

We told the waiter to put dessert and cheese on hold after the main so we could sit for a while and enjoy the wine but after 5 minutes they thought we had sat long enough and served the dishes.

My plate had 3 very small pieces of cheese and the rest of the plate was full of salad. I thought it was quite hilarious, and my husband asked the waiter why they had chosen to serve all that salad with the cheese. The reply he got was: “this is how they serve it in France”. Well, I have had a lot of cheese in France but I have never seen salad on the plate. The cheese was really nice but the salad remained untouched.

Arbutus is a nice restaurant, prime location in Frith Street in Soho. The food is good and all dishes except the cheese were well presented, but for a Michelin starred restaurant it is a bit disappointing. You don’t want to feel rushed through your dinner, and from we sat down till we left only 1 hour and 10 minutes had passed.