Pollen Street Social

29 January 2019

Great ambience and food that hits the spot every time

01 May 2018

We booked here hoping for a celebratory annual evening, we left having barely eaten! Table was booked for 8.30, we eventually sat down at 9.15. The wine waiter was very attentive and our drinks turned up quickly - he seemed to visit us very regularly to ‘top up” our glasses. The starters arrived and were mostly disappointing, the raw scallops were swimming in a tasteless cold dressing. After an hour waiting for our mains, having asked numerous times what was happening, our mains turned up all of which were stone cold. The General Manager couldn’t have cared less...we left just gone 11.00 having barely eaten and were still required to pay for our drinks. Something must have happened in the kitchen because everything about the experience was awful. If this is how the ‘Social Group” run their restaurants, we as a group will never return. As an aside the table next to us were regulars and they had a similarly poor evening and they made a comment that when Jason is not there the quality always drops...might be worth confirming his presence before dining there... We have since tried to get an explanation fro the restaurant as to why it was so awful and our emails have been totally ignored. It is very clear that they have very little or no interest in dealing with people that have walked away unhappy..

24 February 2018

I've probably eaten here a dozen times, we wife a time or two less. But every time we come we leave with smiles on our faces having enjoyed very good food in a restaurant that is stylish but certainly not stiff. We tend to eat out at lunch and mostly vote for the set lunch. Its becoming quite difficult to find high-end restaurants where the set lunch food echoes the quality and imagination displayed in their a la carte. But this is not a criticism that it would be fair to levy at Pollen street Social. The dishes that four of us enjoyed this week had been carefully thought out and displayed imagination as well as quality. Twelve dishes, twelve winners, and I'd like to add that the breads, amuses bouches, petits fours and especially the mushroom tea as a pre-starter were all delicious too. The thing that does surprise me just a bit is that in the time we've been coming here, Mr Atherton's scope has widened enormously and he now has more than a few restaurants. Unlike many such "groups" this has been achieved with no noticeable drop in standards at the flagship. Whilst we keep getting dishes of this quality there is no question that we'll return.

18 June 2017

One of the most refreshing things about my visit to this fine dining establishment in London was that there was no time limit on the table. This allowed time for a drink at the bar before eating. Portion sizes are quite small but exquisite and delicious. There are so many amuse bouches and pre- and post-desert delights that you will not leave hungry. It's a special place with a price to match but well worth it.

15 October 2016

whilst we last ate here a couple of weeks ago, I'm somewhat surprised that for some reason I've not reviewed this restaurant on the Square Meal site, and that's a surprise since its been one of our favourites since it opened , and we previously ate quite a few times at Maze when Jason Atherton ran the kitchen there. This is a restaurant we always look forward to visiting, and indeed I chose it for my "birthday meal". when we generally visit somewhere special . I've not once left this restaurant feeling that I haven't had a very good meal, or begrudging what I've been asked to pay for it. Its a restaurant too where you are presented with quite a few little dishes that you haven't ordered and whilst the fact of this is no longer a surprise the content invariably is. I've always held a view that if you're giving food away, it should get the same care and skill as the food the customer is paying for , and its plain that here it does. All the "extras"- the amuses bouche, the bread, the coffee and tea, the petits fours, were delicious and contributed to the enjoyment we took from the meal. Special mention to the thin but incredibly flavoursome wild mushroom broth No "afterthoughts" here.. We both ate two courses from the lunch menu, and then an a la carte dessert. Everything we ate was impeccably cooked and presented. I might have liked a little more cod, but what I had was delicious. My blackcurrant Eton Mess was spectacular and whilst my wife enjoyed her dessert, I did catch envious glances in the direction of my plate. Furthermore not every restaurant today puts the same effort and quality into its set meals as it delivers on its a la carte, but I reckon this one does. The one tiny criticism I might make concerns wine values , and this restaurant is by no means alone on that score. The thing I have to say about Pollen Street Social is that I can't understand why its got one Michelin star. In an age when a single star seems to be given away with some abandon ( nearly 60 in London now), this restaurant is far better than the vast majority of one star restaurants in London, and indeed is better than more than half of the two stars we've visited. And that's been true since the minute this place opened a few years back. Actually there's one three star that I reckon would struggle to beat Pollen Street Social on blind-tasted food quality.