Bumpkin South Kensington

Bumpkin is the perfect place for a catch up with a friend. The menu is innovative and the portions very generous.

I took a friend of mine who was visiting over from New Zealand to this restaurant chain for lunch on Sunday 9th March. First thoughts of the restaurant was how British it was and I loved the interior. Our waiter was very nice and took our order in good time. However after waiting 40 minutes for our bread and feeeling somewhat hungry I had to chase our order up to find that it hadnt even been started on. Luckily the waiter was good to us and when the food came out it was enjoyable. I would still recommend this restaurant to anyone looking for a nice meal in the evening or a sunday roast.

Great Sunday Roast, celebrated Mother's day with my friend and her mum and she had the special mother's day menu with a lovely glass of sparkling bubbles and staff all very friendly and “ Happy Mother's daying ” to everyone.So nice to be in a restaurant serving seasonal and sustainable items and happy free of everything meat. Really felt like I did my bit for sustainability. Our waiter was very happy to chat to us about the extensive wine list which I enjoyed as I am not a wine buff. We all had roasts, beautiful yorkies too, Bloody Mary's, I had heard about their Bloody Mary's but they really are quite something. Caught a glimpse of other dishes flying past us and I think I will be back too sample those too. All in all I think my new favourite hangout every other Sunday. It gets very busy and quite noisy but it is a great atmosphere and vibe.

I had friends visiting from overseas who wanted to try British cuisine. I thought what better than to take them to Bumpkin, which has always done great things with British food. Boy, am I (still) regretting it. The evening was just a disaster from the outset. I won’t go into all the details but I will pick out the “highlights”. One of my friends ordered steak medium-rare. When it arrived it was clearly not medium-rare. Anyone who has ordered steak even medium before will be aware that when you eat it some light juices should flow from it. Nothing was emitted from this steak, not even flavour. It wasn’t incinerated, but more on the road to medium-well done. We had a dilemma, we either sent it back or my friend would try to get through. Always being the generous type, we decided to give them a second chance and sent it back. The waitress, to her credit, was very apologetic. However, when her manager brought back the second steak she was far from contrite. She told us she had “checked” the previous steak, it was medium–rare and that next time my friend should order rare steak. So much for the old customer service adage: “the customer is always right”. I don’t know if she was a vegetarian, but most people who order steak regularly, in several jurisdictions around the world (including England), know how they like their steak and how it should arrive. It was a bit like she was trying to tell us that the sky is green. All of us at the table could clearly see that the first steak had not been medium-rare. Importantly, a restaurant manager should never tell a customer how they like their food. Even Starbucks has managed to cotton-on to that concept. To cover the remaining items in brief, we ordered a side of green vegetables, which never arrived (but somehow made it to the bill). A starter of macaroni cheese was tasteless, milky and devoid of cheese. The mashed potatoes as a side were dry, flavourless and akin to the packet variety. The second batch, which arrived after the first one was returned, was marginally better. In sum, this was a massive disappointment from a restaurant which used to be great. I was mortified that I had taken my friends here on the assertion that the food was good and that it would be an impressive bit of British flag-flying. If Bumpkin continues in this vein they will lose their regulars. I live just around the corner and often go (went) because it was reliably good and convenient. Now, I will not be going back until I’ve heard that they’ve had a serious shake-up or change of management.

This was one of those evenings where I wished I'd ordered something else…for virtually every course, resulting in a large dose of food envy as I eyed the far more interesting dishes being brought to other tables. Nevertheless, at these prices, everything should be mouthwatering and memorable. That said, my pork belly main course was highly memorable…for all the wrong reasons. The crackling was the toughest I've ever done battle with. The steak knife I was provided with was no match for this hard as a rock lump of indigestion. The artisanal organic breads (note plural!) with good oil and butter starter was a let down – with one lousy variety of white bread, and no interesting seeded or brown varieties. Who wants good oil anyway? – it tastes kind of dirty – bring back olive oil! A very average dinner spent mostly shouting across the table to make each other heard above the din created by the young and upwardly mobile locals was rescued by an outstanding truffly chocolate cake with a rich coffee sauce. This restaurant has clearly spent more time and energy ensuring that all its staff are blonde, young, female and stunning, rather than concentrating on the food it is serving.

We've dined here twice & both times have been really happy with the quality of produce and the friendly, efficient staff. One of our visits was a fully booked mother's day lunch, but we didn't have to wait for ages for service or our meals and staff always seemed to give personal attention even though every table was full. Great for seasonal British food, this is a place that is quite passionate about food. It's also great for meat & game, which I love! And divine home made Yorkshire Puds! The wine list is fairly priced. We would definitely return again & recommend it to friends. It is not a cheap meal out, but it is well worth it…

This review has been long overdue as I recently went on holiday, but since I did a raving review about the Notting Hill branch it seems fit to give South Kensington what is due to it. I am a regular at Notting Hill so South Kensington is a new area to me, never go out there. It seemed to be very busy from early and lots of famlies. Its the newer addition to the Bumpkin brand and seems “newer”. Diverse dishes and insisting on seasonal fruit and veg is why I love Bumpkin. They also have an open kitchen and a nice big bar area as you walk in so you can have a drink before or after dinner if you like. This time round we only had a main and dessert. The trout with heritage potatoes was beautiful. I have never had heritage potatoes before but these were purple, lovely looking on the plate. My partner had the sausage and mash which I tasted and it was delicious. Looked like a lollipop on a stick to keep it from unravelling, gravy was yummy( i may have that next time). Chocolate cake again as it is to die for and we shared it. Service as usual was friendly and I saw some familiar faces that cross work at the Notting Hill one which is nice to see. Bathrooms are lovely and not that I drink wine but I do drink bubbly, they had introduced a new Wine list which to me seemed quite extensive with British bubbly! How do I choose which Bumpkin now?

Bumpkin has a good location just behind Gloucester Road tube station and serves decent drinks in its bar area. The food, service and ambiance in the dining room are a different matter. The food ranges from disapointing over bland to uneadable. A pity because this part of London could do with some fresher and younger options. Bumpkin is not one.

Bumpkin is a quirky cross-breed that combines the charm of a traditional country inn with the modern décor of a trendy city haunt. Having checked out the menu online, I had already honed in on what I was going to order. Wait a minute… where is my Lancashire Hotpot? Reduced menu on Saturday lunchtime? I sit back and sulk in my chair like a child and cannot contain my disappointment, I am beginning to regret skipping breakfast for this. The menu lists an all day full English breakfast as well as fish n’ chips and bangers and mash to name a few It’s going to take a lot more than that to tickle my taste buds and I begin to despair. Not exactly the full menu I had hoped for but we plump for a warming starter of onion soup with thyme, accompanied by lovely doorstep chunks of bread studded with caraway seeds. An ideal winter warmer, hitting the spot perfectly. For main course ‘Buccleuch’ pork chop with a side of mashed potatoes and curly kale with red wine gravy hits the spot and at first bite, the pork is juicy and tender and the fat, crisp and sticky as it should be. The mashed potatoes are smooth and creamy and the red wine jus is a perfect accompaniment to the dish. I nab a bite of my friends Welsh black beef burger and it is lovely and medium rare on the inside with a nice doughy bun and great chips (skin-on) with a garlicky mayonnaise dip. Service is good, a tad slow and the staff certainly are ‘characters’ to say the very least… But Bumpkin is a great place to head to ‘The morning after the night before’ – for a carb and comfort food-lead recovery. Can't imagine what kind of food they will offer over the summer, but they have quite a few Al Fresco tables which makes it worth the visit.

I spent a dinner in the private room at Bumpkin the other weekend and I had a very pleasant experience. So pleasant, that I'm not sure whether we had dessert or not. Either way, the atmosphere was really nice, although admittedly I was in a group of 30+ people, all celebrating a friend’s birthday, so no surprises there. We had a kind of buffet-style dinner, with the starter being an antipasti platter and the main a choice between meat and fish, with a potato gratin and salad on the side. All dishes were good and there was nothing to complain about, although I wasn’t in complete awe either. I thought Bumpkin was a great place to have an event like this. It felt a bit pricey, but the atmosphere, good food and kind service definitely made up for it.