64 Goodge Street

This is the sister of Quality Chop House, Portland and Clipstone, and opened in August 2023. The head chef is Stuart Andrew, who was previously head chef at Portland and before that worked at a restaurant called Emilia in Mayfair. The dining room has two rows of tables with banquette seating and an open kitchen at the far end, the tables being quite closely spaced. There was a £39 three course lunch menu but the main menu was a la carte. Snacks and starters ranged from £6.50 - £21, main courses £32 to £42 and desserts £13-£15.

The wine list had 101 labels and ranged in price from £29 to £319, with a median price of £89 and an average markup to retail price of 2.9 times, which these days in London seems almost quaintly reasonable. The list was 64% French, and sample references were Château Clément-Termes, Gaillac Blanc 2021 at £29 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for £13, Emrich Schönleber Monzinger Kabinett Riesling 2015 at £74 compared to its retail price of £20, and Domaine Anne Gros Bourgogne Hautes Cotes de Nuits Cuvee Marine 2005 at £97 for a wine that will set you back £20 in the high street. For those with the means there was Arnot-Roberts Peter Martin Ray Pinot Noir 2021 at £198 compared to its retail price of £68, and Thomas Morey Chassagne Les Baudines Premier Cru 2020 at £235 for a wine whose current market value is £71. There were actually two relative bargains, both below their retail price, tucked away on the list top reward those who do their research.

There was an initial nibble of gougeres made with Gruyere; these were excellent, served warm and with plenty of Gruyere, the choux pastry having good texture (15/20). To start with I had rillette de Tours with cornichons and melba toast.  This is a Loire dish with a quite chunky meat component compared to a terrine, and the version here was pleasant though for me could have had a bit more flavour. The cornichons were a good accompaniment, their sharpness balancing the richness of the rillette (13/20). 

My main course was saddle of rabbit with bacon and sauce soubise (made from butter, onions and cream). This worked very well, the rabbit carefully cooked and avoiding dryness, the bacon adding its magic and the sauce working well with the meat (15/20). On the side, ratte potato sarladiase (with garlic and duck fat) was better than cauliflower mushrooms, which were rather bland.

For dessert I tried crepes Suzette, which perhaps was a little unfair given my last experience of this dish was a stunning version at Taillevent just a few days earlier. There is no room in the dining room here for tableside theatre and flambee action, but the crepes themselves were nicely made and had a quite well-balanced sauce with enough orange juice to balance the sugar (14/20).

Coffee was from Allpress, originally a New Zealand company – if you go to Auckland then the brand is ubiquitous, set up by Michael Allpress. It is one of the better options available in London, using only the highest 10% quality of arabica beans. It was a chunky £4.50 but there was at least a little petit fours of Italian almond biscuits with cherry for this price. Service was excellent, the staff friendly and efficient at this busy service. The bill came to £156 per person with plenty of nice wine. If you shared a modest bottle of wine then a typical cost per person might be around £100. 64 Goodge Street offers a pleasant experience with quite capable cooking.