High Road Brasserie

High Road Brasserie is a casual all-day restaurant on a busy stretch of the Chiswick High Road. It is part of the Soho House property here, which includes an upstairs members-only bar and restaurant and a few rooms, but High Broad Brasserie is open to the public. It has extensive outside seating and appears perennially busy from breakfast through to dinner. Its success is due to friendly waiting staff and an appealing menu of brasserie classics. 

The short wine list had six sparkling selections, twenty whites, twenty reds and four rose wines, ranging from £210 to £210 with a median price of £51 and an average markup to the retail price of a wildly excessive 3.6 times. Sample labels were Kleinkloof Chenin Blanc 2021 at £31 for a bottle that can be found in the high street for £8, Cycles Gladiator Chardonnay 2021 at £49 for a wine that retails at £9 and Chateau Boutisse St Emilion Grand Cru 2016 at £89 compared to its retail price of £26. There were some posher options too, such as the lovely Antinori Tignanello 2018 at £210 for a bottle that retails at £150, and Chassagne Montrachet Thomas Morey 2018 at £155 for a wine whose current market value is £52. Given the fairly outrageous markups, it is fortunate that corkage was available at £29 a bottle.

Beef tartare was very pleasant, a little under seasoned to my taste, but the beef can be spiced up a little with some Tabasco that is provided. The cylinder of chopped beef was topped with an egg yolk and served with toasted sourdough, the beef not chopped too fine and having pleasant if unremarkable flavour (13/20). A salad of green beans and peach bizarrely lacked any dressing, though oil and vinegar was provided when we requested it, so it was easy enough to make our own. The beans were cooked well enough but the lack of dressing seems pretty lazy to me (11/20).

Chicken Milanese had flattened chicken breast friend in panko breadcrumbs, the meat cooked through and the outer coating pleasantly crisp. The bird used won’t be causing any sleepless nights in Bresse but this was a perfectly pleasant dish, served with a wedge of lemon and a few green leaves (12/20). A green salad on the side again arrived without any dressing, so essentially the kitchen’s entire effort here had been to unpack a catering bag of nondescript leaves and put them in a bowl, then charge £6 for them. Nice work if you can get it. Monkfish was cooked perfectly well, served with some rather undercooked green cabbage, padron pepper puree and black olive crumble. The other elements were pleasant enough but the almost raw cabbage did not add anything (12/20).  

A trio of British cheese was in decent condition, served with crackers, chutney and grapes. Tiramisu was actually quite nice, with a decent kick of coffee and pleasant sponge fingers (13/20). Service was pleasant and the bill came to £82 a head including corkage. This is quite a lot for the level of effort put in by the kitchen, but High Road Brasserie has never been aiming for culinary stars: it serves decently executed dishes that people actually want to eat, a formula that continues to enable it to prosper.

Further reviews: 01st Sep 2023 | 02nd Aug 2021 | 20th Jul 2020 | 01st Apr 2016 | 02nd Aug 2014 | 12th Dec 2010