The restaurant is on the site of what was a MacDonalds, upstairs at the Whiteleys shopping centre. You can access the restaurant through a dedicated entrance on Porchester Gardens or from the centre itself. It is Rowley Leigh’s first venture of his own after a long stint as head chef as the stunningly successful Kensington Place, a restaurant that epitomised modern British cooking. There is a lot to like about the place. The room has attractive art deco lamps, and its spacious interior is cleverly laid out so as to avoid it appearing like a barn. The kitchen is open to the dining room, and as you walk through you see (and feel the heat of) the rotisserie, with assorted animals turning on a spit, which is a fine way to set the mood. The floor is carpeted rather than being plain wood, and there is no pesky muzak, so you can actually have a conversation without shouting. Moreover the menu is very appealing, lengthy and with all sorts of classic dishes: grilled Dover sole, various roasts, sherry trifle.
The menu is lengthy and appealing, with the wine list printed on the back. It is perhaps taking the French bistro thing a little far to have the wine list so predominantly French, with just some Italian reds and a few token European Rieslings for variety (especially since the cooking here is as British as it gets). The prices rise steeply, with only a few choices under £50 a bottle. Even the irritating “cover charge” has sneaked up to £1.80.
A starter of scallops with bak choi and oriental dressing had correctly cooked scallops and fairly well cooked vegetables, though the soy-sauce based dressing could have been a little punchier (13/20). Grouse was served whole and served with game chips, and a little pot of excellent gravy of the cooking juices (14/20). Halibut looked as if it was a little on the dry side, but on cutting the fish, the fillet was fine, though it was a workmanlike rather than exciting dish (13/20). Vanilla cheesecake with passion fruit sauce was enjoyable, the base good, the filling having an enjoyable softness, the passion fruit sauce enlivening the dish (5.10). Similarly, apricot and almond tart had good pastry and plenty of fruit flavour (15/20). Service was knowledgeable and reasonably efficient. I found this less good than my last meal here, but still a pleasant experience. However at £90 a head with no drinks, no coffee and a fairly cheap bottle of wine, the bill mounts up.
Further reviews: 27th Jan 2014 | 01st Dec 2008 | 01st Nov 2007
Ian Hoare
4 of us went here a couple of weeks ago, your rather downbeat review notwithstanding. Despite the large capacity we were asked to arrive quite early - at 7.00pm and by 9pm every table was full. Very briefly, we were delighted with the style of the food, and with the quality of the cooking. it was lovely to see someone daring to do REAL roasts (on a spit in front of a grill, as the true British roasting tradition always did) and making them the centrepiece of their main courses. it seems to me inconceivable to call your cuisine "English" and then NOT concentrate on roasts. But there it is, many chefs do this and no critic picks them up on it. Wines were very good indeed and fairly priced. Service was very friendly, but as you noted, was the weakest point in a restaurant of this pretension. One of the two roast woodcook (oh joy, oh rapture, WOODCOCK on the menu) we ordered had been left off the kitchen order, and while they apologised very prettily and only made my brother wait 10 minutes for the late comer to arrive, that shouldn't happen. What's worse, they served it to HIM at first, not giving it to the lady who had ordered it. While we were there, we watched the service and observed that there was a general lack of direction to it. There was a lot of rather aimless milling around generally. I wonder if Rowley Leigh shouldn't consider some fairly radical retraining - especially to the head waiter who ought to be able to marshall his troops more effectively. They were perfectly willing and friendly, but without direction. I don't want to give the impression that the service was bad. It wasn't, and it didn't spoil our enjoyment of what was an excellent example of real English traditional food. We'd happily go back again. Oh - and I liked my eel in long strips, and thought the combination with smoky bacon was a true delight.