Silver Birch

Silver Birch opened in the `busy Chiswick High Road in October 2020. Since April 2023 the head chef has been Nathan Cornwall, formerly of The Barn. I wrote previously about the wine list but we took advantage of the corkage at £35 a bottle, which was very reasonable. The tasting menu here was £110 per person, with three courses at £75 each. 

The meal began with a flurry of canapes. Cheese tartlet was served cold and featured Spenwood  cheese along with shaved hazelnut and onion marmalade. This sounds a little odd but worked very well. Cured sea trout with sea trout roe and nori emulsion appeared on a quinoa crisp. Sea trout is much better than river trout (such as the disappointingly ubiquitous Chalk Stream trout) but was nonetheless limited in flavour. The best of the canapes was crisp pig head fritter with mustard, pickle and shallot, which had deep meat flavour encased in a crisp wrapper (15/20 average). Bread was made in the kitchen from scratch and was a choice of brioche of bacon and shallot and focaccia loaf. The breads were both enjoyable and I liked the texture of the focaccia. A final amuse bouche was warm winter broth of celeriac with mushrooms, truffle batons and apple. The celeriac was intensely reduced and had good flavour (15/20).

Beef tartare used sirloin from the Aurox meat company in Fareham, served with caper jam and artichokes in several forms:  crisp, pickled and confit. This was good and not cut too thin but I would have liked more seasoning. The overall effect was pretty but a little bland (14/20).The next dish was Norfolk carrots with pearl barley and cubes of Coolea Irish cheese, a hard cheese from County Cork that is reminiscent of Gouda. This came with a Coolea cheese sauce. I have to say that the carrots had minimal flavour, and although the cheese was fine this is supposed to be a dish about the carrots, and these failed to register (12/20). 

Better was turbot from a medium-sized 5 kg specimen, with brown shrimp, sourdough crisp and charred brassicas with tartare roe sauce and cavolo nero (Italian kale). The fish was nicely cooked, but the shrimps were rather lacking in flavour (14/20). Pigeon was Anjou squab with foie gras rolled into croustillant, with chanterelle mushrooms, beets, apricots and some brassica. The pigeon was lightly cooked, with the best element for me being the croustillant of pigeon, which had lovely flavour (15/20).

A cheese course came with home-made sesame crisps and tomato chutney. The cheeses offered were Ticklemore goat cheese from Devon, which has a hint of lemon amongst the chalky consistency. This was accompanied by Golden Cross cheese, a goat milk cheese from East Sussex that is reminiscent of St Maure de Touraine. There was also Cashel Blue cheese from Tipperary. These were all in good condition.

There were two desserts. The first was of blackberries picked by the kitchen team, made into jam and preserve and also a sorbet, served with homemade granola and meadowsweet mousse. This was enjoyable, the acidity of the fruit balanced by the gentle sweetness of the meadowsweet (14/20). The final dessert was dark chocolate delice with chocolate mousse and brown butter sauce with milk sorbet based on Valrhona chocolate. This worked nicely, with the richness of the chocolate balanced by the milk sorbet, with the texture being silky (15/20). Coffee was from Assembly Coffee in Brixton.

Service was charming throughout the evening, and the bill came to £176 per person. The food element of this was the tasting menu at £110. This was an enjoyable meal, though there were some elements that could be improved, such as the carrot dish. The restaurant was full on a Tuesday night in January, so it has clearly hit a resonant note with the locals.

Further reviews: 01st Aug 2023 | 04th Nov 2020