The Park

The Park opened in July 2024, run by seasoned restaurateur Jeremy King. It is at the junction of Queensway and the Bayswater Road, looking out over Hyde Park. The a la carte menu had a mix of brasserie dishes like steak tartare and Caesar salad along with pasta dishes and main courses such as chicken Milanese and ham hock pie. Samantha Williams is the executive chef here, having previously been executive chef of Angela Hartnett’s restaurant empire and head chef of Café Murano in an eight-year stint with Ms Hartnett. The dining room is on the ground floor of a very smart new development, with plenty of frontage looking out over Hyde Park. Tables are a little snug but tolerably well separated, and the large dining room seats around 130 people at capacity.

The wine list was unusual in that the still wines were entirely either Italian or Californian. The wine list had 116 labels and ranged in price from £36 to £2,500, with a median price of £83 and an average markup to the retail price of 3.45 times, which is high even by the demanding standards of London. Sample references were Bardolino Chiaretto Rosé Monte del Fra 2023 at £48 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for £8.40, Andrea Felici Verdicchio Classico Superiore 2022 at £59 compared to its retail price of £12.60, and Alban Vineyards Viognier 2021 at £92 for a wine that will set you back £39.60 in the high street. For those with the means, there was Brunello di Montalcino, Biondi Santi 2017 at £395 compared to its retail price of £205, and Shafer Hillside Select 2017 at £650 for a wine whose current market value is £317. 

Tagliatelle Bolognese (£14) had pasta with good texture, beef with limited flavour and a sauce that could have had more intensity. Nonetheless, that was a perfectly respectable pasta dish (13/20). This was definitely better than a salad of marinated artichokes and butter beans with ricotta and lemon (£18). This looked rather unappealing, and although the butter beans had decent texture the artichokes had little flavour. I expect that the kitchen had in reality made some effort here but it did rather appear to an uninitiated observer that a couple of tins, one of beans and one of artichoke hearts, had been opened and then dumped onto a plate. The salad had an unidentified and rather watery base that was perhaps not intentional (11/20 is kind). 

Chicken Milanese (£25.50) came with a salad of rocket and Parmesan. The rocket had a decent peppery bite, and the chicken’s breadcrumb coating was quite crisp. The chicken itself had little flavour, presumably due to the quality of the bird itself. Nonetheless this was a pleasant enough dish (13/20).

Pan-roasted wild halibut (£39.50) came with wild mushrooms, caper butter and tender stem broccoli. The fish was nicely cooked, and the capers added a little flavour, with the broccoli being a touch undercooked to my taste, a little over crunchy (13/20).

The best dish of the evening was Amalfi lemon tart (£8.75). This had good balance between sweetness and acidity, delicate pastry and was accompanied by an unnecessary blob of cream (15/20). This was better than a New York cheesecake (£9.25), which was decent enough if rather bland (13/20).

Service was good, with our waiter being quite efficient. Coffee was from a company called Extract Coffee, originally from Bristol. It was drinkable though to be honest not great. The bill came to £166 per person, albeit with a bottle of good wine, the Sesti Brunello di Montalcino at £135 for a bottle that retails at £83. If you shared a modest bottle of wine then a typical cost per person might be around £95 or so. The restaurant was packed on this Tuesday night just a month or so after opening and so has clearly found an audience. As with most of the restaurants from this stable, the formula appears to be to offer a menu of classic dishes that people actually want to eat, served in an attractive dining room by well-trained staff. The food itself is not exactly an afterthought, but is not the key attraction. What is intriguing is just how successful this formula has been over the years, somewhat to the despair of those who focus on the food as the main focus of a restaurant. The genius of Jeremy King has been to realise that most diners just want to sit in an attractive room and eat unchallenging dishes and be made to feel welcome by competent waiters. The completely full dining room tells its own story.