I first ate here in autumn 2017, just before the Michelin UK 2018 guide was published. The food impressed me and I was surprised the guide only awarded Alyn Williams @The Westbury one star, as I would gave given it two.  Keen to return for a second opinion, my chance came up when I needed to nightstop in London one Thursday night in March 2018.

The restaurant has a subdued, almost anonymous entrance via the reception area of the Westbury Hotel, on the corner of Bond and Conduit Streets in London’s Mayfair. I was shown to a table at the rear, near the private dining areas, with a good view of the plush and comfortable dining room.  The a la carte menu offered a choice of just three starters, mains and desserts at £70.  Each dish sounded very appetising and when I saw that the £90 Tasting Menu offered up slightly smaller portions of seven of those same dishes I immediately plumped for that menu, along with a six glass accompanying wine flight for an additional £70. I could have chosen a prestige wine flight at £140 or a beer flight for £50.

With six glasses of wine to come, I chose not to order an aperitif, just a bottle of San Peligrino.  But that meant I missed a wine to accompany the selection of canapés which were brought to the table; a first world problem which I managed to overcome with my water!

Four “blue cheese chou buns” were pleasant, though a touch dry. My brain had  anticipated a moist filling, but the blue cheese had been incorporated into the pastry before cooking, and there wasn’t a filling.  There was a lovely little filo or brick pastry tartlet of cream cheese, fresh peas and ham hock, which had a delightfully fresh and delicate flavour.  And then there was a bric pastry roll filled with foie gras parfait, which I just loved: the foie was so soft and light and the pastry also light, but with a perfect light crisp.  8/10

I was also brought a whole brown soda bread (so so), goats milk butter (almost tasteless) and a home made cows butter (very nice).

My first course was “King crab/celeriac/lovage/hazelnuts”.   This was a stunning starter featuring a portion of plump and moist white leg meat, some chopped meat with hazelnuts topped with raw asian radish discs and sea vegetables, and an amazing celeriac ‘essence’ poured over it all at the table, with lovage oil.  The flavours of the ingredients shone through and worked very well together in this innovative combination.  I could detect a lot of skill used in the prep of this bright fresh dish. 9.5/10 A lightly acidic 2016 Sancerre supported things very nicely.

Dish two was “Poached halibut/kohlrabi/crispy caviar/champagne veloute” – another stunning dish.  The fish was perfectly cooked with large flakes of pearlescent flesh and the veloute was utterly divine. What they called ‘crispy caviar’ was a revelation: I later learned it was a combination of deepp-fried grated potato, with shallot, parsley and oscietra caviar. 9.5/10  A 2016 Coonawarra chardonnay, as dry and crisp as a good mineral-rich Burgundy, worked well with the buttery fish and sauce.

My third dish, “Toast gnocchi/frog leg fricassee/black garlic”, had a fantastic garlicky aroma when brought to the table.  I was unimpressed by the gnocchi, as I’d anticipated a crispy toast crumb texture, but it was soft, like potato gnocchi.  The pieces of frog leg were very plump and succulent, and more like prawn than chicken in both texture and flavour.  I thought this dish was tasty, very interesting, creative and innovative, but I felt I couldn’t properly get my head round it, to see what Alyn Williams had intended from it. 7/10. A very nice 2014 St. Joseph went well with everything and wasn’t at all overwhelmed by the garlic.

The next dish was “Artichoke barigoule/loaded skins/parsley/foie gras/truffle”.  The artichoke was well-prepared and tasty, the potato skins were ‘loaded’ with grated black truffle, but for some reason the truffle didn’t pack much flavour, unlike some torched onion slices also on the plate. The parsley came in the form of a good deep green puree and the foie gras was described as “snow”; frozen but not white, it was a nice addition.  The accompanying wine was a dry sherry and it worked amazingly well at bringing the diverse flavours of the dish together. 8/10 another interesting dish!

My fifth, the main course was called, “55-day aged pork/langoustine/braised endive/maitake”.  A large slice of pork loin was really flavoursome and sensitively cooked and topped with some Japanese mushrooms. The meat had a thin skin, which tasted very good, but it wasn’t puffed and crisped up in a ‘crackling’ style.  Next to it sat a lonely looking but juicy just cooked langoustine tail (I’m not sure either it or I knew why it was there), and then there was half a head of braised yellow chicory/endive, which was very nice but a little bitter when preceded by the 90% cabernet sauvignon blend 2014 Bordeaux from Margaux, which, otherwise, was a great accompaniment.  I found that to be a good and almost complete plate of food.  But there was also a small glass bowl presented which contained soft and succulent pulled pork shoulder topped with what was described to me as “a potato foam” but which was much closer to a light pomme puree.   This combo was very tasty, but IMHO I don’t believe it needed to play a part in this course.  I think it would be better to just put some of the potato on the principal plate, and include a nice rich jus.  But even as things stood, I score this dish 8.5/10, largely due to the quality of the pork loin.

Course six was actually just a ‘pre-dessert’, which is why it didn’t qualify for its own accompanying wine.  But I guess it deserved its listing on the menu because it was so much more than just a scoop of lemon sorbet or granita.  “Blood orange/kaffir lime/chocolate crisp” was a pretty dish of a very smooth blood orange sorbet served with a kaffir lime emulsion and an ultra thin chocolate sugar tuille on top. It was beautifully palate cleansing, and displayed good chef skills. 8.5/10

My final course, dessert, was called “New season rhubarb/fromage blanc/tarragon” and it was another interesting one!  A glass bowl had a layer of light fromage blanc panna cotta in its base, topped with a thin layer of rhubarb jelly, and then some poached rhubarb, a smooth fromage blanc sorbet, scatterings of rhubarb granita and some tarragon leaves, (the interesting bit) and topped off with a white meringue ‘wafer’.  The rhubarb had retained a degree of crunchiness, deliberately I was told, but I wasn’t that keen on it because the crunchiness and the fact it hadn’t been poached in added sugar or syrup, tricked my brain into thinking it wasn’t cooked through.  It was just a bit too sharp for me, even though I’m usually a fan and an advocate of desserts which aren’t ‘all sugar’. The sharp acidity was emphasised by the accompanying wine, a 2016 pink moscato from the Margaret River region, which had a slight fizz to it and not enough sweetness for a dessert wine, IMHO. I would have enjoyed this wine as an aperitif though. 6/10

When I finished my dessert I was invited to the kitchen to meet the Head Chef, which was a welcome and generous surprise. Alyn Williams wasn’t working that night – I’ve read that he’s got a new team in place so that he can spend time getting his new venture The Wild Rabbit, in The Cotswolds, ready for its May 2018 opening.  And while it’s reported he’ll work full time at The Wild Rabbit, he says he’ll still cook at The Westbury once or twice a week.  So it was quiet a surprise to be introduced to Head Chef Tom Bruton, because he looked so young and fresh-faced!  He’s ‘only’ 25 and though his CV details a great experience in several well-known high end establishments, I still think it’s an amazing achievement for a 25 year old to be leading the kitchen of a 1-star restaurant in central London. Well done that man!

When I returned to my table I declined the offer of a hot drink because I didn’t want to be kept awake by caffeine, but the waitress insisted I have some petit fours before paying my bill. This was a lovely touch: more often than not one is denied the petit fours if one doesn’t order coffee or tea.  I was served a nice little jelly (not too sweet), a mini donut, and a small bowl of four chocolates. 10/10

In summary I can report that Alyn Williams @The Westbury continues to serve up very good food, made with superb ingredients and produce. I have described several dishes as “interesting” which means “I haven’t had that, or that combination before”, which to me, is a clear sign that the kitchen here works hard to try new things. And I wish all of my dinners were like that, because trying new things is a big part of eating out.  The menu and the wine flight were both well thought out, with both elements getting fuller in body as the meal progressed.  Front of House service was highly professional, but very friendly and welcoming at the same time.  The kitchen displays great skill and the whole experience is worthy of at least a strong 1 Michelin star, but actually impressed me more than some 2 star restaurants I’ve been to.  This is definitely a place I will return to.  My bill was £185.34 all in.  8.5/10 overall.