I used to love coming to this venue when it was the principal restaurant of Tom Aikens. Oh how I miss chef Aikens’ food!  But I was delighted to hear that former Chef Proprietor of the 2 star Michelin ‘The Square’, Philip Howard, was opening a new neighbourhood restaurant here.  At the first opportunity I arranged to travel up from Brighton for a Sunday lunch, priced on the menu at £50/person, which  I judged to be fair for a (former) 2 star chef.

The restaurant is instantly recognisable from its former incarnation, although it has had a little brightening up, and looks less ‘industrial’ than it used to.  We kicked off with a glass of Champagne Billecart-Salmon, which quenched our thirst on a pleasant early autumn day, but it didn’t come with canapés or an amuse bouche, which surprised and disappointed me. We also ordered a bottle of Badoit, but we were served an unbranded carafe of sparkling water, which really confused me; I cannot think of any reason why they would choose to pour a bottle of mineral water into a carafe – unless of course they were serving me something cheaper than the Badoit I ordered??

My starter was ‘Langoustine bisque with brown shrimp toast’.  The bisque was tasty but a little salty; the shrimp had a great flavour combining seaweed and smokiness, but the toast was very soggy from the butter it was sautéed in. 6/10
BTW our waitress forgot to lay me a spoon for the bisque, so there was a short wait for one.

We had to wait a while to place our order for wine, and went for Clos des Fous “Grillo Cantores” Cab Sauvignon 2012 at £36. It was very good!

We both chose the Dexter rib of beef for our mains. 8/10
This was a nice and very tender piece of meat (served off the bone), but with a fair bit of fat, and an unremarkable jus. It came with good vegetables including very good roast potatoes and a Yorkshire pudding filled with what I think was braised beef shin, which was too salty to eat, and a horseradish cream which was so lightly whisked and mild in taste that it could have been part of a dessert. 4/10
Because I was enjoying the roast potatoes’ flavour, I asked our waitress how they were cooked. She replied, “they’re roast potatoes”(!) then it took a quarter of an hour for her to report back from the kitchen that they were done in beef dripping.

For dessert I chose the ‘Rice pudding with almond milk & plums’. The rice was a good 8/10, the almond milk had a nice nutty flavour, and the plums were an unusual and somewhat off-putting bright red colour, without any detectable taste of something red which they might have been poached in. Once again I had to ask for appropriate cutlery to eat it with. 7/10
Mr. A chose the ‘Treacle tart with clotted cream ice cream’ which tasted very nice, though very very sweet 9/10

We finished with a double espresso each, which was OK, just a little bitter. There were no petit fours.

When I did have the right cutlery to eat my food with, I found it very boring in appearance and covered in finger prints.  In terms of layout I don’t like how closely spaced the line of tables are, in the centre of the dining room. Diners and staff, en route to the window tables, have to squeeze through a small gap: I do not like having someone’s bottom six inches from my face when I’m eating!

Overall, and in summary, I give Elystan Street 6/10.  The quality of the food did not meet my expectations of chef Philip Howard (he was in the kitchen that day), and there were no novel cheffy techniques or signs of particular skill in the cooking. Maybe I had come at it all wrong, expecting 2 star standard cuisine and service, but that was based on the £50 price tag. At that price point I think it’s reasonable to expect an amuse and petit fours, clean cutlery, maybe a table cloth, and definitely front of house staff who are familiar with the menu and know what cutlery is required to eat it.  I shall try Elystan Street again some day, when I’m planning to be in Kensington, but I do not recommend it as a ‘destination restaurant’ worthy of a special trip.