A few years back I managed to get a table at Dabbous, the eponymous restaurant of young French chef Ollie Dabbous. It was the hottest ticket in town at the time, just before it earned a Michelin star, but although I thought the food was good, I didn’t enjoy my meal with friends because there was a terrible smell coming from the building’s sewers, and because I found it quite noisy.

Dabbous has closed and Ollie has now partnered with Hedonism Wines (an apparently cash rich Russian company) to open HIDE on London’s Piccadilly, close to Green Park tube station and overlooking the park.  It’s quite a large space with different ‘venue’ on each of the three floors: A cocktail bar in the basement is called Hide (Below), an all-day casual(ish) place, Hide (Ground) is on the ground floor, and on the upper floor there’s Hide (Above), which is more “fine dining” and which only serves a tasting menu, plus a set lunch menu every day of the week.  The tasting menu was £95 and we chose the “classic” wine pairing at £65 (as opposed to the “Discovery” pairing at £115 or the “Hedonistic” pairing at £295). The tasting menu spans snacks and then eight courses, three of which have choices, plus we chose to have an extra fish course at £16, but we didn’t have the extra cheese course at £12.

We were seated close to the top of the magnificent hand-made oak staircase which connects Ground and Above (there is also a lift for those who don’t want to walk). The staircase was made from a single oak tree by a father and daughter over three years and it looks so organic and special.  But our position, which was also close to the kitchen entrance had quite a lot of guest and waiter footfall.  But when our table neighbours left we moved to their window-side table which was much better. The dining tables are all hand-made limed oak and they have a little drawer containing phone charging devices, and our personal copy of the menu, which I thought was really cool.

Our ‘snacks’ comprised four plates: a chilled cucumber and verbena soup with elderflowers (fresh tasting but a little watery 6.5/10); a pretty, healthy and delicious plate of fresh and pickled “garden” vegetables with a lovely camomile dip 7.5/10; and what they called “flesh and bones” which was air-dared goose wrapped on a pheasant feather and ham wrapped around a faux bone – Both meats were glistening with their natural oils, and so were moist and more-ish, with the goose being particularly flavoursome 7/10; and finally a good selection of breads including a crisp flatbread and a very good sourdough with home-turned golden butter 8/10.

Our first course was called “Avocado, gooseberries & basil in a chilled omanthus infusion. The reddish things in the picture are pink gooseberries, not cherry tomatoes, the white thing is shaved raw celeriac; It was nice and fresh, the asian flower osmanthus being particularly interesting, but there were a lot of flavours going on and I’m unconvinced the avocado needed to be there. 7/10

Our next course was “cured wild salmon, creme cru & Exmoor caviar”. There were only two thinnish pieces of salmon, which were very good if eaten on their own; otherwise the oyster creme cru sauce and the fresh dill tended to dominate everything. The caviar was a nice touch and seemed to be good quality, with good firm eggs. 7.5/10

“Nest egg”, our next course, was served under a hay-smoke-filled cloche, and smelt lovely. But I thought the egg and mushroom mixture inside the egg shell, was a bit too clawing on the palate as it resembled raw scrambled egg. It certainly wasn’t a patch on a light curried version served to us at Claude Bosi at Bibendum (as an amuse bouche) a few days earlier. 7/10

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next came our extra course, “Cornish fish in 2 services”. There was a bowl containing warm ribbons of squid, nori and a bouillabaisse and on top of it a plate with pieces of raw plaice and sea lettuce.  On the side was a sea urchin shell containing a rouille which I mixed into the squid.  The rouille didn’t contain urchin (I’m not clear why its shell was used in the presentation), so I didn’t get the Japanese flavours of urchin and seaweed which I was expecting, and the dish was a little over-salted.  The plaice sashimi was pretty good; it had a soft and sticky texture not unlike raw shrimp (Amaebi) and overall the dish was quite creative and innovative. 7/10

I felt service was a little slow between courses (1hr20m to this point), but we received good attentive service from a selection of (mostly Italian) waiters throughout. I sneezed a couple of times and as I was searching my pockets for my tissues one young waiter appeared with a silver box of tissues for me. I greatly appreciated this fine example of 5-star anticipatory customer service – top class!

For our next course we had both chosen “Steamed day-boat turbot; crushed nasturtium broth” over the alternative red mullet offering. For me the turbot was slightly over-cooked, the sauce was “OK”, but some pickled courgette livened things up nicely and was definitely needed on the plate. 7/10

We’d also selected the same main course, “Roast dry-aged Goosnargh duck” over a Herdwick lamb dish simply because it sound more summery. The duck skin wasn’t crispy and there was a little sinew in it, but it was actually quite tender and worked very well with the apricot accompaniment and a flavoursome non-fatty duck jus.  On the side was a steamed bun containing confit duck leg, which was nice, but possibly needed something to make it taste less dry, and the dough was a fraction too thick. Also on the side was a small bowl of duck broth with radish, fennel and some other vegetables – too many vegetables for me, which disguised the delicate broth.  But all together I though this was a good main course 9/10

Next we were brought a palate cleanser of “Garden ripple ice cream”, a green sphere of sorrel and Granny Smith sorbet cloaked around sheep’s milk ice cream and served on a house-brick size and shape block of ice which had some flowers in it. The sheep ice cream was light and mild and with the fresh zingy green sorbet this was a really terrific palate cleanser. 10/10

Dessert was called “Hide Jasmin and wild peaflower Religieuse; cold brew jasmine tea”.  This was a delightful dessert of two chou rolls with jasmine cream, almond paste discs topped with a spec of gold leaf, and a little caramel under the chou. Without being too sweet a dessert, there was a good combination of caramel sugars and light cream, but a glass of chilled jasmine tea on the side was like dishwater. 8/10

We had reached the end and we were both pretty full, but we decided to order mint tea when we were told it was made with fresh mint.  It was pleasant, but it’s aroma and flavour wasn’t as powerful as we had enjoyed the previous night in Roganic.

Tea was served with petit fours, which were very original and served on an interesting plate which appeared to be broken in two. A liquorice root had a sort of toasted marshmallow on the end and there was a leaf shaped tuille sprayed gold, with  a gold hazelnut and praline puree.  This was all very amusing, with great flavours, and it distracted me so much that I forgot to take a photo. But a waiter offered us seconds (hence the picture above) which was very kind. 9/10

After dinner one of our waiters gave us a guided tour of Hide Above.  On one side some tables overlook the lower floor from a balcony and they also get a view of the kitchen behind glass walls.  That’s where Britain’s top female chef Clare Smyth was seated – our waiter told us they got a lot of “industry” people on a Sunday evening, when their own restaurants are closed.

The dining room feels large, bright and airy, despite seating 65 covers. There are also two private dining rooms (which can be merged into one): one has glass walls looking into the restaurant; the other is completely enclosed by oak panels, has its own private toilet and has a car lift which can fit a Hummer(!) so the most secretive or publicity-shy customer can eat here without anyone knowing at all!!

My final bill, including service, came to £453.38.  Overall I was quite impressed with Hide (Above) and I’ve already got a reservation to try Hide (Ground) in a couple of weeks. Food is light, healthy and strongly features seasonal vegetables, flowers and plants.  That’s the same style of food as we’d had the night before in Roganic and I do think Roganic is a level or two above Hide (Above), and that might have made me score the dishes lower than they’re really worth.  Hide (above) is still very good food, which I believe deserves one star in the next Michelin Guide UK 8/10.  BTW the wine flight was perfectly good for £65 and the staff were lovely.