Chef Ollie Dabbous opened Hide in 2017 on London’s Piccadilly, with financial backing from Hedonism Wines and Russian monies.  It opened as two restaurants within the same venue; Hide Ground was a casual all-day dining spot, and Hide Above (upstairs) was more “fine dining” with only a tasting menu.  Dabbous wanted Michelin to treat Hide as two separate restaurants (each has its own kitchen), but when Michelin released their awards they chose to treat Hide as one restaurant and awarded one Michelin star to the combined venue, which it has retained into the 2021 guide.  In 2018 Mr A and I had the pleasure of eating at both Hide Ground and Hide Above, where we found the quality of the food to be very high in both.  In 2021 Hide began making a few tweaks to its offer; it renamed Hide Ground as “Hide” and the upstairs became “Above at Hide” and began offering a reduced a la carte menu in addition to its tasting menus.  But in July 2021 the changes hadn’t been fully implemented and there was uncertainty amongst the staff as to what was available on each of their two dining floors.

Our lunch on an overcast early July Saturday had been arranged by my sister’s Man, Mr J, for us to meet up and socialise for the first time in a year, and he originally booked into Above at Hide. But when he was confirming the reservation they told him a la carte wasn’t available upstairs, so he moved the booking to Hide, on the ground floor.  He double-checked the situation with our waitress during our meal, but she had no idea what menus were served upstairs.  Their website says both tasting and a la carte are available upstairs, but the a la carte list is quite short/restricted.

Mr A and I arrived early to find that the entrance to Hide now hides behind an ornamental grass-decorated terrace on the pavement (presumably set up under covid restrictions) and that’s where we sat with Negroni in hand, waiting for my sister.  The Negroni was good, but it didn’t have the single large ice cube often served in a Negroni, and no nuts or nibbles were served with the cocktail. 8/10

When Miss J and Mr J arrived we were shown to our table, next to one of the large windows on the ground floor, and foldable handbag stools were brought for us.  Lunch was to be a treat by Mr J, but I decided to buy a bottle of Krug for the table (£205 including service), to sip while we studied the menu.  The menu was still headed “Hide Ground”  and contained 7 sections,  called “to graze”, “caviar and oysters”, “starters”, “mains”, “sides”, “dessert” and “cheese and savoury” – each had a decent selection of dishes, enabling us to construct our own menus with whatever took our fancy. There was also a pretty good set lunch menu, which Mr J went for.

The “graze” section covered plates which were much more substantial than mere bread, snacks or canapés.  I had chosen a chicken liver parfait with a fig and hibiscus chutney (£11), which came with two door-stops of toasted brioche.  The parfait really was perfectly smooth and airy; its flavour when spread onto the brioche with a little chutney was fabulous. 10/10

I could happily have ordered any of the six starters, but in the end I went for “Blue prawns with ripe avocado & fig leaf oil; chilled broth made from the shells” once the waiter confirmed the prawns were basically raw (after a light cure).  I adore raw seafood, including the sweet ameobi shrimps in Japan, but I’d never had plump blue king prawns raw before.  They were delicious! Sweet, tender, meaty prawns with a light blue/grey chilled broth, some sea greens and ripe avocado, this was a terrifically novel, fresh, summery dish. 10/10

I chose to have “Barbecued octopus with smoked aubergine & crushed pine nuts” for my main course, because I’d loved an octopus dosh here in the past.   A plump and beautifully charred octopus arm sat on some deliciously nutty sweet crushed pine nuts, below a covering of salad leaves. To the side was a smooth and smokey aubergine puree which went very well with the cephalopod .  I also had a side of “Charred broccoli vinaigrette”, which was good and tender.  The octopus had firm but forgiving meat, but with a tougher-to-cut-through skin.  9.5/10

I eschewed dessert, but went for a portion of “Cave-aged Comte, fresh heather honeycomb, seasonal fruit loaf”. Lovely 36 month matured cheese, light delicate honey and moist and fruity bread, this was a delicious cheese course. 8.5/10

Service was faultless, and as ever, the restaurant was busy and buzzing.  Although Hide positions itself in the ‘casual’ market segment – they don’t use tablecloths, they don’t do amuse bouches, pre-desserts or petit fours – the food is definitely of “fine dining” standards, but with generous portion sizes.  The overall experience is very good; Hide is well worthy of its Michelin star  9.5/10