Pollen Street Social, London

Pollen Street Social is the flagship of the Jason Atherton restaurant empire. Holding one Michelin star and ranked number 6 in the 2015 Good Food Guide with a score of 9 it can be safe to say the food here is pretty good.

We visited one recent Saturday afternoon and sampled the following:

Amuse bouche - mushroom consommé, goats cheese churros with truffle honey, black pudding croquette and black garlic cookie

Colchester crab salad, apple & coriander, black garlic, lemon puree, brown crab foam, sourdough crisps – a very fresh dish with simple flavours to complement the crab.

Buccleuch Estate steak tartare, smoked beetroot, wild leaves, berry pearls – sharp flavours which the beef stood up well to.

Hay smoked quail “brunch”, cereals, toast & tea. The quail arrived in a box and continued to smoke whilst the rest of the components were delivered, the toast and tea turned out to be brioche toast with liver mousse and quail Broth, the cereals were a crispy quail egg and crispy grains.

Roasted Cornish cod, English crayfish, summer vegetables, Scottish girolles

Cumbrian pork belly & cheek, Mrs Brown’s black pudding, Jersey royals, pink apple puree, new season ramps

Black Angus rib eye, duck fat chips, green salad – well-cooked medium rare but needed a little extra char on the outside.

One of the big unique points of Pollen Street Social is the dessert bar in the main dining room, the girls were excited by this and even more so when we moved to the bar for dessert.

A pre dessert of yogurt foam and strawberry soup was served to us to wet our appetites.

Granny Smith apple parfait, blueberry, shiso & eucalyptus

Chocolate marquise, praline, milk mousse, honey ice cream

The amount of effort in plating up is immense and that’s without seeing the prep of the components which must also be very labour intensive. The main kitchen also has a glass front allowing customers to view the workings of a top kitchen.

Just when we thought we were done we were offered some petit fours in the form of an ice cream cone, rose jelly, marshmallows and chocolate granite.