Lunch at the TownHouse

We just walked back from Easter Saturday lunch at The Dean Street Town House in London's Soho. I'm SO full, wanted to write about it straight away while it's fresh in my mind. The restaurant is fairly newly opened and has received a lot of press recently. It's owned by the same company that run the amazingly luxurious Babington House hotel in Somerset...and every attention has been paid to the detail, look and feel of this gorgeous space. We sat at one of the round tables (like the one pictured above)...really comfortable, velvet upholstered chairs, beautiful linens and cutlery.

There's a special vegetarian menu (always a welcome bonus!) and it was hard to choose from the delicious sounding selection....most of which came in small or large portions, so you could mix & match the menu as you liked. I decided on Goat Curd, Beetroot & Chicory Salad to start....absolutely gorgeous, jewelled with pomegranate seeds, fresh & delicate...then a Chanterelle & Onion Tart with side orders of jersey royal new potatoes & purple sprouting broccoli. The tart was flaky & light with plenty of onion and the wonderful flavour of the wild mushrooms permeating through.

We drank a bottle of our favourite wine in the world...Isabel Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand...not often found, always ordered when we do!

I had the most divine dessert too....Peanut Shortbread with Salted Caramel Ice cream. Oh my. The shortbread was rich and salty with the crunch of peanuts and soft chocolate contrasting the texture from the middle....and the ice cream was a taste I could happily die eating!

The service was slightly slow to start with, but once we got talking to the friendly Aussie sommelier it soon thawed out. A great place to people watch (such interesting types in Soho!!) and they're open all day, including breakfast & afternoon tea. You could even get a room and stay after dinner (I always judge a place by the standards of it's bathrooms....and this one was just beautiful, all black & white with blood red velver chairs & antique mirrors....)

The Dean Street Townhouse: a feast for the stomach & the senses in Soho  8.5/10