Illustration by Fig & Ginger, drawn from the review. The venue's own photo is on its way.
Modern British tasting menu in Notting Hill, London
Core by Clare Smyth
Potato, Roe, Nerve
Three Michelin stars is a heavy sentence to hang on a restaurant. Core wears it like a cardigan. It sits on Kensington Park Road in Notting Hill, a street of pastel houses and people walking small dogs, and the room inside is quiet, warm and unfussy in a way that most places at this level only pretend to be.
The cooking is the argument. The menu comes in two flavors. Core Classics gathers the plates the place is known for, including the Potato and Roe and the Lamb Carrot. Core Seasons follows the market. The Michelin inspectors describe dishes of supreme depth of flavour, and that matches the pitch: a very small number of ingredients, treated with an obsessive amount of care, until a potato makes you stop talking mid sentence. I have eaten at enough tables where the garnish does the heavy lifting. Here the garnish has been fired.
There is also a Whiskey and Seaweed bar, a pairing that makes you blink, and a good place to start or finish. Book directly with the restaurant, since it handles its own reservations, and check the current days, because it opens for dinner early in the week and lunch toward the weekend. This is a place to plan a trip around. Bring someone who notices when the bread is right.
- Order this
- Potato and Roe, Lamb Carrot, The Core Classics menu if it is your first time
- The damage
- $$$$
- Go
- Thursday to Saturday at lunch, when the room is bright and nobody is rushing you
- Find it
- 92 Kensington Park Road, London W11 2PN
- Website
- corebyclaresmyth.com