Mews of Mayfair

Mention the words ‘Mayfair’ and ‘celeb hangout’ and most of us would either run a mile or chargemews towards it like a bull to a Spanish bloke in silly clothes.  I’m more of the former persuasion, but a few reliable recommendations made Mews of Mayfair the location for a pre-Xmas boozy lunch with Mr. Buffy the Nightclub Slayer and Mr. Pants.

Located within a quiet cobbled courtyard in the heart of Mayfair, Mews is ideally placed to get away from the hustle and bustle of Oxford Street and Bond Street.  The venue comprises of two mews houses converted to stunning effect.  Revellers can enjoy dinner in the restaurant, have some great cocktails in the Cocktail bar or party away until 1am in the basement bar.  The whole venue is consciously understated, with the feel of an elegant private house.  The restaurant’s charming decor is cosy yet minimalist and is equally suited to long, lazy lunches or more formal occasions. 

The menu is largely devoid of airs and graces so provides a welcome balance of interesting with real food.  Starters included a well made Duck & ham hock terrine and a simply outstanding Ravioli Paysanne with seared fois gras; the dish was incredibly comforting and rich with flavour, and if there is another venue in London that provides such a generous portion of fois gras for £8, I’ve yet to find it.  Highlights from the mains included a Saddle of Lamb which was loaded with meaty flavour, perfectly cooked and surely one of London’s finest lamb dishes.  Chocolate fondant for dessert was also as good as you can expect.  We were also recommended some excellent wines from the extensive and reasonably priced list to complement our meal.

As strange as it may sound, the restaurant also provided genuine value considering the location, venue and all round quality.  The smart, attentive and friendly service simply topped off an excellent experience.  Mews of Mayfair really is one of London’s best kept secrets and for once, it appears the celebs have got it right.

Food: 4/5
Venue: 4/5
Value: 3.5/5

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Love's profile     Other reviews by Love     Love likes    

Tucked away in a cobbled mews, away from traffic and the prestigious shopping area of New Bond Street lies a beautifully, restored period building called Mews of Mayfair.

This is no ordinary venue but a contemporary modern restaurant with multiple functionalities - a private dining room, cocktail bar and club, all located in the heart of Mayfair. Super chic in décor – the interior is elegant, dim-lit and cosy with comfortable creamy leather upholstery.

Their menu had a good balance of fish and meat with seasonal ingredients being their key components. We were also pleased to see a credit crunch set menu on offer (£25 per person) which had most of the dishes featured on the a la carte.

Sitting back and relaxing from a very long day, we started our meals with a very crisp, citrusy ‘Chablis Emile Petit’ while looking at Chef Oliver Clark’s menu. A very accommodating waiter recommended our choice of scallops and quail salad for starters and for mains we opted for the pan-fried cod and tiger prawns.

The salad with quail eggs and quail breast, wild garlic and truffle was a unique blend of strong gamy flavours. When combined together all flavours created a wonderful spring dish. Our other appetizer of scallops was a delicate explosion of taste which was enhanced by the cauliflower and cumin puree.

Incredibly impressed by our starters, we were eager to try more. Soon to arrive were our mains, Tiger prawns and pan-fried cod. The prawns were of prime quality, meaty in flesh and were paired well with the ginger sparkle and freshness of watermelon pieces. The pan-fried cod was also a winning dish thanks to its excellent firmness and aroma. The combination of white asparagus and crispy calamari completed the feast, for what I believe to be a magnificent melange of flavours.

Dessert wise, my partner ordered Tiramisu, which did not topple our taste buds. The dish was too dry, the cream too firm and it was certainly not moreish on the palette. On the other hand, my choice of Passion fruit cheesecake was a creative and experimental dish. The layers of fruit coupled with dollops of cream and cheesy centres made an appetising treat.

The Mews of Mayfair is a dining must. The combinations of ingredients, flavours, presentation and overall experience were of high standards. Only the best of chefs can really keep the ingredients so basic taking the whole dinner and food experience to another level … well done Oliver Clark!

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See Where Eagles Tremble
VIC REEVES’ suit may have upstaged his art. Despite atmospheric twilight, he insisted on the flash when I took his portrait. It turned out to be interwoven with reflective hi-vis strands… I had come to see the on the wall artistic output of a comedian often described as ‘off it’. ‘Where Eagles Tremble’ is a series of canvases illustrating the one page fiction of Alan Todd, ‘athletic’ 4’5” tall, world war II obsessed filmstar.

The venue is a bijou former clothes boutique annexed to the glamorous restaurant, cocktail bar and lounge, ‘Mews of Mayfair’. The inherited mottled sky ceiling of the Indica like space complimented the vigorous, somewhat childlike paintings of airborne planes, although enduring cubicle fittings looked peculiar.

According to organisers ‘Eyestorm’, Reeves (whose real name is Jim Moir) has always been primarily an artist, having studied it in the mid ‘80’s. Several attendees assured eachother that the paintings, including ‘Return to Gayport’, ‘Scum’ and ‘The Puff’ were “very Vic”. But what does that mean? According to the P.R. bumf, it gives licence to be ‘playfully deranged’ and ‘sublimely absurd’, or ‘Spike Milligan without the genius’ as my friend preferred to put it. My favourite painting was actually hidden in a corridor. I wouldn’t have seen it if someone hadn’t opened the door, thwacking one of the curators in the process. Unlike the majority, it was free from an on canvas subtitle. A slightly over-cropped, sausage fat fuselage felt particularly present and comical, with details picked in a distinctive red.

Whilst likeable, these paintings (which could be yours from £1500) are never going to be as surreal as Reeves life, which reads remarkably. His mother was an amateur medium. He buried his vintage Austin. Playgirl offered him £250,000 for a nude centrefold. With ‘Dizzy’, he had a number one single. He recently recorded a programme about tweed. And he is – irony aside - a keen ornithologist, reflected in an earlier artistic commission. The surreal is always a welcome temptation, especially in murky economic times. Ultimately however, these canvases have the feel of albeit very large postcards. They lack the spirit of surprise, poise and fantastically peculiar authorship that I associate with Reeves (and his dazzling suit).

See Where Eagles Tremble until 29th April

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The food: French
The drinks: Interesting, reasonably priced wine list, few choices under £30.

In the heart of Mayfair, we were attracted to this restaurant by a combination of factors: its menu (we’ve had mostly positive run of late with French cuisine), a promisingly negative review of AA Gill, and a 50% discount on food (why do these places do that instead of setting directly more reasonable prices?). The restaurant is on the first floor, from which you can contemplate the wall of vociferous crowd standing out of the bar downstairs:

A climb up the narrow staircase and a warm environment engulfs you: floorboards, cream walls and upholstered benches along the walls, spacious tables. Unfortunately the tables for two are very close to one another – but then again space is expensive in Mayfair (otherwise we’d live there, no?).

On the menu, starters are in the £6-10 range, with an intriguing ‘Le Landes’ Duck and Ham Hock Terrine with Figs (£8). Among the mains, we are tempted by a Peppered Monkfish with Red Wine and Oxtail Risotto (£17), but we’ll opt for something lighter.

The bread arrives:

Offered from a tray, and always refilled, it’s either rosemary or plain. Not much of a variety, you may argue, yet quite good - and you know we do not use the ‘g’ word very often when referring to bread.

Our starters appear:

- Pan Fried Sea Bream with celeriac and thyme (£7)
- Seared scallops with cauliflower and Cox’s apple salad (£9.50)

The scallops were seared wonderfully according to Woman, and you can see from the photo what she means - whereas fussy Man found them very good but ever so slightly rubbery, i.e. overcooked (but just). Nevertheless the cauliflower sauce, in psite of its offputting purple appearance, was incredibly luscious and intense on both palates. An excellent variety of flavours came through in the garnishes and accompaniments (aside from the cauliflower, the tangy fine apples, a remarkable basil flavoured olive oil, and fresh sorrel). An impressive, gustatively complex and good looking dish: a motive that will continue.

The seabream tail, while not fantastic in terms of raw material, was cooked egregiously, with mustardy and smoky flavoured sauces and finely sliced mushrooms and beautiful garnishes adding richness and finesse to this labour intensive work.

Here are our mains:

- Pan Fried John Dory with calamari and parsnip tart (£19)
- Fillet of Pollock with braised lettuce and shrimp gnocchi (£16.50).

With the Jonh Dory a truly regrettable incident happened: Man, carried away by his enthusiasm for its masterful cooking, gobbled up bit by bit the entire piece of fish without leaving anything for Woman! So you’ll have to trust him on the cooking…The miffed Woman can only add her favourable opinion of the reduction (probably veal) and of the tender and flavoursome fine calamari. And as usual by now, many interesting plays and subthemes going on in this rich, meaty dish, the parsnip tart and the ‘polenta’ soaking up and sublimating them. (One of the subthemes were unadvertised frog legs: were they afraid of scaring the public?).

The masterful cooking theme continues with the humble Pollock. However the ‘gnocchi’ were not gnocchi: served in an Italian restaurant, they would have made their way directly back to the kitchen with the complaint that they were just a floury mess with no shrimp flavour to speak of: but these objects being merely a supporting piece in a French dish, we took a more relaxed view…The pollock wasn’t very flavoursome, but conversely, the braised lettuce was a delight, so simple but so intense and well executed, and so well fitting the other material.

And to conclude:

- Pecan pudding with bay leaf ice cream (£7)
- Pistachio parfait with bitter chocolate sorbet (£7.00)

The pecan pudding is very good, very soft, very moist, honey flavoured. The strong pine nuts truly burst out on your palate. A pity this dessert is marred by the melted ice cream (and the bay leaf is very evanescent).

The parfait is good and has an impressive texture, but the pistachio taste has, like the bayleaf above, remained in the chef’s imagination without reaching the dish. It makes way for an alcoholic punch with a whiff of almonds. Very good were the pistachio praline’ and the chocolate ‘sorbet’ (it felt like an icecream).


The water consisted of an expensive 0.75 litre bottle at £5, and the wine of a good Bourgogne (Faiveley 2007) at £29.50. With 12.5% service added, and deploying our 50% bill buster, we reduce a total which would have overshot our £100 rule by more than a tenner to a very reasonable £76.94.


The waiter was pleasant, humorous and swift (we admired his strong but polite and professional attempt to push the specials of the day). Service is informal, with wine and water left on your table and glasses not constantly refilled (we actually like it this way!). The kitchen must have been slightly under pressure, as a swift starter was followed by a long wait for mains (nothing too dramatic anyway). Quite an attractive set of dishes we had at Mews, full of intriguing combinations of neat, rich flavours and rather elaborate preparations, handled by an obviously very able chef. The materials were good even if sometimes probably not top notch. Perhaps because of this, or in part because of this, we were merely pleased, but not ravished, by most creations. So, all in all, an enjoyable and interesting culinary experience which, while perhaps we just about wouldn’t come back to at full prices, is excellent value with the special offer.

Eat-Drink-Man-Woman's profile     Other reviews by Eat-Drink-Man-Woman     Eat-Drink-Man-Woman likes    

THEY ARE damn good purée-ers at Mews of Mayfair, a swanky, but not outlandish four tier address a few hundred cobbles from Handel’s House Museum and hidden from Oxford Street. Each floor reflects a different temperament… From discreetly glamorous, loosely 1920s basement lounge to humming ground floor cocktail bar (come afternoon tea parlour) festooned with 18th century chandelier and Chesterfields. A stairway with wallpaper similar to nearby Mirabelle leads up to the clean, cream, but not minimalist restaurant, with private dining for two dozen provided in the vaulted loft above. The latter has Empire mapped walls, shaved beams and a soundproofed glazed view into the world of the Antipodean chefs frantically serving all areas.

Within the restaurant, however, matters initially feel a little wedding breakfast, especially when the poised Pommery NV arrives. A magnificent clock petrified at ten to eleven gazes out at a room drenched in ivory white. Bleached leather seating is ergonomically perfect. Hand-applied subdued butterflies flutter upon silk embroidered walls. Eggshell window-frames channel brightening sun, refracted off a line-up of silver tipped white teapots. However attentive, conversational, black-shirted - in one case macho - waiters surmounts the feminine status quo…

The warm, firm breads brought with sweetened, beaten, salt crystal sprinkled Normandy butter heralded good things ahead. I enjoyed lathered lobster bisque (puréed crustaceans) then flavoursome corn fed chicken (as opposed to fowl raised on fishmeal or soya) heightened by puréed cauliflower with girolles. Chefs find chicken boring, according to Anthony Bourdain in his extraordinarily adrenal book ‘Kitchen Confidential’. I find it boring too, although this tender version had integrity. My dessert: swathes of puréed strawberries with balsamic treacle, chocolate basil and crunchy ice cream. An ’05 straight Bourgogne Pinot Noir from Domaine Joseph Faiveley felt a little stretched: dilute, hard, bitter and ungracious.

Traps include roast sage scented side, Charlotte Potatoes, feverishly priced at £4.50 and ‘bio bottle’ Belu mineral water (£5), albeit served in really comfortable glasses with subtly rounded bases.This is a venue where detailed attention has been given to all aspects including the bijou loos with gold wallpaper, wave sensors (!) and smartly polished antique-looking fittings.

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