184 Green and Grill.

West London seems to be seeing more and more restaurants opening up, especially in the Portebello/Nottinghill Gate area.  184 Green and Grill is a family owned and run eatery with a focus on wood- fried meat, fish and vegetarian cuisine.  Most reviews online seem to go along the lines of “Flexitarian”, meaning one person can have a big steak while another can be a pescatarian or vegetarian at the same meal.  Having only just opened at the start of February 2018, it was a good opportunity to check this place out before it gets too popular.  This mother and son dynamic is spread over two floors – the restaurant on the ground floor has a cool and simple decor, showcasing some artwork and nice simple designs.  Its got a nice ambiance – perfect for a nice Sunday lunch!

The Food

We managed to try their sunday set menu – an option of a two or three course feast.  The ingredients and flavours looked quite diverse – garlic cauliflower soup, fennel salad, crispy fish and confit chicken wings for starters.

The Garlic Cauliflower soup, onion crisps, sumac dried tomatoes was really thick and creamy.  It was full of delicious flavours of garlic – not too overpowering – mixed with the tastes of slightly sweet cauliflower.  The sumac just kicks in a little bit to offer a bit of a punch and then there’s the crunchy onion chips and the dried tomatoes to finish it off.  The presentation was spot on and although it looks a bit small, it was punchy and quite filling!

Chicken Wings

Its not very common to get confit chicken wings but this was simply delicious with the salsa and pepper dip.  The first thing you notice is how many wings are on the plate.  I am not complaining about how many delicious bits of chicken there were but it seemed quite a big gap with the portion of the soup! Regardless, the chicken was soft, succulent and really nice on the taste.  It tasted a bit under seasoned at first but throw in the salsa and pepper dip and you get this tomato base cutting across and emasculating the rest of the delicious chicken.  Each wing also had bits of chili, onions and herbs sitting on top, all going perfectly with the chicken and dip!

Cod

After the heavy bites of chicken had settled, it was time for the mains.  The Cod, parsnip, porcini foam, abalone mushroom stood out most and I was delighted to have ordered it.  It was just so good looking on the plate! A thick chunk of cod sitting on top of the parsnip puree dashed with greens and mushrooms on top.  But the flavours were even more impressive.  First, that creamy parsnip puree was to die for, smooth and full of flavour.  Next, the visual effect of the porcini foam was quite nice with the little bits of bubbles around the dish, something very similar to the ones at La Badine in Hanoi.  The fish itself was a little on the small side but perfectly cooked, gently falling apart with a poke and the fish skin was perfectly crunchy and had this great flavour of charred and crunchy skin. To finish the dish off, there were these large and chewy mushrooms and these green marinated or pickled vegetables dotted around, adding some saltiness to the dish.

One of my favourite components were the little bits of samphire used to add more flavour.  It reminded me of the samphire burratta at Arthur Hoppers – always so surprising how much taste there are in these little bits of veg.  The whole dish in general was full of delicious flavours, something I would go back for more of!

Dessert

Part of the sweets menu included two options, a white chocolate ganache and a spice cake.  We tried the spice cake with squash sorbet and salt caramel pear sauce and was pleasantly surprised.  The cake looked dense but was soft with this really good, thick and strong flavour cutting across.  Not too spicy at all.  The fermented fruit looked like peach or apricot and it was topped with a little crumble and an incredible sorbet – bitter but mixing so well with the rest of the dish!

All in All

Another great addition to the London dining scene.  The lunch set deal is a real bargain, with such high quality food.  The mix of ingredients is creative and combines really well with each other.  Its one of those places that you should all go to, before it gets way too popular and busy!

Also published on Medium.