Social Eating House Soho, London

Social Eating House – another one of Jason Atherton’s restaurants to try in London!

We met up with a friend in London for my pre-birthday lunch and decided to try one of Jason Atherton’s restaurants, Social Eating House.  Social Eating House is tucked away down Poland Street in Soho – in the heart of London, very easy to find, but just keep an eye out for the grey frontage.  Stepping inside the restaurant and sweeping the heavy curtain aside, we were welcomed by the friendly staff and taken to our table at the rear of the restaurant.  Our table was booked for 12pm and the restaurant was almost empty with only one other table occupied near to us.  

Walking through the dimly lit restaurant, there were comfortable, red leather booths on the right hand side near the front of the restaurant.  The exposed brick walls, the leather banquette seating with the dark wooden tables and chairs made it feel like a French bistro, with a lovely relaxed ambience.  One thing I noticed immediately was the slow service considering there were only two tables occupied in the restaurant; we had to wait twenty minutes for our drink orders to be taken.

The cocktails from the prix fixe (or fixed price) menu  were chosen; Ian had a ‘Mojito’, my friend ordered the ‘Ballroom Spritz’ and I went for ‘Pineapple Tommy’s.’  Oh, did I have cocktail envy.  The ‘Ballroom Spritz’ had raspberry and prosecco, which was lovely – sweet and refreshing.  The cocktail I had chosen was quite the opposite – the tequila was too overpowering.

We ordered the duck rillette shared jam jar from the a la carte menu, which was delicious, neither greasy nor heavy.  The light crisps worked perfectly with the flavoursome duck.  Very moorish.

Everyone on the table opted for the tender pork belly drizzled with brown onion sauce, however the sauce was slightly overpowering but otherwise was good.

Now for my favourite part … the desserts!  My dessert was alot bigger in comparison to the pavlova.  The vanilla rice pudding with the colourful little edible flowers was sweet and creamy, and the puffed wild rice just popped in the mouth.  The hibiscus sorbet was cool and fresh.  The different textures and the zestiness from the lime gel went fabulously well together.  There was so much of the vanilla rice pudding, I had to pass it to Ian to finish off – he didn’t decline!  The coconut pavlova was divine – light and refreshing with a hint of coriander – Ian just wished it had been a little bigger.

Light and moist almond financiers with the light and fluffy vanilla chantilly cream accompanied the coffee. Perfect little bites to end the meal.

Although the food was delicious and packed full of flavour, however we felt that the service let it down at the start.  The service did improve slightly when there was a change of staff mid-way through our meal.  However the staff were extremely polite, friendly, helpful and not at all intrusive.

Price: Prix Fixe Menu 2 courses £29.50, 3 courses £33.50 (with cocktail)

Have you tried Social Eating House?  Which Jason Atherton restaurant would you recommend?

 

 

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