When people think of good restaurants, especially Michelin star restaurants, they often associate this with a small portions in a formal setting. Also, they assume it is going to be an expensive meal using unusual ingredients. In SoHo, central london you will find a restaurant that will prove everyone wrong that has this view of Michelin star restaurant: The Social Eating House.
The restaurant has an interior that very much reminds me of a pub in the English countryside. This is not meant in a negative way, quite the opposite actually. When I walked in, I immediately felt at home. Where some restaurants require a shirt and tie, here the requirement is to wear whatever feels comfortable (within reason). Sit down at one of the tables and you will hear some noise, but in no way disturbing as the tables are far enough apart. Nice brick walls re-enforce the pub-feeling I mentioned earlier and so does the “uniform” worn by the waiters; jeans with a shirt and jaquet. Compared to other Michelin star restaurants, they do not have a lot of waiters and other staff walking around in the restaurant, which again is a compliment as you will not notice in any way.
Like the staff and the interior design, the food is very much like what you would expect in a pub but then executed to perfection. Besides the a-la-carte option, there is a prix-fixe menu for lunch where you have the choice between two or three dishes for each course. A three course lunch will cost GBP 29,50 (approx. EUR 37/USD 42) excl. an optional 12,5% service charge and drinks.
A warm potato salad with chicory and parmesan cheese was served as first course. There are different potatoes on the plate, some of which are purple. This is the same for the chicory. A nice pallet of colours in the vegetables is ‘swimming’ in a perfect amount of sauce/dressing. The cheese in the sauce/dressing counters the bitterness of the chicory. For the first time ever for a dish with chicory, I can say that I would have loved to eat a little more or it.
Rib eye was something I associated with beef, but this restaurant has a rib eye of pork on the menu. It came with peas, potato mash and a nice gravy. Normally I would not go for meat with too much fat in or on it. I will stick to this from now on, but that is merely my preference and had nothing to do with the preparation. The port was nice and juicy with some nice seasoning coming from the sauce. You cannot really go wrong with mashed potatoes and peas; perfectly creamy mash with a small bite in the peas. The only thing that I was not a big fan of was the onion, as this was a little burnt.
For dessert something with cucumber may be unusual. As we know now, this can be absolutely delicious. Combine this with some apple in sorbet, put strawberries and creme fraiche on the plate and you have a nice dessert. Add the granola and you have a fantastic dessert. For this course I skipped the crushed Pimms as I think this is a little too bitter. This was probably my favourite dish of this meal; freshness from the cucumber/apple with some sweetness of the strawberry, creamy creme fraiche and a nice crunch from the granola.
If you are going to The Social Eating House for a special occasion, know that there is a Chef’s Table Menu. At the time of writing, GBP 80 (excl. service charge and drinks) will get you a special menu of 7 courses plus petit fours on an even more special location; You will be having lunch or diner almost inside the kitchen, seeing all the chefs preparing your meal. Something worth looking into when making a reservation.
To summarize, this was a fantastic meal made out of every-day products cooked really well. No need to use expensive and exotic ingredients. This is where you go for unpretentious good food. All together I spent about EUR 60 for this meal and it was worth more than that.
Restaurant location: View on Google Maps
Restaurant website: http://www.socialeatinghouse.com/