10 Greek Street - review

For those of you old enough to recall Alastair Little’s heroic sojurn on Frith Street, then 10 Greek Street will evoke rather more than memories, almost a total reincarnation.

A simple trilogy of perfectly accurate flavours that belie the canteen feel

We are not going retro here, rather back to the future. Little who now runs a small traiteur Tavola on Westbourne Road (no web site) in Notting Hill, was one of the pioneers of London post war restauration adapting whatever he could find in the Soho markets day to day to the recipes of Elizabeth David and Jane Grigson and others.

10 Greek Street - the small stew
10 Greek Street is a chip off the same block. That is a compliment, in case you might not be clear. Luke Wilson honed his approach at the applauded Wapping project before landing here…a smart little ground floor, open plan kitchen, no booking in the evening, blackboard menu, a tin box cut into Formica tables for the cutlery et al and old milk bottles for tap water.

The approach is whole lemon sole, rissotto - the kind of things in fact that are messy or difficult to cook at home, a menu that enquires.

10 Greek street - the lamb This week's inquisition of the day's produce included a fish stew sensibly priced at £7 or £14, starter or main. It was a sweet tomato and pepper infused broth into which clams, prawn, turbot, the tiniest squid had found their way...I ate something similar, perhaps a bit chunkier, 20 years back.

There was a classically inclined dish of yesterday’s slow cooked lamb wrapped in a square, breadcrumbed and deepfried sat on a chick peas, purple sprouting broccoli and some lamb jus. Classy.

Best of all perhaps was the chocolate caramel tart with sea salt and creme fraiche, a simple trilogy of perfectly accurate flavours that belie the canteen feel and would not be out of place somewhere with more pretentious prices and aspirations.

10 Greek Street - the chocolate£70 covered two of us with a couple of pitchers of Languedoc and Hungarian, which was rather better than good value, almost needlessly so, as were all the staff who were almost needlessly relaxed, efficient, professional and friendly.

I have kept this short because I am sharing my pictures with a guest review from world famous nose (that is in perfume) James Craven who fancied trying his hand at restaurant reviewing…he has a more floral style than me.

But  for the record…

ALL SCORED CONFIDENTIAL REVIEWS ARE IMPARTIAL AND PAID FOR BY THE MAGAZINE. 

10GreekStreet, London, W1D 4DH. 020 7734 4677

Rating: 16/20 (please read the scoring system in the box below)
Food: 8/10
Service: 4/5
Ambience: 4/5