The Pem
St James's, London
* Jennifer Collins (currently senior sous-chef at Kol in Marylebone) has been appointed as The Pem's new head chef, to work alongside Sally Abé in the restaurant's brand new kitchen. Watch for a new review coming soon.*
The St James's branch of the Conrad Hotel group is just behind the tube station, though not many of its patrons, we suspect, will be arriving by London Underground. Inside, a spacious gauze-curtained lounge and cocktail bar set the tone. Venture further in, and the Blue Boar 'pub' is opposite the entrance to a dining room given the family soubriquet of the suffragist Emily Wilding Davison, who died under the hooves of the King's horse at the 1913 Epsom Derby. It's a screened space with very gentle background music, lighting on the restful side of crepuscular, and a posse of flawlessly charming staff, including a sommelier, James Shaw, who is engaging and helpful throughout. Sally Abé (formerly of the Harwood Arms in Fulham) is consultant chef here, bringing a style of soft-focused intensity to the menus, preferring to build layers of seductive, discreet richness in dishes rather than jolt the taste buds with sharpness and bitterness. A starter of 'hen of the woods' mushroom with a sous-vide egg yolk the colour of a Belisha beacon, on a muffin hidden under a nest of spinach, is a kind of egg florentine brunch dish in effect, and entirely satisfying. Main-course meats might be spring Herdwick lamb with its braised confit sweetbread and Tropea onion in a jus tickled with Gentleman's Relish, or a fine flat fillet of guinea-fowl breast like an escalope, accompanied by fabulous chicken mousse-stuffed morels and new season's asparagus, sauced with foaming chicken velouté. The only dish at inspection that seemed less than convincingly structured was a single poached langoustine on lardo-filled hearts of savoy cabbage, immersed in malted shellfish consommé; its flavours are true enough, but the cabbage unravels messily and the fat gets lost in the soup. For dessert, Black Forest gâteau is defiantly undeconstructed, with layers of cherry and chocolate mousse, preserved griottines and chocolate ice cream, while a study in rhubarb and ginger offers crumbed ice cream of the one and an assertive parfait of the other, alongside cinnamon-laced gingerbread and a brandy snap. The wine list is a trove of treasures, with imaginative glass selections. Try a mouthful of this and that, especially the ones you are least expecting to like. It's what adventurous wine exploration is all about.
Dining Information:
Accommodation, Private dining room, Separate bar, Wheelchair access, Credit card required
Conrad London St James, 22-28 Broadway, St James's SW1H 0BH
020 3301 8080
