Pollen Street Social, London, 24th January 2014

After visiting the Churchill War Rooms, we worked up a bit of an appetite by walking to Pollen Street. We arrived a bit early and took the opportunity to have a drink at the bar before being taken through to our table. As we walked into the main restaurant we caught a glimpse of the kitchen and walked past the "dessert bar" where the pastry chefs could be seen in action.

The amuse bouches were presented in book and were a nice, light start. The bread was good, with a choice of a few different varieties.

Amuse bouches

I was pulled towards the set price lunch menu because of a Jerusalem artichoke soup starter (I have become slightly obsessed with Jerusalem artichoke over the last few months). It lived up to expectations and was served with very nice truffle ricotta.

Jerusalem artichoke and walnut soup, pickled pear, truffle ricotta

I chose cod served with couscous for my main course. Although it was good, it possibly wasn't quite as nice as the cod I'd had at Cafe Murano the night before, and the sauce was a bit reminiscent of a certain Fat Duck dish that I wasn't so keen on (basically here I'm moaning about a fish dish tasting fishy which is completely unfair and just my personal taste!)

Roasted cornish cod, cauliflower couscous, chilli, golden raisin and cockles.

The desserts on the lunch menu weren't jumping out and saying "eat me" so I decided to go for something off the a la carte menu choosing the one that sounded like it must have the largest number of calories: chocolate ganache, banana ice cream and chocolate coral.

70% chocolate ganache, banana ice cream, sesame crumble, Pedro Ximenez, chocolate coral

When I booked I mentioned that we were celebrating my Dad's birthday and there were two nice touches-a card signed by Jason Atherton (head chef) and a box which he opened on his birthday and was a very nice chocolate cheesecake and went perfectly with breakfast.

Birthday cheesecake

http://www.pollenstreetsocial.com