The Palomar – Review

Soho’s latest hot opening is The Palomar, sister restaurant to Jerusalem’s Machneyuda. We have all had some exposure to the hybrid cuisine of this most fractious of cities courtesy of Yotam Ottolenghi, his business partner Sami Tamimi and their restaurants, TV shows, journalism and books. On the back of their welcome interventions into British food culture pomegranate seeds have become so ubiquitous at trendy middle-class dinner parties that their descent into the pantheon of culinary oblivion sitting proudly next to the kiwi fruit is all but guaranteed. However Palomar promised a less mediated experience coming direct from the heart of Jerusalem’s food market. Palomar’s London connection comes through creative director Layo who was behind Bloomsbury’s underground dance club The End and DJ/cocktail bar AKA.

The hip place to eat is up at the 16 seat zinc Kitchen Bar where you can perch like greedy birds watching the chefs do their preparation. However her ladyship and I are in the more sedate back room which is lined with navy banquettes and dark oak panelled walls. It gets busy with serious looking young chaps trying to impress their clients by being gastronomically on-trend.

The menu is divided into Nishnushim (nibbles), plates from the Raw Bar and hot food from the Josper grill, stove and plancha.

We settle on some spiced olives (£3) and a couple of glasses of crisp and lively Vauban Freres Brut Special Cuvée fizz (£8.50) whilst we work out our ordering options. As a greedy person I enjoy the small plates approach as it offers a wider range of taste and texture options and combinations but it does make the process more complicated. Also if a restaurant is serving olives they need to provide cocktail sticks…just saying.

Polpo à la Papi  (£8.50) was first out of the blocks. Tender grilled octopus came in a salad of Mulukhiyah leaves, chickpea, spinach, yogurt with a touch of chilli. It was fresh tasting and succulent with the textures of octopus and chickpea creating a textural dialectic resolved only in the mouth. By now we were laying waste to a bottle of Roaring Meg Sauvignon Blanc, Mt Difficulty, No. ’13, New Zealand (£29.50) which was full of the flavours of grapefruit and tropical fruits.

Fattoush salad (£8) arrived as a comp. from the kitchen. It is the classic Levantine salad of tomato, cucumber, za’atar, the sour note of sumac, pita croutons and homemade labneh (strained yoghurt).

After the sour crunch of the Fattoush, the Spring salad (£7) with fresh fennel, asparagus, kohlrabi, sunflower and poppy seeds, and a feta vinaigrette was crisp and cooling.

Polenta Jerusalem style (£9) came with asparagus, mushroom ragout, parmesan & truffle oil.  It was rich, unctuous and totally delicious. One of my dishes of the year so far.

Mussels Hamusta (£12) was served Kurdish style with fennel, courgettes, swiss chard, arak & lemon butter. This was not the most kosher of dishes and you should know that this is not a kosher restaurant. Although the mussels were plump and juicy, the flavours were underpowered. Mussels are pretty robust and after the polenta dish this was too lightweight with the anis notes of the Arak not coming through.

Sea bass fillet (£15) was Grilled in the Josper with braised cauliflower, cardamom crispy potatoes & citrus vinaigrette. I’m not sure that the Josper is ideal for sea bass as the flesh tends to get overcooked in relation to the skin. I prefer it pan fried.