West End debut
"Sorry it's so quiet for you," says Conrad Gallagher. "But it's August and we wanted a slow opening." Gallagher's new restaurant and bar, which opened on Shaftesbury Avenue at the end of July, also feels a tad empty because it's so large. It seats 270 - 170 in the restaurant and 100 in the bar.
Most Londoners aren't yet familiar with Gallagher, probably because his regular stomping ground is Dublin, where he has the one-Michelin-starred restaurant, Peacock Alley. But Dubliners know him well, as do Londoners who frequent Dublin, and it is these people who are making up the majority of Gallagher's first customers.
A deli counter dominates the nightclub-style entrance. It sells freshly baked breads, branded biscuits, jams, chutneys, oils and vinegars, as well as Gallagher's cookery books, plus china and glassware from the restaurant.
Light meals are served in the ground-floor lounge bar at low, glass tables, with dishes such as club sandwich made with guinea fowl, tomato, rocket and bacon on toasted brioche (£4.50) or pastrami-cured sea trout with sticky rice, pickled pear, ginger and wasabi crème fraîche (£9.75) on offer. The latter is also a starter on the restaurant menu, although Gallagher appears to have toned down the wasabi since Evening Standard restaurant critic Fay Maschler berated it for being "an anaesthetic to my palate". Maschler did, however, give the restaurant a star, meaning "good".
Downstairs, chef de cuisine Steven Black, head chef at Eastwell Manor in Boughton Lees, Kent, before joining Gallagher in February, leads a brigade of 16. The à la carte menu offers eight starters, main courses and desserts, and diners spend an average of £55 with wine.
Starters include seared scallops and foie gras with a fricassée of girolles, fava beans, fresh peas, with an asparagus and albuféra sauce (£14); and a risotto of butternut squash, black trompette mushrooms, loin of rabbit and squash foam (£9). Among the main courses are pan-roasted fillet of turbot with a casserole of peas and bacon, foie gras butter, galette potato and pea purée (£24); and roasted duckling with soy and honey, buckwheat and walnut cream, duck liver parfait, poached fig and asparagus (£18).
Puddings, taken by 75-80% of diners, all cost £7.50. The creations of pastry chef Liam Sevastopulo include chocolate and raspberry sablé with chocolate mousse, raspberry and chocolate sorbet; and orange tart with orange soufflé and a blood orange sorbet.
There's also a short, all-organic, vegetarian menu with two starters, mains and puddings. Typical dishes include a starter of watercress risotto with plum tomato and baby vegetables (£8.75), and a main-course casserole of peas, beans, spinach with potato crisps and braised chicory on pea emulsion (£19.50). It's a popular menu, chosen by around 10% of diners. "Supposedly, one in five people in Ireland are vegetarian now, so I've always catered for them," says Gallagher.
A selection from the menu at Conrad Gallagher
Terrine of duck and foie gras with crispy spinach, mango and chilli, apricot and truffle aioli and toasted brioche, £12.75
Ceviche of oyster with cucumber, radish and Sevruga caviar, £10.75
Roasted fillet of beef with a tower of vegetables, truffle mash and sauce Rossini, £23.50
Pan-fried fillet of swordfish on squid ink polenta with goat's cheese ravioli and a crayfish and saffron vinaigrette, £18.75
Roasted fillet of sea bass with lemon grass broth, braised chicory and mussels, £18.50
Apple and cinnamon croustade with apple confit and cinnamon ice-cream, £7.50
Apricot pain perdu, fresh almonds and caramel sauce with star anise, £7.50
Conrad Gallagher Shaftesbury Avenue, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 7EA. Tel: 020 7836 3111
