John Doe

1 Reviews on “John Doe”

• Epicuriousinlondon

  Golborne Road flies slightly under the radar, but ever since Pizza East moved in a few years ago it’s becoming a pretty decent place to eat in West London. John Doe certainly does this reputation no harm. Describing itself as a contemporary British restaurant, it specialises in charcoal-grilling British produce, in particular wild meat, on a beast of a grill called Bertha.Despite the likes of Jay Rayner bang on about just how smokey everything tasted (a good thing for him), the food was not overwhelmingly so. Starters included roe deer tartare and ash-roasted leeks – both were excellent, the grill extracting that lovely, sweet and nutty flavour of leeks when grilled. Less impressive was the octopus with chickpeas and aioli. It was tasty, but ultimately too chewy.One of the day’s seafood mains (the menu changes daily) were crab claws with a Keralan curry sauce. Interesting sounding enough, but not particularly memorable – the charcoal grill didn’t manage to impart any smokiness upon the crab meat. Better orders were the matt dishes. Grilled lamb leg and breast was bloody good as was a guinea fowl breast and confit leg. The lamb came with probably my favourite vegetable to roast/grill – cauliflower. For good measure we ordered a side dish of it with pomegranate and hazelnut: I’d urge you to do the same if you visit. A 1/2 beer butt chicken was perfectly cooked – the bird has a beer can stuffed up its backside to steam it so it was succulent. Other sides included puy lentils (average) and moreish grilled corn with an addictive mayo.We ordered 2 desserts to share to finish – we’re only human, after all. Chocolate terrine with pistachio pipped the apricot and almond tart, but both were well worth ordering.All in all, John Doe was enjoyable. I get the mixed reviews – service was hit and miss whilst some dishes underperformed. Ultimately though it was an amiable atmosphere and if you order the meat-centric dishes, where charcoal grilling really makes a difference, you won’t go wrong. gastronomicdabbling.wordpress.com

  November 15, 2015, 4:12 am

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