Grape Expectations
Notting Hillbillies have bid a (not very fond) farewell to Kensington Church Street’s Med Kitchen, and greeted a new corner establishment with open arms – and glasses. The Kensington Wine Rooms’ walls of gleaming bottles and classic leather and mahogany interior are side players to the main event: Enomatic machines stocked with the sorts of bottles us mere off-license frequenters don’t generally decant, all there for the tasting.
You’d think the food would be almost an afterthought, but here too The Kensington Wine rooms excels. Wander past the inviting clarets to the bistro restaurant – much lighter and brighter, in fact, than its wine-bar entrance. Food is great value with daily changing lunch specials starting at £12.50 for two courses.
Spinach salad with crumbled goat’s cheese and walnut pear is dressed with reserve and crunchingly good. Grilled tuna, with new potatoes, fennel and rocket salad comes light, fresh and not too oily; cooked to medium, but without that off-putting cold, fleshy middle. For the carnivores, a bavette steak with spicy herb butter, rough-cut chips and rocket salad ticks all the right boxes. (The beef, although not exactly cooked to order, drew one of our diners into the “bloodier the better” camp.) To finish, dive into the moreish tiramisu and banoffee pie with an unimpeachable fruit base.
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