Mustard is the new kid on the W12 block and a welcome addition to the gastronomic desert that is the top end of Shepherd's Bush Road. It’s the first in a proposed chain by the Joe Allen duo Lawrence Hartley and Tim Healey who hope to open another nine in and around London.

Mustard describes itself as a British centric brasserie, which sums it up nicely, and there's a wide and interesting menu. Prices are good, most of the starters such as cream of tomato soup and chicken terrine come in at under £7 with two - prawn cocktail and Devon crab salad - at £7.95. The mains are mostly in the low to mid teens but those wanting to push the boat out can have 28 day aged rib eye for £17.50 and eight day aged sirloin for £16.95.

The menu is divided into meat, fish and vegetarian. I went with a fellow vegetarian and we were both pleased to see more on offer than risotto and pasta. What I've never understood is why, if Yotam Ottolenghi can write two vegetarian cookery books, so many restaurants seldom feel that it's OK to serve nothing more than those two Italian staples.

Very well done Mustard.

A nice touch is that there are bowls of olives and vegetable crisps already on the table so there's something to nibble on while perusing the menu, although a dish for the olive stones wouldn’t have come amiss.

We kicked off with a red cocktail garnished with a sprig of red currants - don't know what it was called but it was delicious. Then on to the food. To start we shared a salad with a nicely balanced mustard and honey dressing.

The salad wasn't the usual mix of lettuce and tomato, rather it was a selection of finely sliced beetroots and other veg I couldn't identify and forgot to ask what they were, but no matter it was well presented and tasty with plenty of soft fennel and linseed bread to mop up the gravy.

For mains we had goats cheese melted over quinoa grains with porcini mushrooms, and a veggie burger on a gluten free bun with thin chips, not quite skinny enough to be called French fries, with pots of mayo and tomato ketchup.

The melted cheese dish came out as the winner, even friend who doesn’t normally like goat cheese was happy to dip her chips in it.

The trouble with the burger was there was nothing really special about it, and the flavour was overpoweringly mushroomy, and made us wish we'd ordered the cheese and potato pie. The gluten free bun was very light and tasty, but neither of us is gluten intolerant so we're not experts in this field. We didn't eat much of it anyway as we'd OD'd on carbs with the earlier bread and chips.

There's a good choice of deserts including red berry sorbet, ice cream with butterscotch sauce and carrot cake, all under £6. We chose a flourless chocolate cake and gooseberry and gin crumble. The cake was a big dense slice of chocolaty delight with cream, while the crumble wasn’t quite what we expected. Instead of the traditional topping this was broken pieces of shortcake scattered over too few gooseberries and we couldn't taste the gin. That didn't stop us from finishing it, it wasn't bad, it just could have been better.

To drink we ordered the cheapest bottle of house white at £16.95. The test of a restaurant is how it respects its customers, even ones who are skint, by not serving the something more like vinegar when they order from the bottom of the range. This passed the test, it was a very gluggable bottle of Sicilian wine which is also available by the glass at £4.75. Mustard has an eclectic wine and cocktail list. You can go entry level like us or celebrate with a bottle of English fizz for £49.50. There's something for everyone.

At one point we were bothered by the noise and blamed dodgy acoustics, but we were wrong. It was press night and the noise came from two young lady bloggers who seemed to think it was ok to shriek like banshees at regular intervals. When they left the volume of decibels decreased and settled down to the gentle buzz you get from people having a night out at a neighbourhood restaurant.

The service was haphazard but utterly charming, you can't get cross with people that nice.

Overall, in spite of the glitches, I liked it and would happily become a regular customer if I lived a bit nearer. Fingers crossed they open the next one in Chiswick.

Mustard at 98 - 100 Shepherd's Bush Road is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner from 9am till 11pm Monday to Saturday 9am till 10pm. Contact Mustard on 0203 019 1175 or email brookgreen@mustardrestaurants.co.uk.

 

September 2, 2016

 

September 2, 2016