Yahoo Finance Classics Revisited: Dabbous
Dabbous celebrated its fifth birthday in January. The day after I came for dinner in February, it was announced that the restaurant would close this summer. I’d like to think my presence had no bearing on this, not least because obituary-writing is several levels above my restaurant-reviewing skill set. Instead, I come to praise Dabbous, not to bury him.
Chef Ollie Dabbous opened his first solo restaurant in partnership with bartender Oskar Kinberg in 2012. With its austerely industrial design aesthetic and Scandi-influenced cooking, it felt like a British answer to the Parisian bistronomy movement and was booked up for months ahead. With only four months left to make a reservation before Dabbous shuts up shop, it’s guaranteed to be just as hard to get into as it was in the early days. Nothing makes hardcore foodies slaver more than the opportunity of eating in the last chance saloon.
Dabbous and Kinberg are closing the restaurant to open an as yet unspecified new project next year, with the same staff and the same ethos. It’s understandable they want to move. Kinberg’s basement bar has never felt like the destination it should be given the excellence of the drinks, the critical adulation that followed the restaurant’s opening meant that the dozen tables could have been filled a dozen times over and it has never looked much fun working in a tiny kitchen screened off from the dining room behind a wall of opaque glass.
But the big flavours on the plate betray no hint of the space constraints in the kitchen. Homemade sourdough arrives warm in a brown paper bag stamped with the day’s date, with a teardrop of pale yellow butter topped with a single salt crystal on the side. Mackerel comes blistered from the grill on a pyre of toasted grains, grapes and lovage, the fresh sweetness of the fish trickling through the oiliness.
Haunch of venison sits under a thin layer of Jerusalem artichoke and tarragon leaves. Well-kept cheeses keep up the kitchen’s commitment to sourcing ingredients at the peak of freshness, and a warm buckwheat waffle with soured cream and fudge sauce sends you out into the night with a clean palate but one satisfied it has been treated to a sweet end.
It is such skilful cooking, founded on unusual pairings of ingredients that are so harmonious you wonder why no one has tried them before, and all of it so simple to look at and so light to eat. It feels as arrestingly modern as it did in 2012, an impression enhanced by staff members who have worked here since day one and are still thrilled to be here.
London eating will be the poorer for Dabbous’ temporary absence later this year. “I think when we do re-open, people will understand why we made this decision,” Dabbous told me. I for one can’t wait to see the next incarnation of this very contemporary classic. But get to Dabbous mark one while you still can.
Who to take: Your out-of-town friend you last saw during the 2012 Olympics
What to order: Choose between a five-course set dinner (£64) or eight-course tasting menu (£79)
Dabbous is likely to close sometime in June or July, no exact date has yet been confirmed.
Dabbous, 39 Whitfield Street London W1T 2SF
dabbous.co.uk
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