Tom Aikens has successfully carried over his high profile and the reputation of his Michelin-starred Chelsea restaurant to Tom's Kitchen, his latest venture nearby. Joanna Wood samples the fare
Tom's Kitchen was always going to attract media, and public, attention. Launched last November, it's the second venture of one of London's most individual and high-profile chefs, Tom Aikens, whose eponymous one-Michelin-starred flagship restaurant is just round the corner in Chelsea.
Being a "name" in the media spotlight, however, while it brings handy publicity for a launch, can also work in a negative way: critics' palates are on heightened alert, their pens are poised, waiting for a slip-up. Thankfully for Aikens, Tom's Kitchen received positive press from day one, and customers have flooded through its doors to eat at the brasserie (there's also a bar and private dining room) giving the restaurant an enviable, if exhausting, average of 125 covers at both lunchtime and in the evening in the 75-seat dining room. "We sometimes get up to 200 covers for brunch at the weekend," Aikens tells me proudly.
The success of the restaurant is due in no small way to Aikens's head chef, Ollie Couillaud, who previously opened and made a success of the Bruce Poole/Nigel Platts-Martin Chiswick restaurant, La Trompette. Couillaud's assured classical culinary skill has ensured that food at Tom's Kitchen is technically accomplished while at the same time able to be delivered in volume to the customers, who are aged mostly 25 to 35.
Artisan producers
So what is Tom's Kitchen all about? Well, not fine dining. Essentially, it's a gastropub by any other name, and I mean that in a complimentary way. On the menu are some great French brasserie and bistro classics, tasty comfort food made with top-class ingredients sourced from artisan producers.
The traceability of ingredients is underlined with black and white photographs of suppliers on the white tiled walls and pictures and potted biogs of them in the menu. "We use small suppliers, some organic - like the lamb from Wootton Organics - but always the best of everything," says Couillaud.
Using artisan suppliers means that pricing on the menu isn't the lowest (a quibble with some commentators) but it does ensure taste. The flavour on the roast rack of lamb that comes with a classical herb crust, mustard, mash and wonderfully sweet confit garlic (£21) would be hard to better.
Couillaud is lucky in having space to hang meat on site in the basement, alongside the prep kitchen where he has three chefs working on mise (there are five more in the narrow main, open kitchen). Look down at the restaurant's wooden floor and you can see the coldroom's booty through two specially inserted windows. "You have to turn the pigs, for instance, every day, keep them moving to mature the meat evenly," says Couillaud.
Back to the menu. It's divided conventionally (starters, mains, desserts, side orders), with subdivisions where appropriate: soups and salads, risotto and pasta under starters, for instance, broken down into different meats in the mains. And there are fish choices, throughout, too. Great classics like moules marinière (£7.50/£12.50), or bouillabaisse (£16.50).
Vegetarians, despite the carcasses hanging beneath their feet, are also looked after. A rich and creamy dish of home-made tagliatelle with a beurre blanc covered with discs of white truffles (£20) is portion-generous and flavoursome.
Full points, too, to Couillaud and Aikens for offering several options "for two" - not surprisingly, these communal dishes have proved extremely popular: home-made charcuterie with chutney and toast (£25) among the starters, and a joyously retro baked Alaska (£12) among the puds, to name but a couple. There's also a côte de boeuf option à deux (£16.50 per person) and a spit-roast chicken for four (£8 per person).
Sharing food
Picture chunky wooden tables - some long and school dinnery, seating up to eight - and matching chairs and you'll understand why sharing food works well here.
Tom's Kitchen's food is classic and straightforward - the type of dishes most people want to eat for most of the time. This is as true of starters as it is of mains, with desserts like rhubarb fool and the creamy home-made vanilla yogurt served with light-as-air churros dusted in cinnamon (both £6).
The restaurant's formula is clearly popular. When I ate there 10 days ago, on a mid-January day, it was buzzing, with not a spare table in sight. All in all, it would be fair to say Tom's Kitchen is going to be Aikens's cash cow. And if he's canny, he'll look at rolling out the concept at the opportune time.
What's on the menu
- Paprika and lime squid, £6.50
- Wild mushroom risotto with sage and pine kernels, £9.50/£15
- Persillade of snails, £8.50/£17
- Beefburger with pickled gherkins and French fries, £9.50
- Slow-roasted pork belly, balsamic-glazed carrots and haricot beans, £11.50
- Seven-hour confit shoulder of lamb with onions and balsamic vinegar, £13
- Poire belle hélène, £6
- Chocolate profiteroles, £6
- Prune and Armagnac clafoutis with vanilla ice-cream, £6
Tom's Kitchen, 27 Cale Street, London SW3 3QP. Tel: 020 7349 0202 www.tomskitchen.co.uk