43-51 Great Titchfield Street
London W1W 7PQ

 

From the team that brought you Gourmet Belly’s favourite neighbourhood locals, The Garrison and Village East, comes the Riding House Café, an all day brasserie located in the heart of Fitzrovia.

 

Sitting a few streets back from the hustle and bustle of Oxford Street, the Riding House Café is the perfect lunch spot after blitzing through the nearby high street stores. The Brasserie had a great ambiance – bright and airy, decked out with vintage decor which was reminiscent of The Garrison, and staff offering welcomed smiles as we came through the door.

 

The menu was made up of small plates designed to be shared as starters, and a variety of mains which seemed to cover off all the major food groups and more.

 

It was lunch time after all, and the Belly I was dining with can always eat, so between us, we ordered 5 starters, 2 mains and a side of mash – all washed down with a cold glass of Prosecco of course!

 

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Notably delicious were the slow roasted pork belly with cumin salt – nice flavours and great crackling, and the baby squid with chorizo. Oh my!! The smoked paprika and chilli sauce was so incredibly tasty, we shamefully asked for some bread so we could mop the sauce up like proper ladies that lunched, as opposed to licking the plate.

 

For the mains, I definitely didn’t have any food envy with my incredible chorizo hash brown topped with two wonderfully poached eggs. They were DELISH! The seared sea trout with crab and leeks on the other hand, were slightly bland, but passable… 

 

To top off our meal, we ordered the hot fudge sundae to share. Rich with chocolate fudge sauce, and devilishly sweet from the chunks of honeycomb and macaroons, this was a glass of naughtiness. And we were defeated.

 

Overall, the meal was very good at reasonable prices – especially with 50% off food during their soft openings offer. The portions of the sharing plates could probably be slightly larger in comparison to the prices and size of the desserts – good luck to the table behind us who saw our sundaes and decided to order one each!! (Over) Indulgent much?

 

Service was swift and friendly, albeit hit and miss – they almost forgot to bring out the pork belly and we had to ask for sugar to go with our coffees, but then again it was only day 2, workmen were still putting the final slick of paint outside, so no doubt this will improve over the weeks to come.

 

I look forward to coming back for some of their heavier dishes for dinner, washed down with a cocktail from their rather inviting drinks menu of course!