The Mayfair Chippy comes to Knightsbridge.
Regular readers of my website will know how much I like the Mayfair Chippy. The restaurant on North Audley Street is a hive of activity. The long queues of hungry waiting to sample the Mayfair Chippy’s food highlight the restaurant’s reputation. I was very excited to hear that they were opening their second restaurant in Knightsbridge and even more excited to be invited to eat at the new restaurant in the opening week.
The new restaurant is on Brompton Road, less than 5 minutes from Harrods. So how does the new restaurant differ from the Mayfair restaurant? Firstly, it is a lot bigger and is set on three levels. As you walk in, you will see a small dining area, a gin bar on the second floor, and finally, the main dining area. It also has an outdoor seating area.
On the food side, the big difference is that the Knightsbridge branch opens for breakfast serving breakfast classics, breakfast butties and as you would expect from a fish restaurant, a lobster benedict and a play on the full English called a Fisherman breakfast.
On our visit, and purely in the name of research, we decided to stop at the bar and sample a cocktail. Cocktails are priced at a reasonable £11 each and packed a punch. I went for my favourite Negroni, and my guest went for a Cosmopolitan. The cocktail list included all the classics, and I counted no less than fifteen gins on the Gin bar menu. A bar menu is available if you just want to grab a drink and a snack. This is such a great idea, and I can see the bar being such a popular addition.
After our cocktails, we made our way up the stairs to the dining room, which is a large, light, airy space with a vaulted glass ceiling. I loved the mosaic tables in the restaurant added a splash of colour to the room
As you would expect, the menu is very similar to the Mayfair restaurant: classic fish and chips with all the trinmmings, seafood classics, oysters, mussels and crab, grilled and an interesting range of small plates and snacks.
For starters, we shared two small plates: a delicious treacle-cured salmon served with celeriac and mustard cucumber pickle, toasted rye bread, and a portion of the excellent new starter for the restaurant, TMC prawn toast. Over the years, poor prawn toast has been reduced to a shadow of its former self; a lot of Chinese restaurants and takeaways choose to buy a pre-made version; the net result is a bland, dry bit of toast with little or no flavour, I would suggest box it came out would have tasted better, sorry rant over. So the clever people at the Mayfair Chippy have realised this and decided its time to bring the prawn toast back in all its glory; their prawn toast is full of prawns on butter toast with a breadcrumb coating, it was delicious, and it is going to become one of their must-have dishes. One portion is large enough to share.
Next up are the mains. I have to admit I have had fish and chips plenty of times, and as my guest was having it, I decided to try the daily grilled fish, which on my visit was a lovely sea bream.
The sea bream was sympathetically cooked, I also added a side of greens and mustard butter. I will confess that I pinched a few of my guests’ chips; it was a lovely plate of food which owed a lot to the freshness and cooking of the fish. The classic fish and chips (cod or haddock) are served with fries, mushy peas, and a choice of gravy or curry sauce for £23.95, which again represents good value for money in this part of the world. If you like your fish and chips or looking to try this British classic, the Mayfair Chippy is a good choice to experience good fish and chips. I should point out that there is a vegan and vegetarian version available.
So that was my first visit to the new Mayfair chippy in Knightsbridge, no doubt not my last. If you are thinking of going to Harrods, by the way, still the best department store in town, take the opportunity to pop into the Mayfair Chippy. I don’t think you will be disappointed, also if you find yourself in Mayfair or Oxford Street a trip down North Audley Street to visit the original Mayfair Chippy, whilst you are there next door is Mercato Mayfair, another big favourite of mine and with an onsite brewery and distillery, what’s not to like.
The Mayfair Chippy, Knightsbridge, 138 Brompton Rd, London SW3 1HY
The Mayfair Chippy 14 North Audley St, Mayfair, London W1K 6WE
If you enjoyed reading this post, you might like to read our review of The Mayfair Chippy in Mayfair, also afternoon sea at The Mayfair Chippy.
Also, for seafood lovers, our guide to the best seafood restaurants in Mayfair.
Finally, If you would like a deeper insight into the Mayfair Chippy and managing a successful restaurant, check out our interview with Co-owner Jamie Jones, it’s a fascinating read.
