A summers lunch overlooking Green Park at Michelin starred Hide
Regular readers of The Mayfair Foodie will know how I feel about special lunch menus offered by restaurants. It’s a great way of dining well and eating the very best restaurants at a reasonable price. It also works well for the restaurants, bringing in new diners into the restaurant. So on a lovely sunny day we were excited to experience the lunch menu at the iconic HIDE Restaurant, Piccadilly.
HIDE was opened in April 2018 by the acclaimed chef Ollie Dabbous in collaboration with Hedonism Wines, who is a good friend of our website who provides our much aclaimed seasonal wine recommendations.
HIDE quickly gained attention for its innovative and refined cuisine, as well as its stunning interior design. It was no surprise that they gained a Michelin star within six months of opening.
The restaurant spans three floors. The ground floor (HIDE Ground) serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner in a relaxed setting. The menu features a variety of seasonal dishes and pastries.
Second Floor (HIDE Above) – Located on the upper floor, this section offers a more formal dining experience with a tasting menu that showcases the finest ingredients and culinary techniques.
Below (HIDE Below) – This area is dedicated to a bar and wine cellar, boasting an extensive selection of wines.
It is claimed that HIDE has one of the largest wine cellars in Europe for a restaurant and I did hear that if by any slim chance you could not find a wine from the extensive list you could choose from the Hedonism wine infantry and they would deliver it to the restaurant.
Since opening HIDE, the same team has opened Hideway and The White Horse, also both in Mayfair.
So, on to our lunch experience. You enter Hide through a large, impressive wood door into the reception area. We were dining upstairs, which you reach by the centrepiece feature wood staircase. To say it’s a feature is an understatement. It is a work of art, it reminds me of a staircase carved out of a grand old oak tree.
Equally impressive was the view from our table, which looked down onto Piccadilly and behind Green Park. It was only when I was at the table that it dawned on me: the large, almost anonymous wood-panelled entrance, the wood stairs, and the view overlooking Green Park. This building is themed on a camouflaged shelter for watching wildlife. How slow had I been? I had always wondered what was behind the name but had to wait until my visit before it finally clicked.
Being on the second floor heightened the view, looking down on Piccadilly and the endless tour buses and to our left at the grand old Ritz hotel. You could soak up this view for hours; however, our stomachs told us we had a more pressing engagement: lunch.
The lunch menu consisted of three courses: two starters, three mains, and desserts. We had the pleasure of wine pairing to accompany us for lunch, and our lovely sommelier, Jenny, introduced us to a pre-dinner glass of bubbles from Northern Spain—the perfect drink for a very warm day.
Along came a beautiful bread basket containing four different breads baked in the restaurant in the morning.
On to the starters. My wife chose the burrata with strawberries, basil, and black olives. I sided with the second starter, a salad of barbecued prawns, watermelon, and mint.
Both starters were as summery as the weather outside. The burrata was soft and creamy, and the strawberries, basil, and black olives added fresh, sweet, and savoury notes to the dish.
It was my first time having Prawns with watermelon, and it won’t be the last time. The watermelon was finely chopped and mixed with the prawns. The mint and selection of green leaves on top were not there just to look pretty; each one had a distinct flavour and was added to the dish.
The wine pairing for the starter was a fresh, crisp viognier from Uruguay, it was an inspired choice.
The mains were next up, and there were three options. My wife decided on white beans, courgettes, tomato and basil; baked bread and smoked saffron sauce, topped with pecorino shavings. Such a pretty-looking dish and tasted as good as it looked.
I had no difficulty choosing my main. When Iberico pork is on the menu, I’m a happy man.
This dish features Iberico pork, butterhead lettuce, fresh borlotti, and summer corn. It was designed to be eaten taco-style, using the lettuce as the taco shell and the borlotti bean puree as a base for the pork and corn. It is so clever, but more importantly, it is super tasty.
A word on the wine for this course was interesting; it was served from a large format bottle and arrived in a custom-made pouring trolley, which added to the theatre and our expectations. I was told a while back by a well know sommilier that the large format bottles with enhance the wine. The wine Jenny decanted for us was a Pago de los Capellanes made from Tempranillo grapes. The Spanish red had lots of depth and character. Interestingly, to por the wine they used a wine-preserving needle system that allows you to enjoy a glass of wine out of a bottle and extend the life of the wine in the bottle to around four weeks, which is essential if you are opening large format bottle unless you have a very large family or a dinner party with very thirsty people.
For our final course of lunch, two desserts, along with cheese and biscuits, were available. We couldn’t decide, so we ended up getting one of each dessert to share. After all, sharing is caring, especially when it comes to food. There was a cherry, maheb, and cocoa ice cream sundae and a peach and pudding wine baba with Tahitian vanilla chantilly.
The sundae was served in a tall dish, and the prize on the top was the sweetest cherry. The flavours kept on coming the further we went down the tall glass. From memory the ice cream was so good, well I think so as I was limited to a couple of spoonfuls, did I say sharing was a good thing.
The peach baba was so light and moist, and it was a delight with the chantilly. As you can see from my pictures, they both looked picturesque. Speaking of pictures, forgive the quality of the pics as the photographer had been on a wine pairing lunch — haha!”
When discussing wine, it’s important to acknowledge the impact a skilled sommelier can have on your dining experience. A key part of their role is introducing you to wines you might not have considered trying on your own, as we often tend to stick to our favourites. To illustrate this, the wine served with our desserts was quite different from the typical sauternes or Tokaji. It was a new experience—a mango wine from India. This wine was filled with flavour but not overly sweet, and it added sharp and fresh notes, providing a completely unique experience in the world of pudding wines.
Sadly, lunch had come to an end; it was time to go, one last look at the view, and say our goodbyes to the team that looked after us. A trip down the magical staircase, and we were back out in the sweltering heat of Piccadilly and Mayfair. Incidentally, sweltering and heat are words that I have not used often in previous reviews.
Did Hide live up to my expectations? Oh yes, and over exceeded. Hide strikes the perfect balance of exceptional food and service in an environment that makes you want to overstay your welcome.
HIDE Restaurant 85 Piccadilly, Mayfair, London W1J 7NB
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