Row on 5 (*) – London, UK – Feb 2025

Row on 5 is by far the hottest opening in London in the past year. Given that chef Atherton’s Dubai outpost Row on 45 got 2 Michelin stars outright, expectations were high for Row on 5. We booked a Valentine’s Day dinner, which ran us £250 per person, in line with other 2 starred establishments in London. Sadly, the announcement came and Row on 5 was ONLY awarded 1 star in its first two months of operating, which is an incredible achievement in itself.
The restaurant had taken our names prior to our booking, a point that will come up later on in my review.

1st pic- We arrive and have to go down a set of metal stairs before we reach the doors. We ring a bell and they let us inside the restaurant. In Frantzen style, the experience starts with a show around the venue, we are shown the wine cellars, the kitchen, the champagne room.

2nd pic- Our experience will start in the downstairs seating area for the first few bites of our 15-course menu.

3rd pic – A dill cocktail I had, with dill oil and gin as base. It was nice, savoury and rich in flavours. I liked it a lot.

4th pic- our first course: Oysters and pearls – N25 hybrid caviar, nori macaron and oyster finished with dill – crunchy meringue-like base, intense flavours of the sea with a bit of dill at the tail end , well rounded snack, inspired by the French Laundry as stated by the serving staff, 18/20

5th pic – Cornish bluefin tuna tart with tuna three ways – smoked, tartare and slowly cooked,marinated with lemon finished with wasabi and kombu – citrusy tart acidic flavours, crunchy , nice cold tuna , well balanced bite but nothing mind blowing, citrus overpowering the other flavours, tiny bit of spice, 16/20

6th picture – Cheese and onion – flavoured after the packet of crisps, onion cooked two ways – dehydrated and turned into a crisp and made with soy sauce into a jam and 15 month old aged cheese – sharp cheese and onion flavours, well rounded and balanced richness from the cheese and the sweetness of the onion, the “crisps” are well crunchy, overall creative bite, 18/20

7th pic – Tempura Langoustine claw topped with tomato powder, with galangal sauce – served with name-engraved chopsticks – nice and crunchy, very umami, flavourful langoustine, with a rich sauce, gives elevated prawn cracker vibes ; very heavily inspired by Frantzen’s langoustine with galangal sauce dish, a bit too much on the nose, I get that chef Spencer Metzger worked at Frantzen and has used his time there as inspiration for conceptualising this menu, but the “inspiration” here is bordering plagiarism in my opinion ; the cutlery for this course is chopsticks – with our names engraved as a token of personalisation ; a very nice personal touch that I genuinely found unique and memorable, and explains why they asked for our names. We are told we are going to take the chopsticks home by the end of the meal, packaged in a nice box, 17/20

8th pic – We are then taken to the upstairs dining room where we are served the second langoustine course.

9th pic – Scottish langoustine with duck egg yolk and curry leaf hollandaise, and curry leaf reduction sauce with Amela tomato jelly – sweetest tomato in the world – sweet and tart flavours from the langoustine and tomato jelly, richness from the hollandaise, acidity from the finger lime – very pleasant well rounded and nuanced flavours: sweetness at the forefront, followed by smokiness , finished by acidity and tartness , I found it more enjoyable than the first langoustine bite , 18/20

10th pic – Orkney scallop with beuure blanc with dill , finished with XO sauce with scallop roe – rich beurre blanc – my favourite sauce, very umami flavours, the scallop is cooked perfectly, surprisingly not heavy sea flavours, dominated by umami and richness, smells acidic but isn’t , the sauce was gorgeous and the scallop had slight smokiness because it was finished on the BBQ, I enjoyed the cook on this a lot, 18/20

11th pic – Brioche with quince vinegar glaze and fermented honey, and chicken skin butter with chicken skin and lemon thyme leaves – nice and flaky bread, salty, the butter was very neutral and didn’t add much. Croissant-like brioche was amazing though, weird listing this as a course, though , 16/20

12th pic – Cornish turbot poached with beurre noisette, albufeira sauce with fish liver and grapes, and finished with lovage oil – perfectly cooked fish, very umami sauce that is cut through by the freshness of the lovage oil and the sweetness of the grapes, 17/20

13th pic -Sika deer finished at the BBQ with beetroot and cassis sauce on the side, with rehydrated blackcurrant sauce and shiitake mushrooms, and a taro puff with venison – very meaty flavour, the sauces both are quite fruity, tart and sweet, a nice addition to the meatiness of the deer, not gamey at all – very enjoyable, the taro puff – very savoury and asian inspired, gorgeous venison flavour and nice crunchy outside, a real hitter of a main course, 19/20

14th pic – Stilton tart with white chocolate bisque, baked in the oven – strong blue cheese flavours, subtle sweetness , nice crunchy tart, cheese after flavours, but I am getting a bit tired of tarts at this point, also weird a tart this small constituting an individual “course”, we waited a good 15 minutes for it after finishing the deer, 15/20

15th pic- Citrus curd with sauternes jelly, citrus stock ice shavings and grated yuzu zest , finger lime – very refreshing and citrusy pre-dessert, really good palate cleanser, variety citrus from Pyrenees – yuzu, Buddha’s hand, finger like, Kaffir lime, 16/20

16th pic – Chocolate and jerusalem artichoke – caramelised fudge at the bottom, chocolate from Guatemalan single origin cacao, artichoke and hazelnut ice cream, chocolate mousse at the bottom – different textures at play – gooey fudge, crunchy biscuit, rich mousse, soft and gorgeous ice cream , lots of layers to the flavour profile, can’t really find the artichoke, the bite I found a bit heavy on the sweetness but generally enjoyable , 16/20

17th pic – Black sugar and hazelnut financier with two dips – earl grey tea cream and green oolong team, red tea from Taiwan cold brewed for 12 hours and a freshly baked 71% chocolate tart with smoked olive oil and sea salt; financiers are delicious, earl grey cream – neutral, subtle flavours; green oolong – flavourful and sweet; this is yet another callback to Frantzen, akin to their madeleines at the end of the meal, served here with thick tea flavoured sauces and cold brew red tea. It was a very decent bite, 17/20

18th pic – Nica Brown Chocolate tart with salt – nice, warm and cozy , but again a very tiny bite, listed as an individual course, it was more of like a petit four than anything. It was okay, but nothing memorable 16/20

19th pic – Petit fours: Served from a petit four trolley, naturally we asked to try them all.A pple cider and cinnamon pate de fruit ; blackcurrants pate de fruit ; matcha tart with mochi ; salted caramel tart ; brandy chocolate ; after eight chocolate ; fudge ; coffee and praline chocolate
My favourites from these were the after eight, apple cider and cinnamon pate de fruit, and the brandy chocolate (red one in the top right corner). The petit fours were generally nice but overly sweet at the end.

After 8 – nice but tastes a bit like toothpaste

Brandy chocolate – nice deep brandy flavours, the cream is rich and sweet, but not overly so, with the brandy coming through in a very nuanced fashion;

Fudge – too sweet, nice soft texture though

Coffee and praline – amazing, crunchy praline filling, deep coffee flavour

Pate de fruit – both are ok, a bit tart but nothing memorable

Matcha tart with mochi – nice and soft mochi, yet another tart

Salted caramel tart – surprisingly not too sweet , nice and soft caramel sauce, and yet another tart

Overall for the petit fours, 17/20.

All in all, the experience started off strong, peaked halfway through the meal, and then dipped at the end. The seafood and main courses were generally enjoyable. The first few bites were playing off the “inspiration” card a bit too heavily for my liking, I wish the chef would create something of his own, rather than try to “recreate” famous dishes from other restaurants. The interior was nice, and the service was generally good, at a solid 2 star level. The wine list was ridiculously huge to the point it was hard to hold. A massive book, I liked the detail that there is a description of each wine by the sommelier, but then the wine list is hilariously humongous as a result. They had a smaller by the glass menu, though.

The wine pairings – we opted not to go for one, given the bad value of the pairings. What really irked me is that two of the three lower priced wine pairings had 2-3 upgrade options that sometimes exceeded the value of the pairing itself. For example, the 145 pound pairing had a 220 pound upgrade option for a glass of Chateau d’Yquem 2013 over the included dessert wine. Why push for upgrades on cheaper pairings? Clearly you are making people feel like you are offering them subpar options for their selected level of pairing. Their highest end pairing was a whopping 995 pounds! There were a few by the glass options and they were generally okay value. I had a 175 ml glass of 2000 Bodegas Urbina Seleccion Rioja for 28 pounds, which was eh, alright, given that the bottle sells for 20-25 quid in shops.

The pacing was also very weird. The table next to us received 3 courses in the time it took us to receive 1 (as a party of 2, mind you). It is definitely weird waiting 30 minutes for what is essentially a bite or two. At points they were churning out courses every 5 minutes, but near the end the gaps were too large for my liking. The final bites are served downstairs where the meal started (again, heavy INSPIRATION from Frantzen), but the seating downstairs is quite limited – which left us waiting at our table for 20 minutes, until the service staff came up and took us downstairs, presumably because of lack of spacing. This was, however, not communicated, and nothing was offered in the interim to fill our time and distract us from the wait.

I found that the food was either a few hitters of courses in a row, or lacking any real inspiration (repetition of tarts, bread as a course, really?). There were some outliers on the positive side, but generally, I’d say a 1 star rating is well accurate, given the mismatch between the level of courses throughout the meal. The staff there were generally disappointed by the 1* rating they received in the 2025 Guide and said they were expecting at least 2, but now they are aiming for 3. The service was generally great and they made our occasion feel special. At the end, we are given laser-engraved chopsticks with our names on them and the menu in a wax-sealed envelope with our names on them. A very nice personal touch, something you’d see at the highest level of dining establishments. Sadly, the consistency of the high level of food was not quite up there yet. They still have a lot of work to do until they reach the 2 star, let alone the 3 star level, but hopefully with time they find their stride. I give the experience a 17/20, where on my scale a 16/20 is a 1 star experience, a 17 is a 1.5 star, a.k.a. a very strong 1 star, pushing for 2 in the future (think Akoko), an 18 is a 2 star experience, a 19 is a 3 star experience, and a 20 is a solid, solid 3 star, a truly perfect experience.

For reference, I have given Mirazur 18.5/20, Akoko 17/20, Frantzen 19.5/20 and the Living Table at Disfrutar 19.75/20.