Row On 5 * (London, Feb 2025)

Row on 5 has been mentioned here a few times without much detail, so I thought I'd take a moment to fill in the gaps. I apologise for the quality of my photography – never been a big skill of mine.

The restaurant was opened in November by Jason Atherton, who should need no introduction, with the kitchen headed up by Spencer Metzger, who has spent most of his career at The Ritz. The team opened up a similar concept, Row on 45 in Dubai, quickly earning 2* last year.

The UK Michelin Guide awarded Ro5 1* around the time of my visit, and I would say this is purely a function of the short time the restaurant has been open. It stands way above the crop of other 1* restaurants in London and (for me) would be strong at 2*, being in the same bracket as, and maybe even a bit better than, Kitchen Table. It sits in my top 5 meals in London and my top 10 globally for sure; I just haven't worked out exactly where in those yet.

Row on 5 occupies one of the most expensive addresses in London, Savile Row, and is next door to where the Beatles' famous rooftop concert took place. The restaurant has been fitted out to match, plush materials everywhere, and feels genuinely luxurious. You move from the downstairs lounge for snacks, up to the main dining room, then back down again for petits fours and digestifs. The air of luxury is set nicely by the very first impression, where the host offers to have your coats dry cleaned – for no additional cost – as you dine. Service is charming throughout, it feels as if they have stolen the best of the best from London's other restaurants. Dishes are generally served by chefs, all of whom are personable, but the rest of the team is outstanding too, a particular highlight being an infectiously enthusiastic sommelier (whose name I looked up afterwards – Roxane Dupuy). It's worth noting at this point that the restaurant serves some serious wines in its pairings. There are three levels, with the first two relatively close together price-wise. I chose the second, which included Egon Muller Scharzhofberger, a Dauvissat 1er Cru, and The Mascot. Pours are quite small, but it is refreshing to see a restaurant serving such serious wines as part of a pairing. There is an extensive by-the-glass menu with prices to suit all budgets, and the bottle list is a weighty tome hundreds of pages long.

Let's get onto the food!

Snacks:

Oyster and Pearls – introduced as being inspired by the famous Thomas Keller dish. Macaron base with chives, then N25 Kaluga caviar topped with a sphere of oyster cream glazed in Beurre Blanc. This made me realise instantly I was in for a superb meal – technically impressive and tasted great.

Raw Cornish Bluefin tuna in a tartlet made from a reduced and dried tuna bone stock, marinated in fermented yuzu and chile, and with a crispy kombu nest on top. Well-flavoured tuna as I expected from previous occasions I have tried the produce from this trial UK fishery.

'Cheese and Onion' – onions cooked slowly with rice to form a soccarat which is then baked and layered with 50-month Lincolnshire Poacher cheese, an onion jam which was like an intense brown sauce, and lemon thyme. Very bold flavours here and a nod to childhood British foods like the cheese and pickle sandwich.

(Not pictured) Langoustine claw tempura (a big big claw!) with a galangal and langoustine stock emulsion. Delicate, and very good – the emulsion was fantastic – and this course has one little non-food-related surprise I will leave for others to discover which was quite cool.

Now we move upstairs and to the more substantial dishes…

The rest of the langoustine! The tail is very lightly cooked, brushed with smoked vinegar, and topped with something crisp (not sure what) and shiso flowers. This came with finger lime, curry leaf oil, and salted duck egg sabayon. The langoustine was wonderful but the saucing was even better.

Half an Orkney scallop – would have been a huge one when whole – with a chilli-infused scallop coral XO, salmon roe and sansho leaf in a sake, chive and pike roe beurre blanc. Accurately cooked and flavourful scallop and again, superb saucing. I would say the well-known scallop dishes Core has served beat this out but it was still excellent and to be honest that is a very high level to compare it with.

Laminated brioche with a honey glaze and served with chicken skin and yeast butter, topped with chicken skin, lemon thyme, and a cep concentrate. Technically excellent, tasted great, a bit messy to rip apart! To be honest, I would love to see the sourdough fad come back for bread courses, brioche has become a bit too ubiquitous in London recently and the amazing bread at Muse for instance provided more joy than this.

No comparing this dish against other restaurants – it was one of the best fish dishes I have had in years. Lightly aged turbot brushed in brown butter and lemon juice, served with a delightful variant of a sauce Albufera made from a turbot bone stock and which had cured monkfish liver blended into it. In the sauce were some flavourful razor clams, and it was finished with a touch of lovage oil. One of the simpler dishes served, but absolutely stunning, and one which could happily grace any restaurant with any number of stars in the world.

Sika deer, briefly aged and cooked rare over pine and juniper wood. This had great depth of flavour and came with some equally remarkably flavourful beetroot and a little blackcurrant puree. This was topped with brined and smoked bone marrow and sprinkled with sansho pepper. There was a venison stock, mushroom, port and juniper sauce – massively complex again, as with all the saucing here. Served separately, there was a fried dim sum of the braised haunch. Deer will never be my favourite meat, but I enjoyed this a lot.

Cheese course! Colston Basset Stilton tart with white chocolate, a gel of either quince or apple I think (sorry, forgot here!) and lemon verbena flowers. Sounds crazy, I was sceptical, but it in fact worked incredibly well, especially alongside the port served with it.

(Not pictured). A citrus pre-dessert with a variety of citruses from a farm near the Pyrenees that they were very proud to source from, which were expressed in the form of a curd on the base and a topping of east-Asian style shaved ice. In between the two of these was Sauternes jelly. A dusting of kaffir lime leaf finished the dish off. Refreshing!

An artful and complex dessert which I struggle to remember the full composition of. A chocolate mousse, chocolate sphere, miso caramel fudge, salted Jerusalem artichoke, hazelnut and a coffee sabayon – I think! It was great anyway. I might have liked to get the Jerusalem Artichoke flavour over a tiny bit more, but then I am one of these people who prefers my dessert to be invaded by bits of herbs and vegetables which I know is controversial.

And then downstairs for plus fours and digestifs! I am not going to go into great detail on these – they were notably excellent – but as you may have guessed from talking about the dessert above, sweets are never the highlight of my meal. I will mention briefly the 70+ per cent dark chocolate tart served just melted with smoked olive oil, as well as the little draws with a bewildering variety of other little treats you can see in the last pic (matcha tart may have been my favourite, though there was also a pretty cool hay caramel and a cobnut praline.

Overall a stellar meal. High quality ingredients, technically spot-on cooking, some invention, and superb saucing that will stick with me. Finances permitting I am keen to get back as soon as the next menu is launched. The dinner is not cheap, at £250 for food alone, but I would say it is worth it. I preferred Row on 5 to, for instance, The Ledbury, which is pretty good going after such a short time and I am sure the Michelin inspectors will be back with at least one more star next year.