The superstar chef is back with a bang.
We're calling it. Three Darlings is absolutely one of those hidden-gem, best-kept-secret sorts of places that London does so well.
It may seem strange to use the word "secret" for an opening by super-chef Jason Atherton. But it's his fourth here in four months – he has more than 40 restaurants and bars around the world, including, of course, Dubai – and his bigger, flashier Sael has been sucking up the lion's share of publicity.
Three Darlings, named in honour of Atherton's daughters, maybe a stone's throw from Sloane Square, handy after shopping on the King's Road or before seeing a play at the Royal Court. But to get there, you need to jink down an easily missed pedestrian side street, and even then, the restaurant is hidden down some steps and behind a couple of palm trees. You need to be actively looking for it. Which you should. Even before any food is ordered, the place makes you happy.
The convivial front-of-house staff is perhaps the best I have encountered, from the woman who greets you at the door to the friendly and infectiously enthusiastic mixologist at the bar who boasts of making his own soda for the signature Three Darlings cocktail. From the Polish sommelier with half a lifetime's experience and an endearing habit of acting out his stories, to the disarmingly charming and frighteningly knowledgeable head waiter who spent the last seven years at Dinner by Heston and The Fat Duck.
The layout is innovative: two main floors are connected by an interstitial mezzanine gallery, where the tables have seating on just one side. This allows an uninterrupted view over the long, open-plan kitchen.
As a fan of The Bear and Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, I was expecting fireworks. Instead, the three chefs perfect their dishes in near silence, moving with choreographed precision. The biggest drama comes when executive chef Jake Oswin applies a blowtorch to a dish.
"If you need to shout in the kitchen," Jake tells me when he takes a brief walkabout, "that means you've lost control. If you're angry, they'll get angry back. But if you just say 'you can do better', they'll be like 'Yes, Chef!'"
He should know. Jake comes to Three Darlings after seven years at the double Michelin-starred Dinner by Heston (and, before that, The Ritz). Heston Blumenthal says you can literally taste it in the food when chefs are stressed, as it affects their taste buds, causing them to oversalt.
The dishes at Three Darlings are clearly cooked with love. We start with oysters topped with apple, cucumber and jalapeno – utterly melt-in-the-mouth, zingy and joyous. There's a whole menu of breads: the brioche with chicken liver and damson preserve is a rich, smooth, moreish triumph. The signature sourdough flatbreads are cooked overnight and are puffy and risen and delicious.
The next course is small plates, which can be treated as starters to the mains, or mix-and-matched for a whole dinner. We greedily chose the former option, but I'd recommend the latter. The mains are generous to a fault, and perhaps a little less successful. The meat dish was a tad chewy, and though the fish of the day – a beautifully presented half of Cornish sea bass, sliced laterally with the head still on – was perfectly cooked, the delicate flavour was not well served by the garlic butter sauce.
The small plates, on the other hand, are all Michelin-star-worthy. Spanish octopus is a work of art: served as one perfect tentacle stretched across the plate, with a central circle of butterbean aioli. Jason's elevation of a humble pub staple, the Scotch egg, is another revelation. Wood-fired Orkney scallop Rockefeller fulfilled the promise set by the oysters. Even the humble side dishes such as smoked and pressed potatoes on a base of garlic puree, and grilled hispi cabbage with smoked onion and black garlic, make you feel like standing up and applauding.
After all that, we had no room left for dessert. But we had some anyway. How could you resist trying such a baroque creation as vanilla soft-serve ice cream topped with Umai caviar?
Amazingly, this odd-couple pairing works – like Elton John with Dua Lipa or Nick Cave with Kylie Minogue, the salt of the fish roe harmonises with the sweetness of the ice cream. The head waiter explained it was inspired by Heston, who discovered that caviar and white chocolate were chemically similar in their high levels of amines.
Baked Alaska was another elevation of a British classic. Surrounded by tangy-sweet blood oranges, it was set on fire in the traditional manner – a spectacular end to a magnificent meal.
And I've not even mentioned the expertly sourced wines, many served by the glass or in pint measures – more affordable than by the bottle – and with the main list arranged, in the cost-conscious Jason Atherton way, by price bracket rather than region. We started with a refreshing Riesling from the Australian master Jim Barry, and moved on to a minerally South African Chenin Blanc and a Kozlovic from Croatia – that unsung yet exemplary country for wines. All finished off with a Japanese yuzu sake and a vintage Sauternes.
This is very much a place you'll want to tell your friends about. If you know, you know. And now you do, too.
GO: Visit www.threedarlingslondon.com for more information.