Hush Brasserie

Hush Brasserie
8 Lancashire Court
Brook Street
London
W1S 1EY
www.hush.co.uk
Date visited: Saturday 9^th April 2011
Attendees: Myself, The Quiff and Apple Geek
Price of meal: approx £18 per person for 3 courses with 50% off cocktails are £9 each

After a lazy brunch at Smith of Smithfields we had a lazy walkabout, a wander around the Saatchi Gallery and the V&A, and a bit of shopping although le Quiff and Apple Geek swore they would not shop. Soon it was dinner time and we were wondering down New Bond St looking for Hush. Apple Geek was sent off on a reconnaissance mission and as he leapt and bounded like a gazelle peering into alleyways and possible mews entrances, le Quiff and I watched. Soon after he turned back, waved manically for us to come – he had found it!

Hush is located off the main road in a beautiful cobbled mews which is quiet, clean and surrounded by pretty historic looking buildings. You can dine alfresco at Hush on a nice day. Our table was inside the restaurant which is really beautiful too; hints of many French themes; think quaint Provence, think ostentatious Louis XIV baroque, think modern slick French restaurant. We are in the main dinning room on the ground floor but there is a private hire room and bar upstairs where the toilets are – the toilet makes me think of large homely luxury cottage in Provence with l’occitane products. We are given the special offer menu which is a pared down a la carte.

Starter:
Myself: Organic salmon tartare with lemon oil and chilli with toasted slices of sour dough bread, tap water
The Quiff: Spring pea soup with Welsh rarebit toast, Bond 75 cocktail – has gin, mint and lychee juice amongst other things
Apple Geek: Salt and pepper squid with tartare sauce, Mayfair cosmo – Absolut Citron Vodka, Grand Marnier, Cranberry Juice, Fresh Raspberries

The food came really quickly and we assumed this was because we were eating early and the restaurant was quiet. The drinks came not long after we started eating and both the Quiff and Apple Geek enjoyed them. The Bond 75 was sweet but refreshing and the Mayfair cosmo was nice but we couldn’t work out what about it made it a ‘Mayfair’ cosmo – answers on the back of a postcard if you can tell me!

The first thing to say about our starters was that they were big portions. Le Quiff had a huge bowl of soup with a generous slice of rarebit which would have sufficed as a lunch on its own. I tried some of the rarebit which had good flavour and le Quiff said the soup was very good. Apple Geek said his squid was ok. I tried some and I don’t know why they battered the squid rings and the batter was a little too thick, so it was calamari really. Neither was it salt and pepper but the batter was a sort of mild curry flavour so other than the fact that it wasn’t really what it claimed to be apart from squid it tasted quite nice and the squid wasn’t over cooked. My salmon was very nice and well seasoned, the capers were good and there wasn’t too much raw onion in the mix (as with my complaint with SOS, if you are going to put raw onion in something you have to say no matter how little you put in!) and it was very finely diced as was the chilli which wasn’t too strong. The toast was thin, crispy and tasted very nice. I enjoyed the salmon but couldn’t finish it; I was already feeling full and didn’t know how I would tackle the main course.

Our plates were cleared away quickly and our mains came just as fast, I still had the taste of salmon in me mouth!

Main Course:
Myself: whole roast sea bass with lemon and thyme
The Quiff: slow roast belly pork with Mayfair cassoulet
Apple Geek: Hush hamburger with cheese
To share: Aspen chips (parmesan and black truffle) and green beans with garlic and shallot

Waitress was sure to let us know that our mains didn’t come with anything on the plate other than what was stated so we decided to get the side dishes. Appearance wise we liked the fact that there plates were individual and different – nice touch. Apple Geek said his burger was very good and liked the thought put into the placing of the burger’s garnish. Le Quiff enjoyed his pork belly and was impressed with the crackling on it and though he liked his cassoulet couldn’t see what made it a ‘Mayfair’ cassoulet rather than a regular cassoulet. Neither were there any vegetables in it as the waitress had said. My sea bass very nice – moist and I don’t recall getting any stray bones in it. I liked the fact that you get half a lemon wrapped in muslin to stop the pips falling on to the fish.  I couldn’t finish the fish, especially with the side dishes which we shared. The chips had great flavour and I really liked the black truffle with it but they were a bit soggy and not crisp enough. The green beans also had great flavour and were nicely al a dente but could have been fresher, they were a bit limp.

Our plates were cleared away quickly again, the dessert menu handed out. We had been served by the same waitress throughout and she now came speeding round for our order dessert but as our first two dishes were so big we asked if we could have a 10 minute breather before ordering. After about 15 minutes we were ready to get dessert but the previously super attentive waitress kept speeding pass as if we weren’t there. And here I have to do justice to Apple Geek – the waitress was walking pass our table and he SAID to her ‘we’d like to order please?’ and she ignores him! How rude, how rude, how rude? Service was quite good up until that point but that is terrible – we’re all disgusted-repulsed-offended-outraged-insulted and in shock! After we recover (we’re not dramatic at all) the Quiff gets the attention of another waitress and we order.

Dessert:
Myself: salted fudge ice cream
The Quiff: warm valrhona chocolate pot
Apple Geek: sticky toffee pudding with crème fraiche

The restaurant was busy now but the dessert came with lightening quick speed and we wondered how they did it all so quickly? Anyway overall the desserts were very good and we all enjoyed them. I really enjoyed my ice cream which tasted just as described you could make out both fudge and salt it came with stick of honeycomb dipped in chocolate which was also very nice. Dessert was cleared away quickly and the Quiff got an espresso and after a while we get the bill, visit the toilet and leave – no tip for the waitress other than be consistently attentive.

Summary: Hush is in a great location and setting and the service would have been very good if the waitress had not been so bad at the end. The food was certainly worth it with 50% off, it was tasty and the portions were generous. It wasn’t quite fine dinning which is what it seemed to be aiming for but I felt it was more like good homely food – a bit like the decor that seemed to be aiming for one thing but wasn’t quite one thing or another but worked well.