10 Greek Street (Soho)

10 Greek Street: Razor Clams, Chorizo and Broad Beans (£8)

I have to apologise for my lazy blogging at the moment – the summer effect, changing jobs and a lot of things going on in my life. I have however been eating, so will update you on recent restaurant experiences in a series of shorter posts. In the end all you, dear readers, want to know is whether the restaurant is worth going to, right?

Much has been said and written about 10 Greek Street, which is as you may have deduced from the name, in Greek Street, Soho in house number 10 in the middle of the restaurant mile. Since this tiny non booking restaurant has opened at the beginning of the year, I have made several attempts to visit, all corrupted by my innate disgust for queuing. Once however I was lucky to get a table and I am very sad that 10 Greek Street doesn’t allow me to reserve a table, as I would be back many times.

The bistro-like atmosphere is friendly and relaxed and the daily changing menu is short and sweet with a good choice of vegetarian dishes. What I enjoyed most about the food was the simplicity and freshness of flavours, letting the ingredients shine without corrupting them with complexity.

Watermelon and Feta Salad (£6)

While I enjoyed the Chilled Tomato Cucumber and Fennel Soup (£5) I loved the Watermelon and Feta Salad (£6) with buckets of fresh and intensely flavoured mint and wonderfully ripe (but not overripe) watermelon. This was a dish tasting of summer. I was intrigued but not convinced by the Razor Clams, Chorizo and Broad Beans (£8). The delicate flavour of the razor clams was overwhelmed by the chorizo, and the razor clams were far from tender. A very pretty dish though!

Wild Mushroom Sformato (£14)

We went completely vegetarian for our mains. I thought the Wild Mushroom Sformato (£14) was beautiful. The warm “sformato” – kind of a denser mushroom soufflé – was light and fluffy with earthy taste and went stunningly with the melting cold burrata and marinated chanterelles. Nice but a bit bland were theRicotta filled Courgette Flowers (£14), partly also because the lentils were not very exciting and zucchini (which must be the most boring vegetable there is) just needs a bit more to be lifted to exceptional levels.

Chocolate Torte (£5)

So many vegetables of course left some space for dessert and I thoroughly enjoyed the Chocolate Torte (£5) with juicy pieces of peach and almonds.

Overall this was a successful meal and even though not all the dishes were spot on I loved the unpretentious creativity of the cooking. I know I’ll miss out, but I am still not going to queue, sorry. Please London restaurateurs, I beg you, could you please stop doing all these non-booking places?