The story
Six Portland Road in London delivers a refined take on Modern British cooking that has earned consistent recognition from critics. Jesse Dunford Wood reopened this intimate Holland Park venue in 2020, steering the Modern British kitchen away from heavy postwar tropes toward a brighter, seasonally driven approach. That commitment treats regional ingredients with respect, borrowing techniques from other cultures without losing its homegrown identity.
Guests often begin with the famous soda bread alongside charcuterie from Cobble Lane or a bowl of mustardy cauliflower soup. The kitchen applies a seasonal lens to every plate, whether plating Brixham crab royale with keta caviar and charcoal crackers or serving a darne of brill next to a butter bean cassoulet variant. Dry-aged shorthorn sirloin arrives with a nearly crackled fat cap and skinny chips, while dessert plates might feature carrot cake dressed in cream cheese or a rhubarb and almond tarte fine.
The Good Food Guide recognises the spot as a classic local dining room where a compact layout quickly feels welcoming rather than cramped. Contemporary furnishings and warm lighting create a relaxed backdrop for the monthly changing menus and Sunday roast gatherings. A curated wine list highlights crisp whites and house sparkling wines that complement the unpretentious yet polished Modern British dining experience.
Recognition
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1 Rosette Award for Culinary Excellence
Neighbourhood restaurants are all the more valuable in the districts of a sprawling city, binding the immediate community together, but also exercising a magnetic pull to a wider field. Holland Park's Six Portland Road is a classic of the genre, just off the opulent Avenue in a residential street. It's a small space that quickly feels full, but with no undue sense of being cramped; it also exudes warm bonhomie as soon as you step through the heavy drape and hang your coat on the hook. Open every day, it covers all bases with a prix-fixe lunch menu during the week, and diner-friendly Sundays of roasts and crumbles. Charcuterie from Islington's Cobble Lane makes a good appetiser, perhaps fennel salami with cornichons, alongside some buttered soda bread. Brixham crab royale is kitted out with keta caviar, lemon and dill, and served with blackened charcoal crackers – or there might be a warming, mustardy cauliflower soup. Darne of brill is carefully cut, its skin crisped, the flesh flawlessly timed, and the accompaniments a distant relative of cassoulet (including butter beans and fatty breadcrumbs). Teamed with some expertly tempura-style samphire, it's hard to imagine how it could be improved on. From the set lunch comes a plate of morteau sausage with cabbage and beetroot slaw, but also an unexpectedly starry main course of dry-aged shorthorn sirloin, its fat layer virtually crackled, with skinny chips and a pot of mildly herby béarnaise. To finish, there could be carrot cake, invitingly dressed with cream cheese and cracked cardamom, or a rhubarb and almond tarte fine with good vanilla ice cream. A decent wine selection by the glass has some obvious highlights – don't miss the flinty Raimbault Sancerre – but they already had us at aperitif stage when the house Champagne, a Blanc de Noirs from Amyot in the Aube, arrived in rule-busting, old-school saucers.
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