Jimi Famurewa reviews Eldr at Pantechnicon: Not perfect, but there's comfort in its mad ambition

Jimi Famurewa soaks up the grandeur of Belgravia gastrodome Eldr at Pantechnicon
Beguiling: the upstairs space at Eldr
Jimi Famurewa @jimfam16 October 2020

I don’t know about you but seven long months into our new, pestilence-ravaged reality, I am still ticking off strange post-lockdown milestones.

That first parental scramble to make it to the school gates on time; the familiar sensation of emerging from bed the day after playing five-a-side football with all the supple vigour of Monty Burns. These are not quite moments of huge, tear-jerking significance. Rather everyday markers that hint towards London’s return to a recognisable normality.

Which, I think, just about brings us to Eldr at Pantechnicon: a brand new Belgravia gastrodome cum design nirvana that is so redolent of a specific kind of thrusting, pre-pandemic hospitality opening that I worried I’d already reviewed it. Seriously. Everything about it (the hybrid Nordic-Japanese theme, the slightly unwieldy name, the enormous, expensively rendered multi-purpose space) heralds the kind of insanely confident, boom-time dining experiment that, for better or worse, feels like a blast from the recent past.

Hearty Viking flavours: beef tartare, cream and roe

Which is not to say that our arrival there wasn’t utterly beguiling. My wife Madeleine and I took the kids along for a rainy Sunday trip into town. And from the moment the four of us scurried into this Grade II-listed former furniture emporium — beyond its Vegas-like neoclassical exterior, through the vibey ground-floor branch of ultra-hip Parisian import, Cafe Kitsuné, and up past an enticingly curated gift shop on the first floor — the boys were tellingly quiet. I suppose the design ethos is maximum hygge but it also felt like the buzzing dining complex of a particularly cool art museum. Eldr (Old Norse for fire) sits in an airy, wood-accented spot on the second floor and reminded me of a Copenhagen restaurant through both its woodsmoke-scented open kitchen and menu that probably features more dill than is necessary.

‘I can’t see anything I want,’ said the seven-year-old, looking up from the menu as we settled into the jazz-filled, quietly moneyed buzz of a steadily filling room. And not to besmirch my firstborn but this was to be expected given the general lack of things cooked in a deep fryer. (Let us say that no paternity test was required to prove he’s mine.) Fennel and honey bread was a hit with everyone, though; a terrifically warm, subtly sweet tear-and-share loaf of mini cobs, served with lingonberry-studded butter. A beetroot salad starter, concealed beneath wilted sea beet leaves and punchily accessorised with ground macadamia and scattered truffle, impressed, while little mounds of shredded cured halibut came with patches of intensely vinegary dill mayonnaise.

“Everything about it heralds the kind of boom-time experiment that feels like a blast from the recent past”

The mains (bar a chicken breast of ethereal, truffled softness that the boys happily demolished) felt less successful. Madeleine’s expanse of roasted pumpkin, white beans, more truffle and Parmesan-like Västerbotten would have been a trudge were it not for the zing of pickled wild mushrooms. My venison with scorched cabbage, swede and squishable blackcurrants was capably done but did help solidify what felt like an overly familiar formula (protein, root veg, tart berries) not wholly worthy of a nearly 200 quid bill.

Still, the puddings — soft, Moomin-pale meringue with a scoop of blackberry sorbet and a Swiss roll-like birch-sap cake aboard a crunching riot of stewed apple and crystallised white chocolate — pulled it all back. And if you just came here for that chicken, the slyly addictive potatoes in smoked butter and, maybe, a frothy glass of Mikkeller beer in the leafy winter-proofed roof garden, I can’t see how you wouldn’t leave happy. Eldr at Pantechnicon is not perfect. But amid a battered, fretful dining landscape there is comfort to be found in its hearty Viking flavours, fastidious elegance and mad, multi-storey ambition.

Eldr at Pantechnicon

1 Fennel and honey bread £4.50

1 Beetroot £11

1 Halibut £14

1 Pumpkin and white bean £18

1 Venison and swede £25

1 Chicken £24

2 Potato and smoked butter £12

2 Meringue and blackberry sorbet £16

1 Apple birch-sap cake £8

2 Lemonades £5

2 Mikkeller pale ales £13

1 Rhubarb and dill spritz mocktail £7

1 Decaf latte £3.50

1 Americano £3

Total £164

19 Motcomb Street, Belgravia, SW1 (020 7034 5422; pantechnicon.com)

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