Labour MP Jess Phillips thinks Bryn Williams at Somerset House needs to decide what it wants to be

“The best thing I tasted all night was the kale pesto tagliatelle, which was absolutely delightful — even if it was just a big bowl of pasta”
Grand: the main dining room at Somerset House
Jess Phillips12 April 2018

Ambience: 3/5

Food: 3/5

I have lots of hopes and dreams, and most of them are of the righteous and noble variety: changing the world, fighting for equality, that sort of thing.

But hey, I am only human so when I was asked to write a restaurant review I felt I was living an actual dream.

So off I popped to the new Bryn Williams restaurant at Somerset House. I had read that it was to specialise in vegetables and considered for a fleeting moment that I should ask the famously vegetarian Jeremy Corbyn to be my guest. Every time I have ever been in his office he has offered me some sort of salad sandwich or, on one occasion, potatoes with cheese on them, so I thought it would be nice to repay the favour — but in the end I took my mate, Alex.

As I walked under the stone arches into the piazza of Somerset House, I had one of those awestruck London moments that those of us from out of town get about the city. Then I realised that Somerset House is massive, has four or five eateries and rubbish signage. Alex and I ran around all of them asking in each place if someone could direct us to Bryn Williams restaurant, to no avail. We skitted over the cobbles in 18th-century surroundings, eventually stumbling upon a door that lead us to an empty and unstaffed coffee shop, which lead to another door and then, the restaurant. Finally.

Perhaps fancy London sorts like a place so exclusive that you need an ordinance survey map to find it.

I normally shy away from raisins in savoury food thanks to bad school dinner curries in the 1980s

We entered and found ourselves between the three rooms that make up the bar and restaurant. Two different waiters told us as they passed that they were not the person who deals with reservations and that ‘she would be along in a minute’, which she was, but us being left standing in a sort of limbo area feeling spare wasn’t the best. I shall be generous and put it down to newly opened teething problems.

Surveying the menu I felt I had to really ‘lean in’ and pick the vegetable options, although meat and fish are available. So while Alex ordered salmon with beetroot, I went for the wild garlic soup followed by beautifully presented roasted cauliflower, golden raisins, polenta and salted grapes. I normally shy away from raisins in savoury food thanks to bad school dinner curries in the 1980s. I overlooked this, but it turns out I still don’t like raisins in my dinner — though salted grapes are delicious.

Alex’s salmon was simple and delicious, with a big satisfying chunk of fish rather than delicate slivers that are only good for inhaling. My friend — an independent single woman without children, living it up in the capital — made altogether better choices in the restaurant, and potentially in life, than I did. Without doubt the best thing I tasted all night was her main: kale pesto tagliatelle, which was absolutely delightful — even if it was just a big bowl of pasta, simply presented.

Afterwards we shared a lavender meringue and lemon posset. I expected to be disgusted by the lavender meringue, as if I were eating soap or Parma Violets, but it was subtle enough that I mainly tasted lemon posset.

Bryn Williams needs to decide what it is — the food is presented as it would be in a Michelin-starred restaurant and the Somerset House surroundings are very grand. But frankly I’m more likely to go back for a brilliant bowl of pasta than I am for fanciness and fussing. If I could find it, that is.

(Rii Schroer / Eyevine)
Rii Schroer / eyevine

Bryn Williams

1 Vodka tonic £6.50

1 Gin & tonic £9.50

1 Soda bread £3.25

1 Almonds £3.25

1 Garlic soup £7.25

1 Beetroot salmon £8.95

1 Cauliflower £16

1 Tagliatelle £15

1 Broccoli £4

1 Chips £4.25

1 Bottle of Tempranillo £26

1 Meringue £7

Total £110.95

Somerset House, Strand, WC2 (020 7845 4646; bryn-somersethouse.co.uk)

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