The Westbury hotel in Mayfair gives off the aura of being very focused on catering to an exclusive clientele and not necessarily interested in dealing with a scruff like me. If it wasn’t for food then it’s unlikely that I would ever go near the Westbury. The reason our paths crossed is Alyn Williams’ restaurant on the ground floor and the generally positive feedback that it seems to have received.

Alyn Williams was previously Head Chef at Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley and Petrus and this is his first venture of his own having opened in late 2011. The food is listed as European style and the menu changes regularly. The restaurant picked up its first Michelin star in September of this year.

The dining room is a typical upper-end hotel eating space. With its dark wood trim, linen clothed tables and deep carpets it has a stilted formality that makes it an oppressive place to eat. Service was restrained but the staff were very good about helping me get comfortable to counter my chronic back problems. 

Dinner options are a choice between the à la carte menu or one of two seven-course tasting menus. I decided to go with the à la carte. After the choice was made warm gougères were delivered to the table. The wonderfully light choux pastry, dusted with parmesan contained a blue cheese filling that gave a more piquant edge to their taste than most gougères. These were a very moreish snack.

The selection of bread with plain and caraway butter followed. The breads included a lavosh brushed with olive oil, a potato and sourdough loaf and a dark beer and star anise bread. The crispy lavosh was a delight and benefitted hugely from the black pepper on its surface. The best of the breads was the crusty sourdough bread with the impressive chunks of potato that I would rate as one of the best breads I’ve had.

The starter was chicken wings with sweetbreads, baby gem, Jersey royals and creamed sherry. This light, fresh starter was a great way to kick things off thanks in large part to the inclusion of the sherry-dressed lettuce and potatoes. The boned chicken wing meat with its crisped edge was an excellent focal point for the dish and the sweetbreads were a superb combination with the sherry cream sauce.

This was followed by a delightful scallop dish. Scottish scallop that had been seared on a plancha was served with Muscat grapes, hazelnuts and verjus purée. The whole dish played very well on the different sweet flavours without the combination ever being overwhelming. The wonderful tender caramelised scallop worked really well with the toasted hazelnut and soared under the influence of the purée. The dish was rounded out nicely with a red grape puree and a hazelnut dressing.

The main course with its combination of red mullet with miso, smoked eel, cucumber, lemon curd and Welsh beach vegetables gave an emphatic blast of marine flavours. The firm-fleshed red mullet with its fairly delicate flavour was a good way to carry things but it benefitted hugely from the richness of the smoked eel. The cucumber provided fresh crunch to the dish.

Creme catalane with pear, blackberry granite and pine sugar was served as a pre-dessert. The tartness of the blackberry worked well with the vanilla crème. The pine added a tangy contrast with the diced pear.

My chosen dessert was baked apples with hazelnut ice cream & rolo. The dish was topped with light oaty biscuits. The warm ribbons of baked apple were delicious as was the hazelnut ice cream. The large “rolo” was incredibly sweet and needed the ice cream to tone it down to suit my palate. This was lovely autumnal dessert.

Overall verdict.
The food at Alyn Williams was excellent and justified the positive reviews. However, its biggest problem is the uncomfortable formal atmosphere of the dining room. The food deserves more relaxed surroundings.

Would I revisit Alyn Williams? 
I would definitely go back again for the food particularly to try the tasting menu.

Overall Rating - 4/5