AA Gill - Bluebird Review
AA Gill, Table Talk: Sunday Times
The Bluebird Dining Rooms, King’s Road
Overseen by Tom Conran & Mark Broadbent…
“The menu is one of the best I’ve seen this year, a Winter wish list of seriously tweedy food… a well-planned collection of dishes that drops names where appropriate and adds a modern flourish when it feels like it.”
“The starters included dandelion salad, wet walnuts, lambourne apples and Shropshire blue; warm potato drop scones, Cornish crab, landcress and crustacea oil; and flaked, soused mackerel, Cheltenham beetroot, orange and bitter leaves. Main courses encompassed slow-roast crackled Middle White pork, roast potatoes and warm quince; pot-roast Saltmarsh lamb, hotpot potatoes, spinach and pickled red cabbage; and glazed young cauliflower, Montgomery cheese and soft egg. That almost reads like a Betjemen poem.”
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Fay Maschler - Wild World Review
Fay Maschler, Evening Standard
Wild World, Hammersmith
“Chef Mark Broadbent, previously working (quite briefly) at the Brackenbury nearby, does not have to get by just upon a smile. He is an accomplished backpacker, able to cook with precision and extract maximum flavour from the souvenirs of his, mainly European, rovings.”
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Jill Dupleix - The Oak Review
Jill Duplex, cookery editor of The Times
The Oak, West London
“Mark Broadbent at the Oak in West London specialises in fresh, confident Mediterranean cooking that extracts the natural sweetness of the ingredients. A hidden gem.”
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Terry Durack - Bluebird Review
Terry Durack, The Independent On Sunday
The Bluebird Dining Rooms, King’s Road
“In the kitchen is the comfortably padded chef Mark Broadbent, whom I have happily followed around town since he was cooking Mediterranean at The Oak in Westbourne Grove. Here, he has gone back to his roots and put together a proudly parochial menu… British food has rarely been treated with such a combination of skill and respect. There is no ego on the plate here, and no silly foams and ices; a case of finding the very best ingredients, introducing them briefly to another on the plate and then leaving them alone…. All credit to Conran and Broadbent for taking on British cooking where the gastropub leaves off, and dressing it up for smart society without getting all Frenchy-poo about it. Bluebird is proof that properly sourced, skilfully cooked and elegantly served British can make the British dining experience as great as the French.”
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