Palm Court at The Langham in its new guise as The Good Front Room.
What is The Good Front Room?
This new restaurant is the extremely popular result of a reality TV programme. Channel 4's Five Star Kitchen: Britain’s Next Great Chef, saw a group of hopefuls looking to set up a pop-up restaurant at The Langham, judged by Le Gavroche's Michel Roux Jr. Coming out on top was chef Dom Taylor, previously at The Courthouse Hotel and The Jam Tree. The Good Front Room (named after a much-prized room at his great-aunt Myrtle’s house) is the resulting pop-up, bringing Caribbean cuisine to The Langham.
Where is it?
It's a short walk from Oxford Circus tube. Just head north up Regent Street and you'll find the hotel on the left.
Where should we go for a drink first?
The Langham itself is home to two of the best places to drink in the area. For a pint or a glass of wine, try The Wigmore pub, somewhere we've often found ourselves when in the area.
But ideally, you'll want to kick off with a cocktail and for that, nothing in the immediate area beats Artesian. One of the best bars in London, the cocktail menu here changes semi-regularly and at the moment it's all about "Ingredients of the future" where each cocktail focuses on a specific ingredient that is important for the planet. Those ingredients can be a bit out-there, like soil scent or crickets, but you'll be assured of a pretty spectacular cocktail, whatever you order here.
Two excellent vegetable-led cocktails at Artesian. On the left, it's Peas (Christian Drouin calvados, Boatyard Vodka, Belsazar Dry, peas, lemon. absinthe, £22) and on the right Mushrooms (Woodford Rye, Grand Marnier Cuvee, Louis Alexandre, mushrooms, maple, £24).
As a side note, it's also worth noting that the snacks in Artesian come as a collaboration with Angelo Sato's Humble Chicken. So if you can't get into The Good Front Room (it's really very popular), popping in here for a bite is well worth your time too.
Onto that Good Front Room - where in the hotel is that?
For this pop-up, they've taken over one of the hotel's grand rooms, Palm Court, for the evenings only. It's an old-school big hotel dining room affair, given a slight makeover by Dom Taylor and the team.
And what kind of food can we expect?
Taylor is going for a new take on Caribbean cooking at The Good Front Room, mixing that with the kind of fine dining approach you'd normally find in Palm Court. It's three courses for £75 with four choices for each course. There's also a generous bowl of plantain crisps for you to get started on while you make your decisions.
Lots of the food on offer has a decent kick to it, and if you need a little more heat, a small bowl of the kitchen's hot sauce is on offer. The starters and mains work really well, bringing something genuinely new to this style of dining. Here are our own choices on the night:
Jerk Chicken as you've never seen it before - Jerk marinated boneless chicken thigh, plantain jam, plantain crisp, blackened sweetcorn dressing
Ackee and Salt Fish Cake - Salt cod, confit garlic and scotch bonnet aioli, pineapple and heirloom tomato chow, escallion oil
Chef Dom’s Curry Goat - Braised goat shoulder, breadfruit and roti bread on the side. One of the hotter (but not that hot) dishes on the night, this goes very well with the hot sauce.
Dark Rum and Raisin Pork Belly - A sweet-tinged slow-cooked pork belly, pickled raisins and cho cho, smokey charred hispi cabbage, thyme salt crackling
With the main course, you also get all these sides. From the top left, clockwise, we have maple, coriander and lime glazed plantain fresh chillies with smoked salt; rice and peas - black eye beans, coconut basmati rice; okra and fennel slaw, dairy-free yoghurt, lemon; green banana gratin, garlic, nutmeg cream, herb crumb. The rice and the banana gratin were the real winners here.
And what about dessert?
Everything up until this point was great, but while our desserts were fine, they didn't quite hit the high points of the earlier part of the meal. From what we've seen, the other two desserts on the menu, the cocoa bean mousse cake and the coconut milk soft serve were the ones to go for, so we'd probably push you in that direction instead.
Bun and Cheese - toasted spiced bun, sweet blue cheese, sour cherries, plantain chutney
Stout punch pannacotta, dark rum, sorrel jelly - a decent pannacotta but a little overwhelmed by the sorrel jelly.
What about drinks?
There's a small cocktail list as part of the pop-up, all at £19, including the Palm Court Sour (Monkey 47 Gin, Falernum, Orgeat Syrup, Passion Fruit, Lime) and Chef Dom's Punch (Wray and Nephew Rum, Good Front Rum, Passoa, Blood Orange, Lime, Vanilla, Ginger, Pimento Berries, Cinammon, Nutmeg). They're good, but really not a patch on the ones at Artesian, so we'd again recommend you have a pre/post dinner drink there. There's a small, [predominantly French, wine list for The Good Front Room with bottles starting at £42.
Overall thoughts
There's a feeling of something welcomingly different from the norm with The Good Front Room, which serves up a fresh take on Caribbean cuisine. And, largely, Dom Taylor pulls it off extremely well. Given the success of this pop-up, we'd really like to see how the chef takes things from here, perhaps making the Good Front Room a permanent fixture somewhere. In the meantime, this is well worth a look in its current home.
More about The Good Front Room
Where is it? The Langham London, 1C Portland Pl, London W1B 1JA
When does it open until? Until 30 April 2024
How to book: Book online
Find out more: Visit their website or follow them on Instagram @langham_london
Hot Dinners ate as guests of The Good Front Room. Prices are correct at the time of writing.
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