Treacle soda bread and cultured butter - delivered to the table, but you can order more £3.50 each if you need. Excellent soda bread - and we're very, very particular about our soda bread.
What can you tell us about Myrtle?
Myrtle is the first restaurant from Anna Haugh (it opened in 2019) who has had a career that included working for Shane Osborn, Philip Howard and Gordon Ramsay. She's also been a busy bee on TV - with appearances on Ready Steady Cook. Her Chelsea restaurant is fine dining with an Irish touch, showcasing Irish produce and modernising Irish recipes.
Where is it?
It's right down the end of the King's Road. Your best public transport route is either Fulham Broadway and a short walk or Sloane Square and a bus down the length of King's Road.
Where's good for a drink before/after?
The most obvious local spot is The Chelsea Funhouse - which has taken over the nearby the World's End pub. That's two bars and a restaurant in one - the bars being the immersive WW2 codebreaker bar The Bletchley (but you'll need a little more time for that), the Chelsea Black espresso martini bar. But you'll also want this at Myrtle:
Probably best left till the end of the meal - this is their own home-made Irish Mist, made with Tullamore Dew whisky (£6 a glass). Very reminiscent of another certain Irish drink, but with a distinctly greater coffee/alcohol hit.
And what should we order?
The menu at Myrtle is a standard three-course affair - so it's pretty straightforward. Here's what we went for:
Irish Carlingford oysters with lemon and dill (£3 each) - aka, how you should kick off your meal.
It looks like a cake but it's actually layers of golden beetroot and St Tola goat's cheese, rolled in walnuts (£10.50)
Clonakilty black pudding, wrapped in potato with Braeburn apple puree (£11) - about as Irish a starter as it gets.
Cornish day-boat, oak crusted hake, smoked mackerel chowder sauce, spinach & mussels (£29)
Roasted beef fillet, Burren beef stuffed boxty with tarragon and confit shallot juice (£32) - just a gorgeous piece of meat, cooked to a perfect medium-rare. The boxty is excellent too - an updated Irish classic. If you're feeling left out, you can order another one of the boxtys as a side.
What's the menu like for vegetarians?
The beetroot "cake" above is a must, but other options on our visit included a heritage carrot salad with Cais na Tire cheese and a Wicklow potato pancake with caramelised onion as a choice for a main course. Also - ordering the colcannon (mash and kale) as a side is a must whether you're going vegetarian or not.
And what's on the menu for dessert?
There's cheese in the shape of the famed Cashel Blue, as well as a Carragreen chocolate mousse - but we think our choices are the ones to go for:
Buttermilk Pannacotta, rhubarb jelly - which also comes with cinnamon doughnuts (£8)
Brown bread parfait (topped with more crunchy brown bread) and apple sauce (£8). Brown bread ice cream is one of our favourite things from childhood - so this was another winner for us.
What about wine?
Being in the heart of Chelsea, the wine list is on the pricey side, with prices kicking off at £32 for red and £36 for white. Sticking with the Irish theme, we opted for the Doran Vineyards 2018 Chenin Blanc from Voor Pardeburg in South Africa. Doran are an Irish-owned vineyard and wine seller (they're on our Murphia list) and we'd definitely recommend this as one of the more affordable options.
Overall thoughts
In last year's Hot Dinners awards, we highlighted Myrtle as the restaurant that we most regretted not trying before the end of the year. We've finally rectified that mistake and the restaurant has more than lived up to our high expectations. Extremely welcoming, with an approach to Irish cuisine that can't be seen anywhere else in the capital, we think it's definitely worth a visit.
More about Myrtle
Where is it? 1A Langton St, London SW10 0JL
Find out more: Visit their website or follow them on Twitter @myrtlerest
Subscribe to be the first to get the news from Hot Dinners
