Newly opened restaurant (2019) on Pall Mall from Anthony Demetre

This is the reincarnation of the original Wild Honey in Mayfair by the same chef Anthony Demetre, who also owned Arbutus in Soho. This new version, opened in June 2019, is a lot more spacious than the first Wild Honey and holds a very pleasant waiting area and bar at the same time, catering for drop ins for food on busy nights. My drop in was spontaneous and I opted for two starters and dessert from the a la carte which totalled £39. They were small plates as a result but, the standard here was as high as I enjoyed and referred from the previous Wild Honey and so things are looking good here. Definitely, worth another visit for a more substantial meal and I like the fact they are open for lunch on a Sunday as well.

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The menus vary from a very good value set menu of £23 for two courses, £27 for three courses and based on this first outing, I strongly suspect this will be a far better option and value for money than many other restaurants. The Sofitel that Wild Honey is next to opened in 2002 and although Wild Honey is a separate business, it is attached to the Hotel and accessible through the lobby as well the bustling Pall Mall.

My meal started with decent sour dough supplied by The Bread Factory and my first course that was recommended to me was the Cacio e Pepe (cheese and pepper pasta) and this one served with boneless chicken wings. There was certainly no shortage of kick with the pepper but the cheese sauce was well done as was the choice to pair with the chicken. This was a simple & effective dish, with the chicken skin giving a pleasant crunch and saltiness to the macaroni.

I was not hugely hungry that evening so I opted to keep things light and have another starter instead of a main and was guided to the lacquered BBQ quail, turnip with peanut. This was an absolutely exquisite quail. The fire from the peanut sauce was definitely there and the cool from turnip ribbons was welcome to balance. The quail itself was gorgeously succulent and I ended up trying to scrape every last piece of meat off the bones. Cayenne pepper gave most of the heat from the sauce.

The chocolate soup was reminiscent of semolina in part (a good thing for personal preference) and the ice cream was a perfect accomplishment to the warm chocolate mousse. The portion size here was good and the puffed rice was another lovely touch for the dessert in general.

So, all in all, this was a very pleasant few samples and means it will absolutely be done again another time. This is traditional dining and for the better; no tasting menus and within its new setting, I think this is a lovely addition to the London dining scene. If a pre-theatre menu was added, I can only think this will be a superb move for those attending theatre performances on Haymarket or Lower Regent Street. But, will leave that with the restaurant to consider. Overall, I thoroughly recommend giving this a try.

Food Grade: 76%