Over the past year or so, Notting Hill has become even more of a foodie destination with a raft of new restaurants, including Dorian, Empire Empire, and Straker's, joining established restaurants such as Core and The Ledbury. This is why it was chosen as the perfect destination to take a group of chefs and restaurateurs on a whistle-stop tour of some of the area's most talked about venues in partnership with event management platform Tripleseat. Click on the video to see how we got on, and read about the venues we visited below.
The Counter
High–profile Turkish chef Kemal Demirasal’s UK debut has largely flown under the radar but the Ladbroke Grove restaurant now looks set to shake up London’s Turkish food scene. The Counter is billed as a contemporary take on an ocakbasi restaurant offering authentic Anatolian dishes with the occasional twist. While the majority of the dishes at this small, unassuming restaurant will be familiar to anyone who has explored the more authentic side of the capital’s vibrant Turkish food scene, Demirasal is clear that the approach is distinct from the ocakbasi restaurants of Green Lanes which – he believes – serve Anglo Turkish food, or at the very least Turkish food that has taken on some UK influences.
Empire Empire
Gunpowder founder Harneet Baweja’s latest restaurant take inspiration from the late 1970s Indian disco era, with a custom–made Marshall jukebox playing ‘Bollywood bangers’ and vintage LP covers lining the walls. The menu is inspired by the northwestern cuisines stretching across the old Punjab Empire, from Bihar across to Afghanistan. “When disco became big in India, my dad would put on his silk floral shirt and bell–bottoms and hit the town – often eating, drinking and dancing all under one roof,” says Baweja. “This is my personal inspiration for Empire Empire. We wanted to bring the golden age of Indian music, art and food together in one place.”
Gold
Overseen by former River Café chef Theo Hill, Gold is a relaxed modern European restaurant in a space that once housed one of Notting Hill’s best known pubs. The site has been given a modern makeover but retains a high–energy pub–y vibe, with a busy bar to the front of the ground floor space. The fully open kitchen has been built into the back of the bar looking on to Gold’s attractively leafy and airy conservatory, which has a retractable roof. While not explicitly Italian, Gold’s eclectic menu shows plenty of influence from Hill’s former employer and is all the better for it.
Restaurant's latest Eats Out event was sponsored by Tripleseat, an easy-to-use sales and event management platform for restaurants and hotels that increases bookings.