Brasserie 1600

This restaurant opened in October 2025, set up by a former chef called Lalit Kumar, who was executive head chef at the InterContinental London Park Lane. Arvind Yadav is the head chef; he worked previously at Dishoom and Hilton Bankside. The 1600 name apparently is a reference to the local royal hunting grounds of King Henry VIII, which became the thousand-acre Bushy Park in 1529. An area added to the hunting grounds in 1537 was originally called New Park but became known as Bushy Park around 1600, with the name first recorded in 1604. The restaurant has 58 covers plus a private dining room, and an attractive garden with further seating at the back. The menu was a la carte. 

The short wine list had no vintages listed but was exotic enough to feature a wine from Macedonia. It had 19 labels and ranged in price from £29 to £120, with a median price of £52 and an average markup to retail price of 3.18 times, which is quite high for outer London. Sample references were The Impressionist Pinot Noir at £32 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for £12, Paulette Shiraz Polish Hill River at £54 compared to its retail price of £17, and Rioja Gran Reserva Azabache at £81 for a wine that will set you back £24 in the high street. Corkage was £20.

There was a little canape of a piece of scallop with pea puree topped with salt-cured tobiko roe. This was described optimistically as “caviar” by the waitress, but caviar comes from sturgeon, not from flying fish. This was quite good, the piece of scallop tiny but nicely cooked, the peas having good flavour. I don’t think that the tobiko added anything (13/20). My starter of duck liver and pork pate with brioche (£9.50) was glazed with cognac and had a slightly rustic texture rather than being silky smooth, served with apple chutney and toasted brioche. The taste of the meat came through nicely, and the acidity from the apple provided balance (13/20). I was impressed with soft-shell crab (£12.50), which was served with herb relish and house salad. Soft shell crab can often be greasy when it is fried but this was very cleanly cooked, and the relish worked well with it (14/20). 

Haddock and chips (£19) was cooked well enough, served with mushy peas and rather watery tartare sauce. The batter could have been a touch crisper but other than the tartare sauce this was quite pleasant (12/20). A sirloin steak (£27) was cooked exactly as requested and had good flavour, its texture quite tender. It was supplied by Marbec Meats, a wholesale catering supplier based in Staples Corner. It came with decent peppercorn sauce, herb butter and crisp shallots, as well as good quality fries that were nicely seasoned (13/20). 

A Baileys cheesecake dessert (£9) had reasonable texture but was very bland in flavour, served with mixed berry relish (11/20). A blackberry and apple “crumble” (£8.50) was actually some sort of deconstructed affair, with the fruit accompanied by what looked and tasted like some kind of breakfast cereal rather than any kind of conventional cooked crumble. This didn’t work at all, so essentially this was just a dessert of baked apple and blackberry fruit with some cold oats alongside. I guess the vanilla ice cream was fine, but as a dish this was just odd (10/20). Coffee was decent, a blend from a coffee roaster called Gorgeous Coffee in Basingstoke.

Service was extremely good all evening and the bill came to £52 per person. Brasserie 1600 is a pleasant neighbourhood restaurant with an appealing menu, some capable cooking of its savoury dishes, and good service, with an attractive garden at the back as a bonus. If they could improve the level of their desserts then it would certainly improve things, but the local residents must be happy to have this restaurant nearby.