Brook and Green

Brook and Green opened in late September 2026, replacing the former Silver Birch. The restaurant still has the same owner, but the new name reflects a significant change in direction. Previously the cuisine was quite ambitious, with a named chef with a serious track record. Brook and Green is a more casual, all-day affair, with the name of the head chef deliberately withheld, as the owner wants a more casual, neighbourhood restaurant. In the words of the restaurant management: “The food and venue are the primary focus over any one person’s cooking.” Fair enough, though some more attention to the accuracy of the menu descriptions would be useful e.g. “Jersey Royals” with the sea bass dish seemed implausible in October given that the Jersey Royal season finishes in late June or early July, and indeed when I asked about this it was clarified that these were actually just new potatoes.

The wine list had 38 labels and ranged in price from £29 to £120, with a median price of £48 and an average markup to retail price of 3.3 times, which is about average for London these days. No vintages were listed. Sample references were Bericanto Pinot Grigio at £38 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for about £24, Wildflower Chardonnay at £47 compared to its retail price of £17, and Gigondas La Grand Vin Comtadin at £68 for a wine that will set you back about £20 in the high street. Corkage was the price of the house wine, i.e. £29 per bottle.

Tuna crudo (£14.50), i.e. raw tuna slices, came with capers, fennel, blood orange and olive oil. The tuna did not have a lot of flavour to be honest, but the accompaniments were logical, the blood orange providing some acidity (11/20). Crispy squid (£11.50) was battered and fried, with yuzu kosho mayonnaise, lemon, fresh chilli and coriander. This was rather light on squid and heavy on batter, but the squid that was there was not chewya, and the chilli distracted from any oiliness in the batter (12/20). 

Wild mushroom risotto with black truffle (£22) was topped with Parmesan and brown butter. This menu description could have been written by an estate agent, as there was most certainly no black truffle (actually truffle oil) and the mushrooms I could identify were some rather straggly oyster mushrooms; perhaps there were others hidden away under the rather curious coating of rocket, which didn’t really work as it had become rather soggy from its contact with the risotto. I am not sure what rice or stock was used, but there was very limited flavour infused into the rice by the stock, and seasoning seemed to be missing in action (9/20). I had a couple of bites and gave up on this one. 

As an aside, it should be noted that almost all “truffle oil” has nothing whatsoever to do with genuine black truffle (Tuber melanosporum). Truffle oil is a chemical called 2,4-dithiapentane, a volatile sulphur compound created in a laboratory. It supposedly resembles truffle aroma, but that is rather like saying that a Lada resembles a Ferrari. To label it on the menu as black truffle is misleading. Some jars of truffle oil have a tiny fragment of actual truffle, but these are sterilised and have no flavour whatever. Exceptionally, there are a few expensive jars that have actual truffle, but these need refrigeration and have a short shelf life, so you’d be better off with a real truffle. Truffles start to lose their fragrance the moment that they are plucked from the ground by the dog that hunts them, and their unique, earthy fragrance is not something that can be reproduced by a chemical. 

Pasta with Cornish crab, chilli, garlic and lemon breadcrumbs (£25) had a brown crab meat sauce and notionally some white crab meat, as well as toasted sourdough crumbs and parsley. The pasta was actually cooked correctly and had a reasonable texture, but there was no discernible white crab meat, so essentially the dish came down to plain pasta with breadcrumbs and a hint of crab from the brown crab meat in the butter (10/20). My dining companion gave up on this after a couple of bites. A side salad of avocado, chopped leaves and seeds (£6) was fine (11/20).

Desserts here are bought in from a company called Pretty Sweet in Brent. This is a capable company, and both desserts that we tried were good, but the kitchen here had nothing to do with them, so I won’t score them. Lemon tart (£9) was very competent, as was sticky toffee pudding (£9.50).

Service was friendly. The bill came to £48 per person, though that was without the main courses, which were both omitted from the bill as we didn’t eat them. A typical cost per person might be around £70. Although the idea of changing Silver Birch into a more all-day, local affair is fine in principle, it needs better cooking than was delivered today.