The Dysart

I have written previously about the Dysart and its talented chef, Ken Culhane, winner of the Roux Scholarship in 2010. The Dysart has a relaxed atmosphere, with generously spaced tables and nice light at lunch coming into the room through the large windows.

The meal began with a new canape, Spenwood cheese and Calvados croquette. The inspiration for this was a trip that the chef had to Calvados, where he particularly enjoyed a cheese fondue. This canape was a nod to that, but using an English cheese called Speenwood. This is made in Berkshire, inspired by Alpine styles of cheese. The kitchen makes crispy, golden croquettes with Speenwood cheese in the centre, lifted with aromatic Calvados as the shallots cook in the alcohol, finishing with some local chilli. The dish is topped with a local wild apple purée, garnished with a little tarragon. This was an excellent canape, served warm and with a nice balance from the apple’s tartness to offset the richness of the cheese (17/20) 

The next canape was a shellfish tartare served in a cockle shell. The tartare was with razor clams and cockles, with ginger, shallot, coriander and julienne of white beetroot. The shellfish was cooked gently, marinière-style, in white wine, shallots, garlic, and butter. It was then diced and mixed with a dressing of shallots, ginger, local chillies, kombu vinegar, and sesame oil, finished with the garnish of white beetroot. As at my previous visit, this was a glorious canape, with the razor clams and cockles impressively tender and the dressing being superbly balanced (18/20).

A new bread was pain Suisse of aged Comte and roasted ceps. This was a yeasted, buttery dough (similar to croissant dough) that is mixed and then rested so the gluten relaxes. High-quality butter is then folded into the dough and laminated, creating fine layers, with aged Comté cheese and roasted cep placed in the middle. This was an intriguing bread, a kind of savoury croissant.  

The next dish was Dorset crab with lobster jelly, cauliflower and aged caviar. It is based on a dish that I remember well from Joel Robuchon, which was served at, for example, three-star Robuchon au Dôme in Macau. This refined recipe celebrates luxury through balance and precision. Lobster jelly is crafted from a rich veal foot gelée and infused with aromatic vegetables, herbs, and spices, forming the elegant base. The jelly is clarified for purity and depth, highlighting the lobster’s natural sweetness. A smooth cauliflower cream adds softness, while a delicate crab, lobster and cauliflower mixture brings subtle texture and spice. At the heart, a generous blob of caviar crowns the dish, enhancing its briny intensity. The original Robuchon dish had a lot more and smaller dots, but tasted very similar. The caviar used was extra-aged Kaluga from supplier N25. This is from the largest of the fish they supply, or as they call it “river beluga”. It has extra texture and is much richer in umami from the ageing compared to their regular caviar. The crab and lobster were cooked fresh and mixed with some kombu vinegar, Amalfi lemon and high-quality Manni olive oil from Tuscany. This was a gorgeous dish, a blending of luxury flavours with string technique in the making of the jelly, as well as being visually appealing (strong 18/20).

 Another new dish was langoustines with cep cannelloni and shellfish bisque dressing. The sweet, gently cooked langoustines are quite striking with their pink colour against the dark depth of the squid-ink cannelloni. The latter is made with a classic chicken mousse, tarragon and heavily roasted ceps. Earthy ceps and pickled black chanterelles bring forest flavour notes and gentle acidity, as a Japanese kombu pickle is used to brine the black chanterelles. The shellfish dressing adds a deep, roasted umami that ties everything together. The XL langoustines from Scotland are seasoned and very lightly steamed. A bisque is made from the shellfish bones by cooking all the shellfish with turbot bones and aromatics, including various spices. These are all cooked in oil to deepen flavours at the start of the process of the bisque. The stock is then cooked gently and passed through muslin cloth. The bisque then separates with the deeply flavoured oil settled at the top, which is removed via decantation. The bisque is reduced, then emulsified with the deeply flavoured oil, confit garlic, kombu vinegar, a little lemon juice and fresh chives. This forms the dressing for the dish. The bisque was lovely, but the dish was slightly marred by some (but not all) of the langoustines being a little soft in texture. This is a wild product, and so some natural variation may be expected, but it slightly took the edge off the dish, good though it still was (15/20).

The main course was roast chicken, and what a chicken. The bird used was from Arnaud Tauzin, arguably the producer of the best chicken in the world, and certainly for me, with a flavour that is even better than the more famous Bresse chicken. The chicken was served with baby leeks, silver skin onions, pickled trompette mushrooms and diable sauce. The kitchen roasted the chicken crown classically, with lots of foaming butter and plenty of herbs and garlic, along with a confit of the wing and crispy pan-fried on the skin side. The sauce was a classic Escoffier sauce diable, with the carcass and trimmings of the chicken, the bones and the rest of the wing and legs. These are chopped into pieces, then roasted in a pan, with garlic, thyme, a few bay leaves and lots of Malabar white peppercorns. Once it is caramelised, then it is deglazed with champagne, reduced, and then combined with reduced white wine, chicken stock and veal stock, which is reduced further. This is cooked and passed through muslin cloth and reduced to the desired consistency. On there was a very fine diced shallot brunoise, with champagne, champagne vinegar and thyme reduction. This is cooked until soft and reduced until all the liquid evaporates. This shallot reduction is added to the sauce just before serving, adding freshness. There is a further flavour lift of gentle spice from white peppercorns. The chicken was served with local spinach, fricassee of vegetables, silver skin onions in saffron, baby leeks and black trompette mushrooms that had been lightly pickled in a Japanese pickle recipe. Vegetables are the Dysart are always cooked to order “À l'étuvée” (braised in a covered pot) at the last minute, cooking them in their own juices with a little olive oil. On the side was Parmesan kombu royal, with glazed Arnaud Tauzin chicken oysters with ceps and truffle. A classic royal recipe is made, but using whipping cream for a lighter texture to the finish. The cream is infused with kombu and black truffle, then steamed at a low temperature to prevent the egg from splitting. On the royal is placed the roasted chicken oysters. This is regarded as the tastiest part of a chicken. In France, they say “sot-l'y-laisse”, which means “the fool leaves it there”. The chicken oyster is glazed in a roasted cep veal jus, served with chicory leaves and chervil from Dysart’s garden for added freshness. There was also a pommes mousseline, using baked Ratte potatoes and a good quality sea salt. This prevents them from becoming too wet, which can happen if they are boiled, so the potatoes are essentially salt-baked. The middle is scooped out and whisked until smooth with a raw milk cultured butter, which adds a fresh fermented acidity to the mousseline. A lot of whisking is needed to make this really smooth, taking around 40 minutes non-stop, which gives you an idea of the level of effort that goes into the cooking here. All this work was just for a side element of the main dish. The work paid off, as the end result was superb, with the chicken having lovely flavour and the accompanying elements having very complementary flavours (18/20).

For dessert, there were two options. One was a modern tiramisu with Pedro Ximenes. The dish has evolved slightly from when I first ate it here, with Pedro Ximenes jellies now, with its raisin-like sherry notes of molasses matching the depth of the dark chocolate. The kitchen makes a chocolate sauce with egg yolk, like a custard, which forms the ring around the outside of the dish. The chocolate used is Venezuelan 72% Rio Caribe, by Willie Harcourt-Cooze in Devon. Inside this chocolate sauce ring was a mascarpone sabayon. This is whisked to aerate it and then folded it into a classically cooked sabayon, giving lightness to the mixture. On the mascarpone sabayon is placed a quenelle of a rich chocolate curd made with the Venezuelan 72% chocolate. There is a lady finger sponge recipe which is made with glucose to reduce the sweetness. The sponge is then soaked in Difference Coffee for a minute, similar to soaking a rum baba before serving. The sponge is dusted with cocoa powder. The ice cream placed on the lady fingers is made from lots of brewed coffee from Difference Coffee, fresh roasted beans to refresh the mix, milk powder, egg yolks and cream. It is hinting at cappuccino flavours with a lower sugar content, with added Pompona vanilla (a particular species of vanilla). Finally, Pedro Ximénez jellies are added, while the long tuiles across the dish are an almond chocolate dacquoise, which have a crispy meringue texture. This is a lovely dessert, with plenty of rich coffee flavour (17/20).

The other dessert was caramelised apple with roasted yeast and bay leaf ice cream, crème Anglaise, and apple and walnut tuile. Cox apples are used, with their sweet-tart balance providing a hint of acidity and aromatic notes. This prevents the dessert from being overly sweet and gives depth, especially when caramelised in the oven. The apples are sliced very finely, then caramelised sugar and vanilla are added to the slices and baked very slowly for approximately 4–5 hours. This brings out all the rich, baked-apple flavours somewhat reminiscent of a tarte tatin. The cooking juices are kept and reduced, then added back into the apple mix for extra depth of flavour. The kitchen makes a roasted yeast ice cream by browning fresh yeast in beurre noisette with lots of bay leaves. Once caramelised, this is blended through a traditional egg-based ice cream mixture, then churned it in a Pacojet just before service. There was also a very delicate dentelle tuile made from apple juice and walnuts, which is roasted in the oven and quickly shaped into a cylinder before it sets. This cylinder is filled with the baked apple, almond crumble, and the roasted yeast and bay leaf ice cream, topped with a light vanilla crème anglaise mousse. The sauce for the dish was made using the port cooking liquid from the Japanese quinces that the kitchen sources locally. To this is added cinnamon, cloves, and other spices. The quinces have an apple-like, floral and lightly citrusy flavour. This was the sauce that surrounded the cylinder on the plate, bringing some lightness. This was a very enjoyable dessert, with enough acidity from the apple and quince to balance the richness of the dish (17/20).

Petit fours were pistachio and olive oil cake with wild local blackberries and white currants. This was made with pistachios, polenta, olive oil, and citrus zest, with very little flour, giving a delicate texture. There was also cranberry, Piedmont hazelnut and pistachio nougat. This was a classic nougat made with Piedmont hazelnuts, green pistachios, and cranberries. Finally, there was rum and raisin chocolate with twelve-spice jellies, made with Willie’s Venezuelan 72% Rio Caribe chocolate. Semi-dried grapes were soaked in rum and coated in tempered chocolate, accompanied by a spiced jelly made with twelve spices, including cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and saffron, set with agar. These were high-class petit fours.

Service, led by owner Barny Taylor, was excellent, and our waitress (Zoha) was particularly good. On this occasion, I was being treated to the meal and so didn’t see the bill. However, a typical cost per head here will be around £115 if you go for the cheapest menu option, though obviously quite a lot more if you opt for the tasting menu and indulge in the wine list. The Dysart is one of my favourite London restaurants, and for me it outperforms pretty much any of the current three-star places in the capital. The ingredients are impeccable and the culinary technique here is superb. Add in the charming service and relaxed setting, and you have a fine all-round offering that deserves greater attention than it gets.

Further reviews: 28th Dec 2025 | 09th May 2025 | 24th Jan 2025 | 01st Aug 2024 | 20th Jun 2024 | 08th Dec 2023 | 27th Oct 2023 | 17th May 2023 | 17th Feb 2023 | 18th Feb 2022 | 12th Jun 2021 | 24th Jul 2020 | 04th Jul 2020 | 13th Mar 2020 | 15th Nov 2019 | 14th Nov 2018 | 15th Dec 2017 | 15th Sep 2015 | 04th Mar 2014 | 03rd Jan 2014