- Restaurant review: Chino Latino, London - 28 August, 2023
- Where can you find Rainbow Plaques in the UK? - 27 August, 2023
- Have you visited the UK’s first permanent LGBTQ comedy club? - 23 July, 2023
Part of the Holmes Hotel, Kitchen at Holmes offers fun food and Sherlock Holmes themed cocktails. We at Vada visited in early January to try the offering.
Kitchen at Holmes
Located on the ground floor of the Holmes Hotel, Kitchen at Holmes is accessed directly from Baker Street. Therefore not just for hotel guests, Kitchen at Holmes is positioned as a neighbourhood restaurant. As guests enter, there is a bar with a welcoming open fire. Although open plan, partitioning separates the restaurant area, most seats of which have a view onto the final prep area. Neutral tones and use of wood, combined with plenty of staff on hand makes for a calm atmosphere.
Menu
Cocktails are all Sherlock Holmes themed like the ‘case closed’, ‘Holmes melody’, and ‘Sherlock’s pipe’. We opted for a light and creamy Irene’s Scandal (£14) as our aperitif, which is made with Beefeater gin, pomegranate juice, lime juice, sugar and a pistachio foam, and a non-alcoholic Holmes Made Lemonade (£9.50) with butterfly pea flower tea with soda water and lemon juice added at the table to transform the blue drink into a profuse purple.
For starters, we opted for four to share between two. Our options were the Tuna Tartare (£19.50) served with wasabi avocado and rice tuille, Smoked burrata (£12.50) with endive, red apple and walnuts, Grilled octopus (£19) served on a bed of romesco sauce with burnt leeks and zaatar, and the Beef carpaccio (£19) topped with a dusting of foie gras and generous shavings of black truffle. This latter was a a bit too rich for the thin slices of beef. Our favourites were the smoked burrata and grilled octopus, which were both well presented, and superbly balanced flavours.
For mains, we chose the Cod (£28.50) served with piquillo peppers, parsley cream, toasted almonds and capers, and braised beed cheek (£27) served with a ricotta and marjoram gnocchi, kale, and black truffle jus. The beef cheeks were tender, tearing away easily with a single pull of the fork; but we didn’t think the baked ricotta disks warranted the named ‘gnocchi’. The cod dish was particularly vibrant, but the cod could have done with another 2 minutes in the pan.
Dessert options are delicious and particularly calorific. The Black Forest tickled our fancy, but at nearly 1000 cals, and after a lot of food already, we made the wise choice for some coconut sorbet (£6.50). If you have the space, we suggest choosing what we couldn’t.
Service
We were welcomed from the moment we walked into the door at Kitchen at Holmes, there were plenty of staff on hand, all very friendly. The entire service was calm and felt at ease.
Overall thoughts
Kitchen at Holmes is a home for lovers of good food, with a comfortable and welcoming atmosphere. The references to Sherlock Holmes (beyond the name of the restaurant) are thankfully at the right level without being overdone. If Marie Kondo were to declutter Baker Street, by asking “does it spark joy?” the answer in the case of Kitchen at Holmes would be a resounding yes.
Our meal would cost approximately £81 per person, not including service.
Kitchen at Holmes is located at 108 Baker Street, London, W1U 6LJ
For more information or to book, visit kitchenatholmes.co.uk.
