I’ve been a fan of Honey & Co since Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich opened their first bakery/café in Warren Street in 2013. Since then they have gone on to national prominence, appearing on Saturday morning cooking shows (a guilty pleasure), publishing several well received cookbooks, and opening sites on Store Street and Lambs Conduit Street. With their reputation having been built largely on the quality of their baked goods, the suggestion to visit their first full service restaurant was hard to resist. To be fair, both of these talented chefs (and bakers), have a history of working in good restaurants for amongst others Ottolenghi – Sarit Packer was executive chef at Nopi for years. They have in truth simply returned to their culinary roots and not taking an uneducated risk transforming a café/deli into a full service restaurant.
The biggest risk which so many of London’s squadron of international chefs and restaurant entrepreneurs take is leaving their home country to work here or opening a restaurant serving their national or regional cuisine. The miracle in London is how many have succeeded in carving out a successful career or business despite the challenges facing hospitality businesses. In truth many fail, the attrition rate for all restaurants has always been high, and currently perhaps never higher. Increasingly commercial survival requires servicing of home delivery demand and one almost expects to find a phalanx of scooters, bikes and their riders hovering outside. Though not at Honey & Co. It is our good fortune is that we have chefs like Sarit and Itamar who are still willing to take risks to grow their business despite the economic and competitive headwinds (and without resorting to Deliveroo).
Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich understand who their customers are and what they enjoy, learned with around two decades of feeding Londoners, whether for Yotam Ottolenghi or at their own cafes, and it shows with the apparently seamless evolution of the café /deli into a restaurant. One knows that a considerable amount of planning and hard work went into changing the site, the concept, menu development, staff training and the host of other tasks needed to launch a restaurant. However, to an outsider there was to all appearences a virtual overnight transformation from café to vibey restaurant– which has fortunately been successful.
Honey & Co Great Portland is perched on the northerly end of Great Portland St, site of their former Honey & Spice café. The room has a soft colour palette, and on my visit on a midweek evening buzzing and clearly ‘on the map’. The concept of this restaurant is wine and mediterranean/middle eastern food. Not revolutionary for London with excellent and well regarded restaurants such as Impala, the Palomar, the Coal Office, Miznon, the Barbary , Berenjak, and others serving fortunate diners in London and elsewhere – name your favourite major capital city anywhere in the World. Though the best Turkish meal I ever ate was at Konak in Leicester which last time I checked had been relegated to League One, (sorry Mr Lineker ). With the emergence of superb West African restaurants including Ikoyi, Chishuru, Akoko and Akara in London I sometimes wonder whether there are many ambitious chefs or restauranteurs in Africa or the Middle East who haven’t considered moving to or indeed ridden their luck hoping for success in a major ‘destination’ city in Europe, the USA or the Gulf. This is one way that new forms of neo-colonialism play out in the 21st century attracting ‘hospitality capital’ to established or newly formed centres of financial capital. However that is an argument and analysis for a longer article another time.
So, what about the food and wine at Honey & Co? The menu is not overly long or distracting. A well designed selection of nibbles, small plates, skewers, larger plates and desserts made choosing simple for two people, meaning my guest would apply their house rule that anything that looked good on my plate was fair game and stick her fork in it.
We started with aubergine agrodolce crostini, a crunchy base with a sweet mound of vegetable and anchovy. A smoked haddock beignet – a one mouthful flavour bomb. Then a perfectly presented tuna crudo – though perhaps this could have done with less fermented chilli on the plate. Next the beef skewer with a perfect baba ghanoush. A beautifully cooked rack of lamb, though the fermented green chilli was too salty for our taste, perhaps from a batch with too much salt in the brine?
For a dessert we ordered the Honey & Co cheesecake, a wonderful whipped cheesy cream mountain on a sweet crunchy kataifi base (before you Google it, that’s crispy baklava threads).
Honey & Co on Great Portland street is a great choice for a relaxed meal with friends, with excellent food, wine, service, and good vibes. Add it to your list and check it out.
Phone: 020 7388 6175
Address: 216 Great Portland Street, W1W 5QW
Opening hours: Monday to Saturday 11:00-22:00