Native at Browns

I only heard about Native when a good friend of mine was going to be at their restaurant in Essex but when we said that we would come and visit it turned out that she had already moved to the new restaurant in mayfair. So with this we looked into the type food they did and I have to say it really appealed as it was all about sustainability , foraging & zero waste so a very different style to what we were used to. A decision was then made and we decided to book ourselves in for saturday.

Thankfully after an awful morning the weather started to improve so off to london we went. The restaurant itself is on brook street in mayfair just a couple of minutes from oxford street. We entered through Browns Fashion store to a stunning little courtyard which was nice and peaceful and gave you the feeling that you could have been anywhere without realising you were in the heart of town. Our friend Tamsin was there to greet us before escorting us to the table where there would be a nice welcome card from all the team which was a really nice touch. We started with a cocktail while we looked at the menu via the QR code. The menu is based on small sharing plates and once we’d had a quick look we decided there was only one thing to do and that was to order the entire menu.

We started with the Fermented Potato Waffle with yeasted onion & mushroom parfait which was absolutely delicious. This was followed by the Native Focaccia with confit garlic oil. Along with the bread came the Burrata & miso bagna cauda. Then to accompany this and to totally refresh the palate was the Fermented Nutbourne Tomatoes with graceburn & yesterday’s bread. Our mouths were absolutely dancing with delight due to the amazing flavour combinations.

After a nice little break we moved onto the Native Fish Fillet with seaweed tartar , brown crab rarebit & brioche which was amazing. The following two dishes complimented each other perfectly. The Charred Asparagus , confit egg yolk , hazelnut gremolata & whey onions came together with the Fried Grey Oyster Mushroom , smoked emulsion & house pickles

We then moved onto to the Shetland Mussels with a smoked tea dash & wild garlic. This brought us to the last dish before desserts the Spiced Herdwick Mutton with english grain pilau & labneh. I have to say that the combination of ingredients and flavours in every dish is absolutely stunning especially and to be honest I wasn’t really familiar with.

We then relaxed with a glass of wine before we moved on to desserts. These turned out to be a mixture chocolate , sweet & refreshing. The first was an amazing Marrowmel a white chocolate & bone marrow caramel. We then refreshed our palate with the ‘Sea Lero’ a sea buckthorn ice lolly with oat milk sorbet & alexander seed. Then chocolate heaven to finish with the Caramelised Honey & Seaweed Truffle.

We finished with a tea & coffee to bring to an end an absolutely fabulous dining experience. This really is a style of food that I could really get used to and would highly recommend visiting Native to see for yourselves. The food created by chef Ivan and co-owner Imogen is amazing. The service from all the staff led by manager Tamsin is excellent especially their knowledge of everything on the menu. I can’t wait for restaurants to be open fully again so I can head back to mayfair and pay them another visit.

Thank You Imogen , Ivan & Tamsin for a fantastic lunch and look forward to seeing you all again soon.