<a target="_blank" href="http://www.devonshiresoho.co.uk/">The Devonshire</a>

17 Denman St

London

W1D 7HW

BY NEAL MARTIN |&nbsp;MAY 03, 2024The Food:

Potted
shrimp, melba toast

Iberico
pork chop with duck fat chips

Chocolate
mousse with black cherries

The Wines:

NV Guinness 

2010&nbsp;R. Lopez de Heredia Rosado Viña Tondonia Gran Reserva&nbsp; 93

Doomsayers
claiming that restaurants are in crisis ought to walk past The Devonshire. The pub's
ground floor is so jammed that I cannot even see the bar. I weave my way to the
restaurant's small reception desk and give the booking's name. The poor lass
can hardly hear the name, and I repeat it several times. A young lad escorts me
upstairs to the first floor “Grill Room,” and every table is packed. Up another
staircase to “The Claret Room”. Again, it’s chock-a-block. Finally, I’m
escorted to a mezzanine at the top of the building, and it is full, thankfully,
apart from a banquette for two. There must be some 200 people dining at The
Devonshire plus half of London downing pints of Guinness in the pub, crowds
spilling outside and down the street despite the drizzle. 

It’s 4:45pm
on a Wednesday.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1714762202299-devonshire+pub_copy.jpg">The Devonshire pub 

I don’t
know whether it’s harder getting a table at The Devonshire as <a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/vinous-table-bouchon-racine-london-uk-apr-2024">Bouchon
Racine</a>. The fact that I have managed both is only due to connections, and
even then, the best we can obtain is 5pm with a warning we must vacate two
hours later. Both eateries epitomize the contemporary London dining scene,
where restaurants become the hottest ticket in town overnight after adulatory
reviews. Like a shoal of fish, everyone has to be seen there because these
days, we cannot entertain the idea of missing out. It makes it almost
impossible to keep up with the restaurant scene and, of course, makes it almost
impossible to get a reservation, which hypes the restaurant even further.
Sitting at The Devonshire with a faint glow of satisfaction that I’m here, a
bit like when you sit down in Business Class on a plane, I wonder whether it
will be as difficult in 12 months’ time. We’ll see. <img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1714762222550-devonshire+bread_copy.jpg">Devonshire bread 

As I
mentioned, The Devonshire follows the trend of installing a stonking place to
eat above a London boozer. The standard of cuisine is better than your average
gastropub and often features a renowned chef or restauranteur, theoretically
going down-market, eschewing some fancy address, to serve delicious dishes in a
place surfeit with character and charm, where you can pop down and grab a pint
while watching the Chelsea match. The runaway success of both Bouchon Racine
and The Devonshire is being copied, but of course, only a small percentage will
be successful. The team behind here is publican Oisín Rogers and founder of
Flat Iron, Charlie Carroll and Ashley Palmer-Watts, former head chef who
previously worked with Carroll at The Fat Duck. Yes, that’s right, Heston
Blumenthal’s gaff over in Bray. Apparently, the idea for The Devonshire
gestated over several years, a pub-cum-restaurant with accoutrements: a
wood-fire oven, a basement in-house butchery and a bakery. The location in a 4-floor,
late 18th century building is one that I have walked past countless
times, just outside Piccadilly station in Soho, formerly one of Jamie Oliver’s
diners. I sometimes describe London restaurants as being “central,” but The
Devonshire could be described as the capital’s epicenter.&nbsp;<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1714762258798-devonshire+shrimp_copy.jpg">Potted shrimp, melba toast The
menu is straightforward. Handwritten on a page of A4, starters include white
crab salad, brawn toast and pea and ham soup, while mains are almost entirely meat-based:
lamb cutlets, beef cheek and Guinness suet pudding, lamb hotpot. If you really
do eschew meat, there’s pumpkin risotto. It sounds like common or garden pub
food, but the founders spent months sourcing the best ingredients, and
everything just shines on the plate. It’s no fuss, unpretentious dining. Waiting
for my friend, I’m given some bread, and it is light, doughy and gorgeous.
Don’t ignore the bread. I’m not going to spend acres of verbiage on my potted
shrimp with melba toast or the Iberico pork chop that I learned from somewhere
that comes from the same source as <a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/vinous-table-the-ledbury-london-uk-mar-2023">The
Ledbury</a>.&nbsp;<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1714762347086-devonshire+pork_copy.jpg">Iberico pork chop with duck fat chips They’re
both delicious; maybe my pork was just 30 seconds overdone, but I have no
complaints. Perhaps my duck fried chips were over-salted, but there you go. I
steal a bit of my fellow diner’s lamb hotpot and wish I’d chosen that. My
chocolate mousse with dark cherries is fabulous. That’s all it is, chocolate
mousse. No more, no less. Again, I kind of wish I’d chosen the soufflé on the
opposite side of the table that unexpectedly comes with a bit of theatre, Grand
Marnier poured on top and deftly flambéed by our waiter. <img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1714762380630-devonshire+mousse_copy-COVER.jpg">Chocolate mousse with black cherries 

You
don’t get that down the Red Lion on a Wednesday afternoon. 

The
wine list is rubbish. Staring at the single sheet of A4, there’s hardly
anything of interest, and we were denied corkage. Fair enough. Thankfully, the 2010&nbsp;Rosado
Viña Tondonia Gran Reserva from
R. Lopez de Heredia is an obvious choice at a decent price. It’s a
wonderful Rioja, blackcurrant, orange rind and white flowers on a nose that is
lighter and more elegant than other vintages. Again, the palate is
comparatively light and breezy, with fine-boned tannins, dark cherries and
blackberry fruit. It is pretty linear and almost conservative in style. But
it’s just delicious, and the simplicity of the food means that it acts as the
perfect foil. This is accompanied by a pint of Guinness. Now, I have
never been partial to Ireland’s most famous export. I’m advised to try a small
glass because Carroll and Rogers traveled to Dublin to find out why it tastes
much better on the Emerald Isle. They got the recipe and recreated it here, and
it is delicious. It’s probably why they get through so many kegs each day in
London. If you like Guinness, this is the best in London.

Here's
the other thing about The Devonshire.

Two-course
set dinner - £25

Three
courses set dinner - £29

Go à la
carte, and yes, you’re looking at £12 to £16 for starters. My pork chop was
£24, but that’s still markedly less than elsewhere. Indeed, there is an
egalitarian approach throughout this place, the same ethos as the pub in the
sense that it’s a place where anyone can walk off the street and enter.
Surveying diners, I notice that it’s full of ordinary people, a mixture of
trendy Soho types, office workers, young and old, just anyone lucky enough to
have nabbed a table. There’s no extortionate price prohibiting all but the
wealthiest from enjoying their hospitality, which is refreshing.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1714762416701-devonshire+tondonia_copy.jpg">The
Devonshire is not perfect, but it does things perfectly. It’s currently the
place to be seen in London, and you’ll want to return—so will the rest of the
world. It’s pub food taken to the nth degree. There’s no snootiness. There is a
lot of noise and laughter. It’s hectic and perhaps teeters on chaos. You’ll
love it. © 2024, Vinous. No portion of this article may be copied, shared or re-distributed without prior consent from Vinous. Doing so is not only a violation of our copyright, but also threatens the survival of independent wine criticism.

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