The Dock Kitchen

One of my favourite restaurants in and around Notting Hill, with an innovative menu which is probably modern European but with eastern influences. Food is always of an excellent standard, as are the cocktails. Also has a large and sunny outside terrace which is perfect for summer lunches and evenings. Highly recommended.

Dock Kitchen is one of the most elegant venues in London.
With a huge terrace overlooking canal, it's a perfect spot for sipping their signature "Penicillin" during warm summer days.
Inside, the restaurant is decorated by Tom Dixon(his shop is under the restaurant)., and hence everything from forks to lighting is pretty artistic.
The food-high quality, with experimental flavors. They bake Naan style bread in the big clay oven, which is absolutely delicious.
An absolute must try is the watermelon, simply delicious.
And the Chicken livers and Lamb biryani are full of flavors.

This pop-up kitchen is discreetly tucked away from the road. Despite the secretive nature of this place and the need to buzz to get in, the pretensions stop there! This restaurant serves different food on a weekly basis depending on the whims of the chef and market availability. I went there with a group of friends on a recently lovely evening and we enjoyed cocktails in the patio area before sitting at our table a little after 8pm. The menu feature was Summery English Food and we enjoyed fresh broad beans, lovely fish, samphire (a type of seaweed), fried elderflower tempura (yummmmm), a stinky delish cheese and fresh strawberries with shortbread for dessert.

Highly recommend it, but be sure to check the menu beforehand to see if the region they are covering from a culinary perspective suits your fancy (could be Spanish, Greek, Italian, Lebanese, Sri Lankan....)

Few places show real food innovation but this one is an exception...this is why it gets the 5th star, which requires to go that extra step beyond "just" great food
From the bread, through the salads to the meat you will find flavors which creates mini explosions in your mouth, with pleasurable aftertaste, just like an exquisite wine
And finally the bill was only 70£ including a full meal and glass of wine. 30£ less than gaucho...which isn't bad but after such an experience feels like the biggest ripoff of all time

Portobello Docks is a fancy name for a new luxury development at the ass end of Ladbroke Grove. I have been fascinated by what has been hidden behind high-security fencing for too long.
Last week the area was opened to the public as part of London Design Week. I wish this had not just been a one-off, the cobbled coutyard has the feel of a smaller Camden Lock, especially with an impromptu Art Car Boot Sale setting up on Saturday.
But back to the food. Excellent. According to the blurb, Dock Kitchen is a pop-up concept dreamt up by a former River Cafe chef. That figures.
We enjoyed light lunches in the late Summer sunshine and couldn't resist a piece of home made cake to follow.
I really love the concept of an open kitchen. The tomatoes which were to go into the delicious salad looked allotment grown. The chiabatti with a lightly spiced potato and okra filling was similarly divine.
I'm not sure if it's part of the concept that the kitchen staff double up as waiters, but it certainly impressed me. They all kept their cool despite being completely out of their depth. I don't think anyone expected quite so much business! Luckily most diners were understanding and not in too much of a rush. A few lost their temper and you can almost understand why: you queue to place your order, wait to be served (the tables outside didn't appear to be numbered, which didn't help efficiency), queue again to pay, with the credit card machine being rather inconveniently positioned away from the till but behind the kitchen. weird.
The dishes are quite deer, but then they are a treat and I think it's good value. I will definitely go again and hope so will you, so Dock Kitchen stays around for a little while yet.
So far, service is limited to breakfast and lunch only, as well as coffees in the afternoon.

Went here for my birthday lunch and unfortunately left quite disappointed. I really liked the place, the interior is great and it's light and airy, located right next to the canal. Dock Kitchen is in the studio building owned by Tom Dixon (in fact, he was working two tables over when I had lunch there) and is packed with furniture designed by him. Overall very stylish without over-doing it.


All the ingredients are fresh and when entering the place you pass by where they grow some of the produce that will end up in the food that you will be having. Now, for the food itself.... not so good. I had high expectations coming to Dock Kitchen and they were far from being met. Maybe it was bad luck to go there for their Mexican week but I had no idea when I made the reservation. Supposedly the menu was created with input from the chef of Wahaca. The calamari starter was OK, bit on the heavy, oily side but not bad for a starter. The corn on the cob was really tasty. Nice, fresh corn served with sour cream, coriander and chilli salsa, which sounds strange but worked really well. This was sadly the highlight of the meal. As for the main, chicken leg with girolles and a sea bass and mussel dish they were both not very tasty at all. For me the fish was way to fishy and was something I could easily have made better at home (and I'm not good at cooking fish) and the chicken leg had way too many conflicting spices and for me wasn't very nice in taste nor texture.


In fact, the mains made me decide that it was better not to try the dessert. Instead I had coffee which was nice. At this point all staff decided to have lunch together, no idea what happened to the people still seated at their tables.


In summary, go for the interior and atmosphere. If you're lucky you'll get a better menu than I did.

We went for the tuscan evening and totally enjoyed it. The staff, drinks and food was just wonderful. Comfort food and the whole supper club idea did it for us. We already booked our second evening.

I read a review of this place by A A Gill and he gave it 5 stars which is rare so decided to go.


Each week the restaurant changes theme and cuisine and makes a set menu. This week was an Indian/Sri Lankan 4 course meal.


Dish 1 - Chickpea and Pomegranate salad - Pretty Ace


Dish 2 - Chilli Crab and Shrimp Salad with chapati - Both Ace and Skill


Dish 3 - Wood Pigeon Biryani - Not so good, wood pigeon was dry but not had wood pigeon before so maybe its supposed to be like that. Also not sure how authentic wood pigeon is in a Indian/Sri Lankan themed menu.


Dish 4 - Milk, Yoghurt, Pistachio, Pomegranate pudding - Poor. The waitress said it was like rice pudding. It was not, it was just a bowl of milk with a dollop of sour cream in the middle.


In summary the restaurant was brilliant and I like the concept as it removes the chore of actually having to decipher and choose from a menu. Maybe this weeks menu was't the one for me but would definitely go again to see other menus.


It would also appear that the restaurant is a haunt for famous type people. On the next table was the blonde model from the recent reality show set in Notting Hill. I think she counts as famous now that she has been on TV. Also our waitress kept looking at me funny and smiling as she thought I was someone famous. This changed when I signed the bill and she realised I was not whoever she thought I was.


Bang Tidy

Bubbles on ice, fennel salamai- seriously meaty with specks of fat that melt in your mouth, accompaned by thinly sliced raw brussel sprout- so much better than it sounds! Clams served in a white wine and spicy Italian salami paste sauce. The main course was slow cooked shin of beef with saffron risotto and bone marrow. Generous portions and the bone marrow melting into the risotto is a winning combination eaten with a mouthful of shin that simply falls from the bone- divine. Desserts were simple but dellcious, tutti fruit ice cream and a simple but elegant walnut and choclate cake. Thumbs up for this relaxed, trendy, by the river hot dining spot. Perfect for a little treat or head for the downstairs cocktail bar- certainly looked very inviting.. although on this occasion my focus was the food!

Dinner last night has gone horribly wrong for us. It is a nice space with s compelling menu. The appetizers (wild mushroom tagliatelle was over seasoned, but fried mussels with sardines were excellent) were OK, but both the mains were awful. The grilled mackerel was charred on the outside and plain raw at the bone. The grilled lamb chop was not basically straight out of the fridge: completely not cooked. I'm not talking about rare, this was not cooked. To top it all, the whole place was filled with cooking fumes from the open kitchen. There must be something wrong with their ventilation. Everything went straight into the washer when we got back home. Don't bother, waste of time and money.