'The Eggs Benedict was served with what seemed like a kilo of treacle-roasted ham'

New Tom’s

Mon—Wed 9am—5pm; Thu—Sat 9am—5pm and 6pm—midnight; Sun 9.30am—5pm

The style:

Opening on the site of the much-loved Tom’s Deli, this is the latest addition to the Tom Conran group of eateries, all of which are on Westbourne Park Road or Grove. Laid out over three floors, four if you count the garden, this is a chic little diner-style place with an abundance of seating, interesting artwork and a fascinating entrance complete with jars of sweets left over from the deli days.

A large part of the produce also comes from the Conran family farm in Herefordshire, meaning ingredient freshness and provenance is high on the priority list here.

The crowd:

On a Sunday afternoon the entirety of Westbourne Grove was a bit like a J. Crew photo shoot. The good-looking, glamorous people of London had united in a shabby-stylish flurry of big hair, big sunglasses, gilets and skinny jeans. This carried over into New Tom’s, where there were largely couples and small groups having lunch in a relaxed and convivial environment.

The food:

New Tom’s is one of the few places that offer a genuinely different menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with well-thought-out dishes for each. We opted for Eggs Benedict (£10.50) and Tom’s home-smoked salmon salad (12.50), the latter coming via the on-site smoker. The Eggs Benedict was served with what seemed like a kilo of treacle-roasted ham on a split muffin and smothered in hollandaise sauce. The eggs were perfectly cooked, the ham was cold, sweet and salty and the hollandaise was the right side of sickly-creamy; it was an exceptionally good dish.

The salmon salad came with thick ribbons of smoked salmon, two slices of toasted ciabatta, ricotta, a mound of baby spinach and a caper and red onion salad, all laid out with admirably geometric positioning. Evidently a considered dish, the flavours combined well, and it’s not often you eat such freshly smoked fish; the taste difference was immediately noticeable. The only tiny drawback was a lack of carbs in the dish, although that is really more a personal preference than a criticism.

It is worth noting that the rest of the menu was an eclectic lunch selection with dishes such as seared yellowfin tuna, spiced hake, raw beef with poached oysters and Dingly Dell pork belly all doing a merry dance on the usual Sunday-lunch fare.

The Eggs Benedict had apparently finished off my dining partner but she still somehow ended up ordering a slice of homemade lemon and poppy seed cake that was crumbly, flavoursome and moist. I opted for the brilliantly named chocolate crack with salted caramel and mascarpone (£6.50). The crack part was a quenelle of rich yet light chocolate mousse topped with a chocolate tuile. This was sat on a bed of salty/sweet caramel sauce with blobs of lemon curd, little dots of mascarpone and raspberries. It was an unashamedly sweet and indulgent dessert and very well executed.

The drinks:

Our flat whites (£3.50) came quickly, and were very good. And the complimentary table water was regularly topped up. However, a Kensington Park Swizzler that was ordered (basically a Mojito with bitters) took an inordinately long time to arrive and was cloyingly sweet. At £8.50 I expected more, although perhaps the Sunday afternoon staff aren’t the cocktail experts.

New Tom’s is a great little bistro/restaurant where a Sunday brunch or a Tuesday coffee would work just as well as a full Saturday night meal and it serves up some genuinely original dishes. It’s also only around until March, which technically makes it a pop-up, so get involved before it’s gone.

New Tom’s Restaurant, 226 Westbourne Grove, London W11 2RH; 020 7243 3341; www.newtoms.co.uk

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