goode & wright
'Goode & Wright is a simple, delicious and relatively cheap experience'

Goode & Wright

Mon–Fri 10am–3pm, 6pm–10pm, Sat 9am–5pm, 6pm–10pm, Sun 9am–8pm

Goode & Wright is a restaurant which eschews the traditional structure of fine dining: you walk in, you sit down, you order as many dishes as you like (two per diner are recommended, but sharing is encouraged) and each comes out when it’s ready. Then you pay, and then you leave. It’s a long way from the intricate, dozen-course banquets you might find in a Michelin restaurant out in one of London’s fancy satellite villages, or even the standard ‘starter-main-dessert’ fare of any other run-of-the-mill restaurant.

It’s basically tapas but more substantial, and I can’t help but feel that Goode & Wright—in adopting this form of non-structure—would rather I skip the obligatory background info or scene-setting introduction for this review, and instead jump straight into the food. So I will.

The polenta with wild mushrooms, garlic and truffle (£7.50) was exemplary. The dish was just sweet enough, with a pleasant contrast between the consistency of the mushrooms themselves—the chewier the better, in my opinion—and the polenta. The addition of parmesan cheese was an understated but welcome contribution, though a little more emphasis on the garlic flavour would have perfected this already near-perfect dish. Next.

Flamed salmon and wasabi potato salad with samphire (£8.00). Salmon and potatoes isn’t the most gastronomically adventurous dish, and the salmon itself was quite subtly flavoured—but the reason for this seems to be to play up the presence of the wasabi, which complemented the salmon and potatoes wonderfully. It’s a nice idea, well-executed. Onwards.

Pork cheeks, chou-croute and apple (£8.50)—as all good pork cheeks should be, tender enough that you half-expect spontaneous disintegration to occur. The chou-croute and apple sauce were solid accompaniments. All-in-all: a classic dish, elevated by the quality of the meat.

Finally, we’ve got onglet steak and Portobello with café de Paris sauce (£9.50). Red inside, nicely seared and crispy outside. The café de Paris sauce was, sadly, a little too weak to make any real impact on the dish, but it’s a small complaint to make in an otherwise competent showing. I’d always prefer proper chips to fries (the latter being the only available, at £3), especially with steak, but I have to at least admire the audaciousness with which the salt was applied to them: if they’ve got to be fries, they might as well be drowning in salt. Good effort here on that front.

If you were indeed wondering, the restaurant itself is small and intimate—the half-empty room being crewed by a front-of-house skeleton crew of one on the Friday night we were there—is situated in a great location, on Portobello road itself, and something about the atmosphere feels delightfully Parisian. That’s pretty much it. Goode & Wright is a simple, delicious and relatively cheap experience (£15-20 each, assuming two dishes per person—more than enough, if you ask me). What more could you want?

The details:

Goode & Wright, 271 Portobello Road, Notting Hill, London W11; 020 7727 5552; hello@goodeandwrightbistro.comwww.goodeandwright.co.uk

If you would like to stay up to date with our restaurant reviews, subscribe to our weekly e-newsletter.

Restaurants | ,