Dovetale
Tom Sellers is one of London’s most exciting young rock-star chefs, and after years of brilliant trompe l’oeil creativity at his boffo Restaurant Story in Bermondsey, he’s now expanding his brand by creating culinary destinations elsewhere. Here, in the sustainability-obsessed high-luxe 1 Hotel Mayfair (rooms, in which private gardens grow up the walls, usually cost £500 and up), he leads a bistro-style, midcentury-modern parlor with indoor/outdoor courtyard seating, where classical dishes are assiduously done by a huge team of chefs who rise to meet the potential of high-quality ingredients through accomplished feats—a must-order Wagyu carpaccio miraculously flat as a pizza, a triple-blind-baked tomato tart that could flush Paul Hollywood with envy, and just the right protein for the flame.
Every element of a dish has a provenance and a logic that’s carefully explained by the affably professional staff, but not in an off-putting way—showing off bright seasonal flavors is always the reason. Even something as simple as a burrata (pictured below) from Acton, of all places, is so knowledgably sourced that it melts in the mouth. Mayfair‘s snooty denizens get a semi-scandalized kick out of its Americanized dessert gimmick: a roving trolley that makes sundaes.
Tom Sellers is one of London’s most exciting young rock-star chefs, and after years of brilliant trompe l’oeil creativity at his boffo Restaurant Story in Bermondsey, he’s now expanding his brand by creating culinary destinations elsewhere. Here, in the sustainability-obsessed high-luxe 1 Hotel Mayfair (rooms, in which private gardens grow up the walls, usually cost £500 and up), he leads a bistro-style, midcentury-modern parlor with indoor/outdoor courtyard seating, where classical dishes are assiduously done by a huge team of chefs who rise to meet the potential of high-quality ingredients through accomplished feats—a must-order Wagyu carpaccio miraculously flat as a pizza, a triple-blind-baked tomato tart that could flush Paul Hollywood with envy, and just the right protein for the flame.
Every element of a dish has a provenance and a logic that’s carefully explained by the affably professional staff, but not in an off-putting way—showing off bright seasonal flavors is always the reason. Even something as simple as a burrata (pictured below) from Acton, of all places, is so knowledgably sourced that it melts in the mouth. Mayfair‘s snooty denizens get a semi-scandalized kick out of its Americanized dessert gimmick: a roving trolley that makes sundaes.
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