Honey and Co

Honey & Co

25A Warren Street, 

London 

W1T 5LZ

http://honeyandco.co.uk

SN: Honey & Co is a small, well-regarded establishment on Warren Street, overlooked by the Post Office tower.  They serve what they describe as "food from the Middle East" completely underplaying the excellence of the cuisine.  They have a great reputation.  It is a compact space with a large window at the front, a few tables outside and there is a large counter at the other end groaning with cakes.  The menu is absolutely about Middle Eastern food and its delicate flavour combinations and it is impressive in it's range which changes regularly too.

We started with the Luxury Mezze with six or seven dishes which were just a treat:

First few dishes in the Mezze

LM: everything was delicious and so well balanced. The quality of the ingredients is really clear - the hummous, for example, is smooth and delicate, a million miles away from the gritty, garlicky rubbish you get in a lot of places. Feta cigars had a lovely crunch to them, and there was a good balance of salads to go with the heavier dishes.

tomato and sheeps curd

feta filo cigars with honey

SN: this was very impressive mezze - the dark crusted bread was just gorgeous and at every turn there was something to divert and delight.  And echo what LM said about the hummous - a smooth texture I hadn't encountered at all and none of the cloying after-taste of the worst attempts I've suffered.  There was plenty for two of us.  Colour, flavour and texture brilliantly covered across a range of simple but elegant dishes.

Persian meatballs in yoghurt sauce

SN: It was hard to choose a main course: my decision was based mostly on curiosity about how a yoghurt sauce might match meatballs.  It was just divine with peas and pea shoots and mint balancing the gently spiced lamb meatballs with even more luxurious tastes.  Again I was struck by the high quality ingredients, simple ideas and delightful sense of discovery in this dish. When Honey & Co present a dish it's without fuss, but the real satisfaction is in the tastes and textures that they leave you to explore.

lentil and carrot kofta

LM: my main was a lentil and carrot kofta with carrot and walnut salad and tahini (which you can't see, but was underneth the kofta). Absolutely gorgeous dish - lighter than it looks, the kofta had a lovely crunch to them and were soft and spicy on the inside.

Cold cheesecake, kadaif pastry, honey

LM: My dessert was probably the least exciting of the courses for me - a little bit too much cheesecake topping and not enough pastry base, although the sugared nuts and honey gave it a glorious edge. I had dessert envy over SN's choice...

Warm pistachio and goats cheese baklava with set lemon saffron cream

SN: LM was right to suffer dessert envy.  I like baklava very occasionally and I was interested in the Honey & Co take on it: I was ready for something sickly but there was none of that.  It was the highlight of the meal in every sense.  Delicious understated filling, rich in the fullest sense of the word, delicate pastry and the gorgeous cream to set it off and provide a vivid sense of the Middle East sun. The striking colours, textures and tastes sum up all that I really enjoyed at Honey & Co: nothing offends, mostly it intrigues and everything is of a very high quality.

We didn't get round to cake

SN: But there was a problem - having put all that effort into the food, they fell flat on their faces on customer services.

We were 1 hour 52 minutes into our allowed 2 hours when we were presented with a bill.  This was galling - I'd had no time for a coffee, I was thinking about more wine and even toying with the idea of another dessert (on the advice of Itamar Srulovich who had just responded to a question I had just tweeted).  It was a greater disappointment to be moved on in such a perfunctory, charmless way. Had the service been lightning fast throughout I might have felt the restaurant had kept it's side of the bargain - but it wasn't.  Service was poor: we waited five minutes for our member of staff to get off the phone to order dessert.  When we ordered the sweet no sense of the impending exclusions was given - she could have had one more sale if she had recommended we ordered coffee at the same time as ordering dessert.  At one point a different person came back to check our order.  I don't think they were doing everything they could to maximise our enjoyment in that 2 hours.

This is a venue where you will have great food - food in truth worth more than they charge for it - but a meal out is more than that - especially for us.

I guess the owners might argue that they would prefer to offend a few people by moving them on than risk having empty tables.  There was a queue of people waiting, but it seemed fewer than the seats available.  But with our departure and the departure of a large birthday party party at the same time, a lot of space was freed up.  The overall impression left for me is that are not well enough organised - certainly that's how it felt. No one awards prizes for restaurants that turn round tables quickly.  They should pay a visit to the Regency Cafe in Pimlico which has a system which shows it can be done. I won't be going back.

They may excuse this by saying that all the other restaurants do it: our experience is that whilst other restaurants may say that, they very rarely do it. So a sad end to a great food experience and if you are booking - beware the sting in the tail!