Last Updated on June 14, 2023
A fifth birthday for a stylish and innovative fine dining restaurant in Notting Hill
What happens when two talented and passionate chefs meet and fall in love? In the case of Emily Roux (daugher of Michel) and Diago Ferrari (classically trained in France with Alain Ducasse and then Head Chef at Le Gavroche), they open a restaurant. Five years ago, their independent restaurant, Caractère, opened in October 2018. It’s a stone’s throw from the Ledbury in Notting Hill in the heart of the area’s food scene.
A five year anniversary is something to celebrate, especially when you’ve weathered the pandemic and Emily herself says
“We are so thrilled to still be here five years later after everything that’s happened. Caractère is mine and Diego’s first baby really, we put everything into it, and we can proudly say that we have built something to be truly proud of thanks to our wonderful team of staff and supportive guests,”
London-Unattached went along when Caractère first opened – we wrote enthusiastically about some of the dishes that you still see on the menu today. But, we know that any successful restaurant will adapt to demand – and in the case of Caractère it has, we learnt, returned to the fine dining origins of the founders.
Any birthday should start with fizz of course. A glass of crisp Philipponnat champagne was the perfect aperitif for me, from a traditional champagne house near Ay. My companion, who was driving enjoyed a refreshing glass of Seedlip Garden with London Essence tonic.
Amuse bouche arrived – a trio of dishes which were all delightful. Pollock marinated for 36 hours in orange, lime, lemon, salt sugar and ginger was incredibly delicate with fresh subtle citrus flavours. We tried and failed to identify the citrus – a blend so carefully balanced it could have been a new fruit…
A deep fried tartelette was filled with wasabi and smoked salmon, topped with trout caviar and garnished with crispy morsels of fried leek. We loved the contrasting textures of the soft wasabi an fish with the crunch of the leek and the tartelette shell. Full of flavours the dish was just delicious and left us wanting more.
Filled with soft and fresh tasting bacalhau, and beautifully garnished with lemon gel and pea purée, the final amuse bouche was a moreish morsel. We could dine out on amuse bouche. Especially if we were offered a portion of the homemade sourdough bread with rye flakes – which we had both promised ourselves NOT to eat – but which miraculously vanished;)
A special mention at this point for the tableware – including this rather lovely bread bowl. Although I hate trying to take photos of food on black surfaces, the china and cutlery at Caractère was stunning and the perfect foil for some really elegant plating.
We were dining from the three course lunch menu (£60), with three options for each course. My companion was driving so couldn’t enjoy the paired wines, which at £32 for three 100ml glasses made for a perfect lunchtime treat for me. My first pairing was a really remarkable and delicious glass of Vitalba orange wine. It’s made from the romagna albana grape using the traditional method with amphoras buried under the ground. Bone dry and with a slight astringent fizz, it was a great match for my first course, the celeriac ‘cacio e pepe’ (literally cheese and pepper), with extra aged balsamic.
After my last visit to Caractère, I went home and tried my best to recreate this dish. I failed, not dismally but badly enough to know I wanted to try it again. It’s such a simple concept – ribbons of celeriac cut to look like pasta and cooked to the perfect al-dente, served with a creamy, peppery cheese sauce and carefully enlivened with drops of balsamic which are added at the table. The cheeses apparently come from Sardinia and near Rome with a touch of parmesan to finish off the dish. It works brilliantly with the celeriac adding an extra flavour that pairs perfectly with cheese but creating a lighter dish than the traditional Italian version. I’ll be trying again!
One dish I won’t attempt to recreate at home is the red Sicilian prawn tartare.
My companion, who is known for his love of these prawns, was delighted by the tartare, dressed with a homemade mandarin ponzo and served with a prawn cracker. The little white ‘flowers’ that garnish the dish are cut from daikon with a dab of black garlic purée making the centre, And the prawn cracker is made in house – quite a different offering to the ones you’ll be served at your local Chinese. The manderin ponzu takes 72 hours to blend and adds a deep and intense flavour to the dish.
Vino di Anna, Jeudi15 is a Sicilian wine made by Australian winemaker Anna Martens. The 2021 vintage is a blend of riesling, chenin blanc and grecanico, with the grecanico macerated on skins for 6 days and the remaining grapes whole bunch pressed. With no filtration and no finings, this is a light, fruity and citrussy wine that makes a great pairing with white fish.
My roast Cornish cod had been salted to help firm up the flesh. Perfectly cooked, the fish was caramelised on one side only and served with beurre blanc and morels stuffed with chicken and wild garlic (a meat-free version is offered too). The flakes of fish were delicious while the morel with its light mousse filling was delicate and a lovely complement to the fish.
Barbequed Galician octopus was cooked for three and a half hours to achieve a wonderfully tender dish with a hint of barbecue char. Serve with a red wine reduction laced with octopus jus and with tropea onion filled with taggiasca olives and caper leaves, garnished with wild garlic flowers the plating was, once again truly beautiful.
A little beignet to one side was made with the head of the octopus.
What was on paper a 3 course menu quickly proved to be much more. A pre-dessert of lime and vanilla sorbet with a mint oil and lime syrup was a perfect palate cleanser, with the clean notes of the lime sorbet contrasting with the intense sauce and the pistachio providing textural interest.
Now, the set menu has two desserts and a cheese option. At this point, partly because I can’t eat strawberries I took a look at the à la carte menu and quickly developed something of a craving for the banana and caramel tart with pecan praline, and grand cru ‘Hukambi’ chocolate ganache. It has to be one of the prettiest dishes I’ve had in my life – and the mix of nutty shell, soft banana and caramel mousse and bitter dark chocolate with little touches of passion fruit gel was excellent.
To pair with my off-piste dessert, a glass of Chateau Sigalas Rabaud, Sauternes 2004 premier cru classé was a divine mouthful of nutty, fresh finesse.
What is described on the menu as ‘Black Forest, Pistachio Praline’ turned out to be equally delicious. The pretty tuile sat on top of a 75% Madagascar chocolate ganache which topped a kirsch laced chocolate sponge sitting on pistachio sand. ‘An incredible construction’ said my companion, with the bitterness of the chocolate complementing the sweetness of cherry. He cheated a bit, mostly because we were intrigued to see what would be served as the wine pairing, and enjoyed a small glass of Mas Amiel 2020, a sticky grenache wine that was utterly delicious.
A fine dining menu is nothing without petits fours and coffee. My double espresso helped wash down a trio of delights – a chocolate tartelette, a passion fruit jelly and a tiny puff pastry horn filled with rhubarb compôte and crème pâtissière.
I’m astonished that this place isn’t better known. It’s fabulous – in a refined and elegant way without being pretentious. The food is exceptional, the service considered – and the wine pairing are delightful. Happy fifth birthday to Caractère – next time I won’t leave it so long!
Caractère Restaurant
209 Westbourne Park Road
Notting Hill
London W11 1EA
T 020 8181 3850
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