Last Updated on January 4, 2026
A fiery feast in Soho
Soho’s Beak Street is home to Mountain, the latest venture by Welsh chef Tomos Parry, who is famous for his exciting and fiery approach to Spanish cooking at his one Michelin-starred Shoreditch restaurant Brat. Mountain only opened in mid-July and it’s already one of London’s most talked about new restaurants. We went along to try it out for ourselves. And we loved it.
On entering Mountain restaurant, one is hit by a wall of excitement, chatter, laughter and heady smokiness coming from the kitchen. It is loud, but not so loud you can’t hear the other people at your table. However, you might need to learn to lipread if this restaurant becomes any more lively and popular.
We ordered a couple of spritzes to get our evening started. I picked the Todoli Citrus Spritz. A quick internet check reveals that the Todoli Citrus Foundation grows 400 varieties of citrus tree so I’m still no wiser about which ones made it into this delicious drink. Anyway, it’s herby and botanical, with a glimmer of sweetness and a hint of grapefruit. My companion’s Cherry Spritz was an unsweet, dark, grown-up drink, like no spritz she had had before, possibly dry sherry based with a subtle aftertaste that continued to change on the palate.
Our subsequent journey through the wine list wasn’t quite as successful. There are 500 wines available at Mountain and I’m not sure we picked the right ones. I wanted something white and very cold to complement the food. My companion was on the red so we were confined to the wines by the glass (for lack of the ability to drink a bottle each…).
I began with the Fabrica di San Martino Fabrica Bianco, a Tuscan white, which was dry and minerally but not quite delicious enough to justify the price tag (£16 a glass). I swapped to the perfectly drinkable and more economical (£6) Aribayos – Verdejo from Rueda in Spain.
My companion had a similar experience, not getting on particularly well with a chilled Austrian red. The Kamptal Kollektiv – Red Blend was too cloudy and “natural” for her taste. She moved from Austria to Portugal and much preferred the A Desconhecida – Castelao from Lisbon which she thought was a better match for the food.
We spent quite a bit of time eyeing up other tables to assess deliciousness levels and portion sizes. There are simply too many intriguing items on the one menu and we could easily have ordered the whole lot though I doubt we’d have managed to finish the Whole Lobster Caldereta for five people.
We somehow managed to narrow down our choice of starters to four. First to arrive was the Grilled Sobrassada, which comes with a round hollow bread that looks like a pufferfish sprinkled with green herbs. The sobrassada was lightly spicy, a bit like a drier meatier nduja or crumblier chorizo and simple and delicious with the bread. There is also a raw option on the menu served with honey (one for the next visit to Mountain).
Salad is too weedy a word to describe the Cucumbers, Mountain Mint and Bergamot. Doused to almost pickling point in fine sherry vinegar, this dish combines sour, sudden sweetness, herb notes and fruitiness Sour gooseberries and green strawberries contrast beautifully with the sweet toasted nuts. My companion was so taken with this combination of flavours that she has already attempted to recreate it at home.
Starter three was the Walnut Bread with Peach and Bottarga. The star of this show is the walnut bread – ashy and nutty and lightly toasted. It comes topped with finely sliced sweet peach and a mild bottarga, the latter a little lost between the power of the bread and fruit. This was a portion at the delicate end of the spectrum unlike most of our other choices – probably a good thing bearing in mind the sheer quantity of food we had ordered.
Next to land on the table was the Spider Crab Omelette. I had to sit and watch my companion slice open this immaculate glossy omelette and then listen to her “ooh and aah” as she ate the whole thing by herself. Crab gave me up a few years ago but I used to love it and so suffered appalling food jealousy during the minutes it took her to finish it. “It’s like eating the essence of crab,” she said before going completely silent.
After my brief breather from food, I was ready to tackle the Grilled Red Peppers with Squid. We both loved the super smoky tender squid, almost bitter, melting red peppers, a creamy black pudding, plus sweet caramelised onion. This is a dish of tiny details and big flavours – sweet, bitter, smokey, fishy and meaty all on one plate and it works. Presented on its own as a single dish to table so we were able to appreciate all the flavours. My friend went into another of her raptures.
We were still ready for more when a generous, heaving plate of fatty, chewy flavour-filled lamb chops arrived along with potatoes and veg unlike any other. The Smoked Potatoes at Mountain are a revelation – like miniature jacket potatoes so full of flavour and juicy flesh and textured charred skin that there’s no need for butter, beans and cheese. The dish features two varieties of potato with quite different but equally satisfying tastes and textures. One is almost caramel in its sweetness, the other drier and more savoury. The Braised Early Summer Vegetables were another vital addition to the whole lamb and potatoes experience. There is so much to enjoy in this colourful plate that includes green and white beans, yellow carrots, almost mushy (in a good way) green courgettes, firmer yellow courgettes, a small green pepper and more.
There’s a light touch with the oil in Mountain’s kitchen so that the food – however much of it you order and eat – doesn’t sit heavily and maintains a fresh quality.
Onto the desserts. Ensaimada with Apricots provides the deep satisfaction level of a British nursery pudding but taken to another level. There are hints of steamed suet pudding, but with a light, gooey nutty texture plus layers of softness and crispness. The apricot and cream are a perfect accompaniment. I cannot imagine returning to Mountain and not ordering this dish every single time – it was simply my best new pudding experience in quite a while.
My companion, meanwhile, had the Red Gooseberries and White Currant Semifreddo. She pronounced this a wonderful mix, combining tart, sharp fruit with creamy semifreddo and a mystery – slightly salty – soil for added texture.
Serious concentration on the cooking in the open kitchen only adds to the sense of theatre at Mountain.
We had been worried that we’d over-ordered but at no point did we feel like we couldn’t or didn’t want to finish a plate. We’d arrived at Mountain at 7.15 and rolled out at close to 11, every morsel of every dish eaten, and very happy indeed. My advice: Book ahead and go with someone with similar tastes in food so you can share things and so taste more of Mountain’s exciting menu.
Mountain
16-18 Beak St,
Soho
London W1F 9RD
If you can’t get a seat, then do try for a walk-in space – or visit sister restaurant Brat in Shoreditch
Here at London Unattached, we like to keep an eye on new restaurant openings. Three have particularly piqued our interest:
Luci
The Aqua Group already have quite a presence in London – they’re the people behind the Hutong and Aqua Shard restaurants in the Shard as well as Spanish hotspot Aqua Nueva and Japanese restaurant Aqua Kyoto both near Oxford Circus . Plus we really enjoyed their take on Japanese food at Shiro in Broadgate Circle when we visited earlier this year. Now Aqua has set up shop on Long Acre and launched Luci, London’s first Italian “Dining Bakery”. Downstairs there’s a huge deli counter where you can grab a takeaway or sit at the 18 metre bancone. Upstairs there’s sit-down dining.
136 Long Acre, London WC2E 9AD
64 Goodge Street
Another August newcomer is 64 Goodge Street from the Woodhead Group who also oversee two other fine Fitzrovia restaurants, Clipstone and Portland, as well as the Quality Chop House. Chef Stuart Andrew promises a menu based on “French cooking from an outsider’s perspective”. This is sure to be a great addition to the neighbourhood.
64 Goodge Street, W1T 4NF
Chuo
Bored with Japanese food trundling by on a conveyor belt? Chuo in Shoreditch has upped the game and installed a monorail to deliver their sushi. We love a new trend here at London Unattached Towers and will be sure to be checking this out.
20 Paul Street, EC2A 4JH
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