Restaurant of the Month – Restaurant St. Barts

Last Updated on January 4, 2026

For What We Are About To Receive…

Here at London Unattached, we are excited to launch the first of our regular new Restaurant of the Month series. Each month we will pick out a new opening that is of particular interest for review. We won’t just be looking at fine dining but trying to cover the amazing diversity of London’s food scene. We will be searching out the best young talent, the latest trends, food cultures that are new to the city and exciting technologies that create innovation in the kitchen or front of house. This month’s restaurant, Restaurant St. Barts, was chosen because we are fans of the trio of friends behind the venture.

 We first encountered Johnnie, Luke & Toby at their first restaurant NEST (see our review) in Hackney and were very impressed with the quality, value and sustainability of the offer.

Their next venture, FENN, in Fulham, gained them more critical plaudits and now they have recently opened Restaurant St. Barts in Smithfield, overlooking the historical Church of St Bartholomew the Great. They describe the restaurant as offering ‘A British Tasting Menu experience’ (Lunch – £60, Dinner- £120) and there is a real sense of the team having grown so that they are now delivering at the high end of contemporary fine dining.

The area around St Bartholomew the Great, which sits just behind Smithfield and near the Farringdon station Elizabeth Line entrance, has been recently redeveloped with the balance between the mediaeval and the modern having been sensitively managed. The restaurant is a stunning contemporary space with Scandi influences very apparent. There is a cool ash wood and natural stone floor, sheepskin throws, floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the church courtyard, a gorgeous open-plan kitchen, stone pillars and reclaimed wood and stone surfaces.

All the fixtures have a rough-hewn but chic handmade quality from the sinks down to the napkin rings, tableware and cutlery.

We were in for lunch and chose to go for the Lunchtime Drinks Pairing (£60) starting off with the delicate mousse and strawberry flavours of Hundred Hills 2018 sparkling rosé from Oxford. With some tangy, spongy house-baked sourdough we were off to a good start

A duck liver hobnob was velvety and rich, whipped into a frothy lightness contrasting well with the impressive snap of its biscuit base. The veggie beetroot version was similarly constructed.

A dish of cured mullet and pressed salted kohlrabi with a purslane garnish took us into a very different and more astringent world. The dish was dressed with fermented kohlrabi juice and seaweed oil to make a dish that was precise and well-structured, with the salty, vegetal and iodine flavours elements combining beautifully.

We moved on to the mineral and citrus notes of Colli Tortonese, Terre di Libarna, Timorasso which was robust enough to cope with the crowd-pleasing intense Mediterranean accent of a bowl of Isle of Wight tomatoes and garlic. Partially dehydrated tomatoes sat on a smoked garlic custard with a balsamic reduction. topped with shards of crisp fried oregano adding sweetness.

It’s definitely a crab time of year which is always a good thing. A dish entitled Crab and Nutmeg provided oatmeal muffins and a modest heap of white flesh. My favourite crustacean came seasoned with a mace and nutmeg butter and a hint of bisque for depth, then topped with a ginger leaf and horseradish foam. The sweetness of flesh coalesced with the funkiness of the buttery sauce with a hint of bite from the foam making for a very happy series of mouthfuls.

Anel Reserva is a Portuguese red from the west of the Douro River made by winemaker Márcio Lopes. With concentrated blackberry flavours and big tannins, it was a great match for the ‘trio of duck dishes’ main course. Duck breast in a jus was pink and tender with lingonberries on the side for another nod to Scandi tastes; pressed duck leg confit was covered in a blackcurrant glaze and dehydrated duck heart shavings with a duck-stuffed roast prune on the side;  a duck porridge was barley based with more lingonberries. This was a sophisticated series of dishes showing some real technique and ability. A bowl of chard on the side was served plain which was fine in this context.

The veggie alternative was three pumpkin dishes. I’m a pescatarian and not a vegan and would have liked some fish at this point. As much as I like pumpkin these dishes were a bit too mono and austere for the main dish. A disk of sous vide pumpkin in a pumpkin seed sauce was a little undercooked and fibrous. A chunk of roast pumpkin had a lot of concentrated flavour with the accompanying roast hen of the woods being too salted for me. Pumpkin porridge was lifted by preserved truffle.

A welcome glass of Domaine de Souch 2015 from the Juraçon had soft honey and orange blossom flavours that brought the nuttiness of a dessert of caramelised celeriac in puff pastry with chilled walnut cream.