Noizé: A finely tuned affair

Expect 'nice people serving extremely pleasant food' at Mathieu Germond's Fitzrovia restaurant
Shout it loud: The dining room at the impressive Noizé
Adrian Lourie
Fay Maschler1 February 2018

Nice people serving pleasant food efficiently in a comfortable space where you can hear your companions speak isn’t the tenor of much restaurant reporting these days, not even on TripAdvisor where a mean-spirited, most probably inaccurate dig is considered more pertinent and larky.

To be newsworthy, food assemblies delineated have to be exotic, execrable or easily the best thing since sliced bread, which may well come from a revolutionary venture offering only that. Spread with a smear of pandan jam, of course.

George Reynolds, in his blog, egoscriptor.space, plus contributions to london.eater.com, civilianglobal.com and as of last weekend his sinecure as restaurant commentator in the Sunday Times’ Style Magazine, is coming up fast on the inside as a whip-smart restaurant jockey.

In tearing to shreds — one of the modes at his disposal — someone’s recently published list of US restaurants that “make you want to become a regular” he nevertheless concedes it is exactly that sort of place that can deliver happy satiety. Positive examples he gives from his own recent experiences in London are Lupins in Flat Iron Square, Brawn in Bethnal Green, Oldroyd in Islington and Lorne in Victoria.

Maybe George has not yet tried Noizé in Fitzrovia, where previously stood Dabbous. I found Grace and Flavour in there one evening. Patron is Mathieu Germond, formerly co-owner and manager of nearby Pied à Terre whose grandparents owned a farm in the tiny village (pop. 100) of Noizé in the Loire Valley. Rustic and convivial are words he selects to convey his intention for Noizé’s atmosphere.

Oh, my God, look, there printed on the menu is the restaurant’s phone number. You can ring up, someone genial will answer (I can vouch for it) and be happy toing and froing about what time you would like a table and where you might want to sit — as was the case with Dabbous, the basement level is more casual. The strict monochrome of the previous ground floor interior has been coloured-in, upholstered in part in persimmon velvet and softly lit with opaque globes. Fine white linen clothes the tables.

The short menu is presented as a list for the customer to manipulate. Snacks, which kick off at £5 can become starters, a starter a main course and so forth. Dishes of the day in any size you feel like are spoken embellishment. Cheddar cheese gougères should not be missed as a drink-accompanying snack. First off with a glass of sparkling Vouvray, Symphonie, Triple Zero they set the tone perfectly.

Chef Ed Dutton has worked with the Pied à Terre consortium but also with Hywel Jones at Foliage when that was the main restaurant at Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park and with Tom Aikens. His palate seems to me a well-tuned one and his understanding of pairings that of an experienced marriage broker.

Chef Ed Dutton's palate seems a well-tuned one and his understanding of pairings that of an experienced marriage broker

Ignoring the byelaw that stipulates all menus must feature some iteration of the threesome of beetroots, goat’s curds and walnuts, we head for squid, smoked bacon and apple, a felicitous chaos of flavours and textures with just a twinkle of foam, and chicken, leek and foie gras terrine that has artful concentric circular construction, a target which scores a bull’s-eye.

Daily extras in the first course tried — well, Noizé is only just along the road from where I live and doesn’t cost and arm and a leg — include raw scallops marinated with cucumber until they almost assume one another’s identity and personality and glazed sautéed sweetbreads with fawn-like woodsy morels and a punchy, glossy reduction.

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Belper Knolle is a Swiss hard cow’s cheese that I had to Google, but believe me with its peppery temperament and garlic breath, it is ideal scraped onto tagliatelle (or probably any pasta). Here mushrooms act as conciliator. Venison loin, a daily offering, that comes with pomme fondante, quince purée and turnip is turned down in favour of partridge, celeriac and pommes Dauphinois from the printed menu. The breasts neatly scooped off the carcass don’t detain anyone with fiddling and an unheralded line of onion purée binds the parts of the dish neatly together.

A small hedgehog-shaped baked Alaska with a row of guardsmen in the shape of blackberries with mint leaves for hats and apple tarte fine are classic desserts that sit so comfortably on this list. For another time: warm rice pudding with roasted fig and almonds.

The admirable notion of flexibility and customer consideration could be applied in broader brushstrokes to the wine list. The content has plenty to detain you — Mathieu Germond was sommelier at Pied à Terre — but the choice of quantity is between a bottle or 125ml, that measure that is so quickly forgotten. Carafes would be good. A white I try at Germond’s suggestion, Juhfark, Szóló Szölö 2013, Somlói, Hungary extends my growing admiration for Eastern European viniculture.

So there you have it. Nice people serving extremely pleasant food and wine efficiently in a See more of the Best French Restaurants in London

Lunch Tues-Fri noon-2.30pm. Dinner Mon-Sat, 5.30pm-10.30pm. A meal for two with wine, about £112 including 12.5 per cent service.

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