Pieds Nus - restaurant review

Simplicity is part of the charm of this pop-up from the owner of the Michelin-starred Pied à Terre and L’Autre Pied
25 November 2013

Surveying the tiny, not-very-chic-shabby dining room at Pieds Nus — battered classroom chairs, chunky scaffolding-pole tables — one might ask why a Michelin-starred operation would spawn such an offshoot. For that is the origin of this pop-up: David Moore, owner of single-starred Pied à Terre and L’Autre Pied, the latter three doors down the street, has installed Ed Dutton (Pied à Terre, Tom Aikens) to cook here until April.

But Pieds Nus’ simplicity is part of its charm — no doubt the attraction for a good chef too: the freedom to innovate without the burden of Michelin expectations or faff. The food here, all served in tapas-sized portions intended for sharing, is notably simpler than that of the other Pieds.

At least you can start that way, with the bag of breads and houmus (the bacon and onion brioche is gloriously savoury and light) or pickled vegetables in celeriac oil. That segued nicely into the bold flavours of Cornish mackerel, beetroot and apple. All the starters and main courses are described austerely in this way: groups of three ingredients — scallop ceviche, fennel, cucumber; beef tartare, smoked eel, watercress — aiming at a focused purity of flavours.

Another leitmotif is fish and meat dishes slow-cooked sous vide to preserve succulence: thus “62-degree poached rose veal” was a subtle meeting of the meat’s flavour with truffle (and celeriac choucroute). Meanwhile “98-degree 12-hour slow-cooked pig belly, potato, carrot”, in fact cooked conventionally, delivered a luscious rectangle of perfectly tender pork.

This being Michelin-starred food in all but name, it isn’t of course quite as simple as it pretends to be. Thus in the scallop ceviche — for me, the stand-out dish of the meal, delicate and fresh yet intense — the fennel was in part a brightly-coloured purée, while the cucumber came as compressed little balls, a Pied à Terre ornament — to say nothing of unmentioned dill powder and dill oil.

There’s an artful simplicity to desserts too: “New York cheesecake, blackberry ice cream, blackberries” was in fact a deconstructed version, piles of crisp base crumb assembled in line with scoops of creamy filling, ice cream and fruit. “At least the crumbs don’t go soggy,” commented my lunchmate — and it was delicious. As an alternative there is a very good truffled brie with fig jam and lavoche.

The wine list is concise (10 by the glass or carafe); like Pied à Terre’s, I can’t say it set my soul alight, though I did enjoy Rainer Wess’s Stein-und-Krems Grüner Veltliner 2012 with the fish dishes. It’s a rather less adventurous list than the cooking deserves: there’s a touch of Denmark’s stripped-down new Nordic cuisine here, which in Copenhagen has often gone with a — sometimes overdone — embrace of natural wines. At least at Pieds Nus that spirit of experimentation pays off handsomely where it matters most — on the plate.

Pieds Nus, 19 Blandford Street, W1 (020 7486 3353, piedsnus.co.uk). Open Tue-Sat noon-3pm and 6pm-11pm. A three-course meal for two with wine and service, about £100.

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