St John Bread & Wine

A great menu for some one who loves the full variety of meat dishes.

Almost like dining in someone's pared back kitchen. British nose to tail eating with inventive takes on wild foraged ingredients. Consistently interesting.

Flavour, flavour, flavour.

Better than the main restaurant. Even the salads are brilliant.

Brilliant imaginative menu with great service.

Only place the food always surprises me - in a good way!

We ate dinner here last night, and I loved everything about the place! Excellent waiting staff, buzzing atmosphere, delicious food and a daily changing menu, what's not to love? We had fois gras pate on toast, the welsh rarebit (wonderful mustard heat), skate cheeks and tartare sauce (super light crispy batter), cucumber, kohlrabi and brown shrimp salad (divine) and roasted quail with crab apple jelly and a bottle of Picpoul and the bill only came to £73. People were popping in on their way home to buy the freshly baked bread (which is wonderful) and you can even buy the rarebit topping to take home and make your own. I am already planning my next visit.

Have been coming here since it opened, and always love it. SJBW is by no means for the faint hearted or picky eaters, the food is pared back rustic with a whiff of foraging in every dish. Smoked sprats come simply on a plate with a dollop of horseradish. Homemade bread with superb butter is a treat. Duck hearts with loveage or lambs brains in breadcrumbs are done so gently and deftly that whilst you might baulk at the headings or thought of eating such offal, the actual experience is sublime. Fresh game such as hare, mallard or grouse feature often when in season. the only difficulty is navigating the wine list which is eclectic to say the least - but then again so is the place itself.

Despite telling the head waiter and the waiter serving our table that we had a time constraint the restaurant ignored this and proceeded to serve us at a glacial pace. Everything was slow. When 10 minutes before our planned departure our main course had not arrived, enquiries got the head waiter to explain his approach (based on 30 years experience!) that they do not tell the kitchen to proceed with preparing the main course until the plates from the starter have been cleared. Clearly responding to the customer is not part of his approach. As we were discussing the problem, with voices becoming raised on both sides, the main courses appeared 5 minutes before we needed to leave. I told them to return them to the kitchen as there was no time to eat them. We then left the restaurant. Having eaten there before with no problems I was very disappointed with the approach they took and the very unresponsive reaction to my complaint.

Great as usual. Favourite of mine for informal business lunch.