HIDE

British·
££££
·
Gold Award
·

SquareMeal Review of HIDE

Gold Award

True to its name, HIDE can be hard to find – the entrance is seamlessly concealed in plain sight on Piccadilly by large wooden doors which seem like they might in fact just be a wall.

Once inside (and up the stairs), the atmosphere is warm and relaxed, featuring widely spaced tables that ensure you never find yourself locking eyes with your fellow diners. Wherever you’re seated you’ll be afforded good views; either of Green Park through the glass front of the building or of the kitchen, which can be appreciated in the back half of the space. 

A meal here features the unusual flavour combinations and inventive presentation that are the hallmark of chef and owner Ollie Dabbous. Snacks set the tone with a richly umami Jerusalem artichoke stock accompanied by house-made charcuterie, wrapped around bones and feathers.  

Starters proper bring a light picked crab dish which is surrounded by a broth lightly scented with kaffir lime leaves to cut through the rich sea notes, plus the house signature ‘nest egg’ – a wonderfully smoky concoction of a slow-cooked egg yolk combined with butter, toasted mushrooms and cream all presented in a hollowed-out egg nestled on a bed of hay.

A main of sweetly glazed Wagyu short rib was balanced with a molasses yoghurt and charred spring onions but with just one small piece of meat served, it made the £44 price tag feel punchy; if you’ve time on your hands, the tasting menu (£140) might be the better way to get the most out of the food here.

Despite the quirky interiors – there are hints of Wes Anderson in the curved central staircase and the raised impressions of flowers printed into the walls, albeit if the director didn’t like colour – and small portion sizes, this is definitely a place of excess: the private dining room hides a car lift which brings guests directly to their table while the tables conceal drawers with phone chargers for each diner.

The service plays into this need to please with keen and knowledgeable staff topping up drinks faster than you can quaff them, and detailed explanation of each plate accompanying your courses, which can begin to wear by course eight of the tasting menu. The team of sommeliers are ever present too, perfectly pairing a range of dangerously drinkable wines – a fresh and textured white to start, for instance, and a slightly smoky pepper-rich plum shiraz to complement the beef main.

It’s safe to say HIDE is about more than the food; it’s an experience in every sense of the word. Just, perhaps, a once-in-a-lifetime one. 

Good to know

Average Price
££££ - Over £80
Cuisines
British
Ambience
Fine dining, Glamorous, Luxury, Quiet conversation, Unique, Widely spaced tables
Awards
One Michelin star
Food Occasions
Dinner, Lunch
Alfresco And Views
Great views
Special Features
Gluten-free options, Vegetarian options
Perfect for
Celebrations, Romantic, Special occasions
Food Hygiene Rating

About

HIDE is a modern British restaurant from chef Ollie Dabbous, encompassing three floors of a stunning space opposite Green Park. HIDE in Mayfair is comprised of three main spaces: the ground-floor restaurant, the bar downstairs and a slightly more high-end dining experience upstairs. At its core, HIDE is a Michelin-starred, multi-floor restaurant serving refined plates using the freshest ingredients. The restaurant above is the fanciest of its dining offerings, serving both a la carte and tasting menus, as well as a set lunch menu if you’re looking for an in-and-out meal. 

With tranquil views over Green Park, HIDE offers a relaxed and calming setting for diners to indulge in its dishes, which is accentuated by its all-natural décor. To reach the restaurant upstairs, guests must climb the spiral oak staircase to be greeted by a swathe of wooden furniture and flooring. All these soft surfaces are complemented by a colour palette of similar beige hues, via earthy-toned seating and lampshades. Finally, the glass-fronted ‘show window’ floods the space with plenty of natural light, which feels like the most appropriate lighting for a space like this. 

The tasting menu changes seasonally and features a range of innovative and, occasionally, theatrical dishes. Formulated by head chef Ollie Dabbous, there are both five and seven course menus available. If you prefer to retain a little more choice over what you want to eat, then the a la carte menu is just as special and made up of classic HIDE dishes from the tasting menu. Examples of dishes include golden turnip shavings with borage flower honey, pine and marigold, Herdwick lamb cooked over charcoal with roast garlic, violet artichoke and three-cornered leeks or Gigha halibut with citrus fruit and imperial caviar. Desserts are a similar artistic affair, with the likes of sherbet of mastic crystals with fresh blood orange and pine on the list. Both vegetarian and vegan versions of the a la carte menus are also available, and the tasting menu can be complemented with a wine pairing chosen by the sommelier team.  


FAQs

Does it have a Michelin star?

It has one Michelin star.

Helpful? 0

Are there gluten-free options on the menu?

Yes there are gluten-free options on the menu.

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Meet the team
HIDE

Ollie Dabbous

Chef-patron, Hide

Ollie Dabbous shook the top end of London’s restaurant scene to its core with his debut eponymous restaurant. Opened in 2012, Dabbous was a masterclass in stripped-back fine dining before the idea was fashionable. The food was so good – he cut his teeth under Raymond Blanc, Claude Bosi and at influential Copenhagen restaurant Noma – that it was nearly impossible to bag a table.

Dabbous closed the restaurant in 2016 to concentrate on a new and at the time mysterious opening. That project turned out to be Mayfair’s Hide, a glamorous restaurant backed by rich Russians with two different food offerings; a high-end but flexible all day restaurant on the ground floor and a tasting menu-focused space upstairs with views over Green Park.


Location

85 Piccadilly, Mayfair, London, W1J 7NB

020 3146 8666 020 3146 8666

Website

Opening Times

All day
Mon 07:30-22:00
Tue 07:30-22:00
Wed 07:30-22:00
Thu 07:30-22:00
Fri 07:30-22:00
Sat 09:00-22:00
Sun 09:00-22:00

Reviews

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8 Reviews 
Food/Drink
Service
Atmosphere
Value

Anon

24 November 2022  
Food & Drink 4.5
Service 4.5
Atmosphere 4.5
Value 4.5

Great food and a fabulous setting.

Anon

04 November 2021  
Frustration

My daughter and I went expecting to have a nice dinner, but for our surprise we were faced with rather not a really friendly staff. They placed us in a very uncomfortable location between the bar and the kitchen. The starters were really tasty, however the mains were extremely tiny for the price we paid. Less than 100g mullet for £42 is insane. Finished the dinner feeling completely hungry and not satisfied. Extremely over priced for what it is. Not coming back. 

Michael S

08 July 2019  
Excellent cuisine - Ollie Dobous on top of his game - and the option to take wines from Hedonism for a modest mark up a stunning bonus for oenophiles!!

Sarah M

28 June 2019  
A cool new take on fine dining, loved the view over piccadilly and green park. Food was inspiring and focused on delicate flavours. Pared back but wonderful interiors.

Luis A

28 June 2019  
Great tasting menu and friendly crew.

Paul A

19 February 2019  
Food & Drink 1.5
Service 1.5
Atmosphere 1.5
Value 1
Poor deal

I admit that I must be the only husband around who books a meal out on 14 February and doesn’t realise it is Valentine’s Day. We had been hoping to have one or two of the supplements on the advertised tasting menus, there was only the one tasting menu available because of the date, something we had not been informed about in advance. Nonetheless, the menu looked promising, and, having negotiated the dangerously scalloped staircase after finally locating the very unobtrusive, almost hidden, front door to the restaurant, we thought all would be fine. However, as we found during the meal, our table proved to be only just out of collision range of the staff at the drinks and glasses station and it had a drawer with a phone charger built in which was proudly shown to us by the waiter (do people really go to fine-dining restaurants just to be online the whole time?), then we were presented with the wine list in the form of a rather clunky tablet which, for me at least, did not provide the ease necessary to select suitable bottles. Happily there was a printed version, but why these gimmicks? The ambience upstairs seemed largely governed by the noise from “Below” since “Above” is basically in the form of a gallery, although we had a view of the kitchen and we were able to see some of the action. The meal began with three snacks, mushroom broth, meat on skewers and some vegetables for dipping in a seeded mayo, an interesting idea but rather messy in practice and not exactly memorable. The next plate was some decent avocado with a fig leaf infusion made almost attractive by the addition of persimmon and the contrast of pistachios. We then had a halfway decent dish of egg noodles with crab and some brown shrimps which did not really contribute much and this reasonably filling course seemed designed to make up for the gap left by the previous ones. The lack of classy presentation was emphasised by what was supposed to be a steamed dumpling of foie gras and black truffle. However, it simply was not a dumpling but a cabbage leaf wrap round some virtually tasteless purée which could possibly have been the foie gras. We were unable to detect any truffle. This would not have got past John Torode and Greg Wallace let alone a Michelin inspector. The glazed guinea fowl which followed was okay but the portion was painfully ungenerous and the bird matched the celeriac remoulade for temperature. Were we eating too slowly for the kitchen when the web site claims that there is no rush and true “Hedonists” linger Above? The two desserts were “roses”, presumably a nod to the 14th of February, the first red, pistachio biscuit with rhubarb sorbet sitting on top, rose meringue bits and rhubarb chunks, the second white, jasmine cream and white chocolate ganache placed inside a white rose which proved impossible to take out in less than one piece, which made the eating less than elegant. And there we were, finished in record time for us when taking a tasting menu of that number of courses. The service was far from what is expected in a one star venue, for example some mushroom sauce that I managed to splash on the table did not get wiped up until I asked for it to be, and the staff were generally poorly coordinated. At least the wines we ordered were very good, but if you are paying £150 a head for a tasting menu and you consider that the best thing you have had is the bread then it is fair to say you have been disappointed.

M Stead

26 October 2018  
Food & Drink 3.5
Service 3.5
Atmosphere 4
Value 3
A staircase to remember
The staircase is the first thing you notice when you walk into Hide, it's vast, and the definite centrepiece of this restaurant. It's also the most tech savvy restaurant I've ever been to! There's phone chargers in the table hidden away in a drawer, the wine list is on an iPad and you can filter your wines, and when you request one a wine is then with you within 10 minutes! Which sounds obvious, because surely they have the wine in the cellar, WRONG! Hide have partnered with Hedonism wine and you order it from them, and then I assume a guy on a motorbike races through the streets of London with a bottle of wine strapped to his back...? Who knows, we went with the classic wine pairing. I have to say, this wasn't my favourite experience... There's a few things that bugged us here, about 500 waiters came over and asked us how our day was, for example. I know it's polite to ask, and it's that next level of service you expect in a Michelin star restaurant, but after the first 499 times you get bored of answering. I'm also not sure why we needed so many waiters? What's wrong with one or two? I digress. Of course we went with tasting menu, I'm a tasting menu guy, but I also opted for the option foire gras course because I'm also a foire gras guy. This is where my second bug bear rears its head, there wasn't a course I truly remember, no course that I will look back on fondly and say to my friend "Oh remember *that* course...?". If I go to a restaurant where I pay nearly £300 a head I expect a standout course, and while the lamb was very good, I won't look back on it with awe. Final bug bear for me, I promise, the foire gras was served with a brown rice broth which made the foire gras soggy... And no one wants soggy foire gras. Would I come back here? Probably not, unless someone I know really wanted to come, I just expect more. I went to Core by Clare Smyth in the same week, and I know three courses already that I'll look back on and reminisce on, but I won't do that here. Maybe the staircase, and I think that says it all. When you look back at a restaurant and remember the staircase more than the food something is amiss.

Caroline H

31 July 2018  
Good new quirky place, ambience is vibrant, good for lunch - menu has a wide choice, exceptional wine list. Only problem is the front door is not very inviting , does not look a restaurant at all.
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020 3146 8666 020 3146 8666

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