Most restaurants close and disappear quietly, but Julie’s is a restaurant that just won’t die. 2024 marks a third reopening for the zombie restaurant of Holland Park, and as you saunter up the street, past whitewashed townhouses, black railings and grey Range Rovers, you can see why. Julie’s has a killer spot - a quiet little passthrough deep in residential Notting Hill, under the shelter of two languid cherry trees. If one lived in a townhouse with a black front door and a Range Rover outside, Julie’s is definitely where you’d come for an al fresco martini.
Three reincarnations later, Julie’s is still ‘a place to be’. As we’re enjoying a drink outside, restaurant royalty appears for dinner in the shape of Fergus and Margot Henderson. It still has that special, intangible quality that makes you feel special, whether it’s the gentle but consistent attention of staff, or the glitz of the interiors.
Julie’s 3.0 has a killer team now too, in wonderful GM Emma Underwood and chef patron Owen Kenworthy, who’s food we adored at Notting Hill boozer The Pelican. Kenworthy’s menu here delves into a more Gallic bag of tricks, adding some pizzazz to classic French brasserie dishes.
One thing is for sure, Kenworthy knows his sauces. A plump trio of crab and scallop tortellini come swimming in a magnificent brown shrimp beurre blanc, and the bordelaise that comes pooled around a rare piece of onglet is superb - deep, rich and glossy with bone marrow. These are sauces that demand extra bread orders. We dearly wished we had ordered the skate wing and sauce gribiche, but the beef fillet tartare was also superb, arriving in a deep silver bowl for DIY stirring.
A duck liver schnitzel is a fine idea (and by all accounts it is becoming a Julie’s signature) but we found it a little lacking on seasoning, and perhaps subjectively a little overpowered by shallot marmalade. These are very fine margins we’re talking about though, and in almost every other aspect Julie’s is a fabulous restaurant - there’s nothing not to like about a chocolate pave with a secret salted caramel centre, or sipping on a Martini under the boughs of a cherry tree. Whatever way you slice it Julie’s has that special something, and the resurrection of this West London icon is a welcome one.