I thought fallow was something that applied to fields. You leave them dormant to recover before planting more seeds. Or it is a period in which not really that much happens. Unfortunately in that sense, this word cannot be applied to current British politics.
Thankfully at least the staff seemed engaged and able to block out irrelevant noise to concentrate on the food.
Smoked beef ribs, glazed dairy cow baby back ribs. Soft and finished off with a thick glaze, these were tasty. Although a bit overzealously salted which was cheating a bit as it is one of the ways to make things taste good. Although too much can tip things over the wrong way.
Corn ribs, crispy corn, kombu seasoning. Excellent, it was like eating soft heavily flavoured popcorn. The lime, umami and sweetness of the corn was a real treat. A bit too salty though.
Wildfarmed sourdough, rye flour, Netherend butter. Great! Soft and without salt. It made my day. Springy inside, hard outside, the bouncy slightly sour interior with smooth butter was excellent. Especially as there wasn’t too much salt here. Although maybe this is because this bread comes in from somewhere else.
Cheese & leek croquetas. Not something particularly special though, as it didn’t really lift up the meal. It seemed like these were mushy balls which had been fried but although the exterior tried to deceive you (like many politicians), when you bit in you were reminded that inside it was still a soggy, droopy mess with a lack of substance (like many politicians). The rather haphazard amalgamation of flavours inside led to something which wasn’t that good.
Flamed mussels, bacon butter sauce, pickled lemon, parsley. Rather tasty although not perhaps cooked with undue haste as some of the mussels hadn’t opened up. Tasted rather too much like the sea,i.e. someone had a bit of an accident in the kitchen with the salt shaker. Its rather heavy-handed approach meant that the briney sauce overwhelmed what might have been the sweet delectable mussels.
Spring lamb, chop, braised belly, spiced sausage, asparagus. Nicely presented, meaty and tasty but there was a problem. The springy, juiciness of the lamb was overshadowed by taste of the sea. Generally, I prefer to have my land based food not tasting like it had gone swimming unless that is the centre piece of the dish. Perhaps if this dish was called drownie Dolly it might have made sense.
Soft serve with crumble and sparkler. Although, as it was my dining companion’s birthday, they did provide a small complimentary dessert. Soft serve with apple compote and crumble was great compared to the rest of the dishes. Although this might have been because it just didn’t have the salt and instead let us end on a sweet note.
So many jokes can be made about the word Fallow. E.g. perhaps this field could have been left unplowed, nothing good ever came out of a salted field etc. Fallow (the restaurant) did have all the usual trappings of a trendy new restaurant, bare wooden tables and seats, soft furnishings, bar seating. However, it had a bit too much of one ingredient. To paraphrase, the food was over seasoned, over salted and unfortunately over here.
A quiet eating 7/10.
Lunch (2 course equivalent) was GBP 50 per person excluding drinks and service.
Fallow
52 Haymarket
London SW1Y 4RP
