Restaurant reviews
28-50 Marylebone: a smart West End wine bar for weary shoppers
Marylebone has been regarded as a foodie mecca for a while but the action's been mainly at the northern end. Now posh wine bar 28-50 has conveniently established an outpost at the entry to Marylebone Lane, not far from Bond Street tube - a new haven for weary shoppers or workers in need of a restorative glass of wine.
The chain (there are only 2 but bound to be more, I’d have thought) was set up by sommelier Xavier Rousset (ex Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons) and his business partner Agnar Sverrisson who also run the excellent Michelin-starred Texture on the corner of Portman Square. (Another good bolthole from Oxford Street.)
Their first 28-50 - the name refers to the latitudes between which grape vines can be grown - in Fetter Lane, just off Fleet Street, is housed in a cosy wood-panelled basement and has more of a City vibe. The new branch is street level with big glass windows and feels much more West End.
The big draw is the wine list which is packed with interesting and unusual bottles - all available in 75ml, 125ml ad 250ml serves. That makes it possible to try a couple of wines at very modest expense (prices start at £2.20) or even create your own flight.
I picked two, a beautifully crisp, aromatic Mathis Bastian Rivaner from Luxembourg (that was a first!) and a softer, richer 2011 Malvasia from Giovanni Blason in the Venezia Giulia region, which was very similar to the wines I was tasting in northern Croatia earlier this year. It’s a fantastic place to improve your wine knowledge.
Food-wise there’s a range of salads and soups, starters like smoked Severn and Wye salmon and salt beef brisket which also double as bar snacks, more substantial mains (grilled lamb shoulder with borlotti beans, Icelandic fish stew), grills (mainly steaks) and tempting-sounding desserts (lemon tart with yoghurt sherbert and almond and cherry cake with almond milk ice cream). There’s also a set price lunch for £14.95 for 2 courses but to be honest if you're in the mood for a bigger meal I’d go up the road to Texture, whose lunch menu is only a fiver more.
Dropping by 28-50 for a quick meal on my own I ordered a starter of aubergine with grilled courgettes, marinated peppers and goats curd (above) - surprisingly, served warm and more than generous for a first course - and a slightly over-caramelized onion tart with a lot of salad piled on top which was on the small side for a main. (Probably a bad plan to order vegetarian from a restaurant owned by a Frenchman. They never totally get it.)
There was a bit too much balsamic vinegar on both for comfort with the wines which I did mention so there may well not be by the time you try it. The dishes I’ve had at the Fetter Lane branch have been better but these are early days.
If - or rather when - I go back with a friend, as I'm sure I will, I’ll probably opt for a sharing plate of cheese or charcuterie or just a single dish. 28-50 is more about drinking than eating. It is a wine bar after all.
28-50 is at 15-17 Marylebone Lane, London W1U 2NE. Tel: 020 7486 7922 (you'd be well advised to book. It was heaving the day I went)
If you like wine bars you should also check out Vinoteca which has a branch in Smithfield, one just near Marble Arch and one in Beak Street in Soho which I reviewed here.
Vinoteca: Soho’s newest wine bar
Even casual restaurants tend to have such good winelists these days that you might wonder whether there’s much of a market for wine bars. But from the heaving crowd at the newly opened branch of Vinoteca in Beak Street this week it looks like they’re on to a winner.
This is the third outlet from Brett Woonton and Charlie Young who bravely set up in St John Street opposite St John’s a few years ago then expanded to Seymour Place near Marble Arch, a welcome presence in an area that’s oddly devoid of good places to eat. A couple of doors up from the perennially popular Polpo, the new Beak Street branch looks another smart location.
The formula is simple and clever. A wine shop and a restaurant/bar. There’s a great list of around 300 less usual and well-priced wines around 25 of which you can buy by the glass at any one time. A few - like the deliciously vibrant Phillippe & Vincent Jaboulet Crozes Hermitage I ordered at Charlie’s suggestion - are available in bag-in-box “about £5 less than it would have been if it had been bottled” he told me proudly.
If you want to get away from the noisy Soho scrum there are bookable - and well-spaced - tables upstairs which is where we ate. The food is simple and robust, designed, I would imagine, to form an accommodating backdrop to as many wines as possible rather than aim for Michelin stars. And - hurray - each has its own wine pairing.
My favourite dish was a nicely seared fillet of mackerel on a rhubarb purée spiked with lovage - an inspired touch with added a welcome note of bitterness to what can sometimes feel like a cloying combination. And which worked really well with its accompanying glass of 2011 Arca Nova Vinho Verde. The baked garlic and Childwickbury goats curd bruschetta which my daughter tucked into with relish was also good - and perfect with a glass of Camel Valley Bacchus.
Mains were slightly less controlled. My roast rose veal, snails and salsa verde was tasty but suffered from an excess of celeriac which was piled in rather unlovely brown slabs around the dish. And my daughter’s bavette was rare even by her blood-curdling standards. It came with some excellent hand-cut chips though which she demolished with enthusiasm and glossy fresh watercress (which she didn’t).
The dessert she chose - an ultra-chocolatey brownie and ice cream - totally hit the spot though must prove a challenge for most dessert wines.
If you just want a light meal there’s a guy slicing charcuterie to order on an old fashioned slicer. I suspect, as in most wine bars, that would be a good option as would just having a couple of starters.
So - a great addition to the Soho drinking circuit, a good place for a reasonably priced meal and an excellent one to buy wine to take home if you work around there. Usefully it’s also open on a Sunday.
Vinoteca is at 53-55 Beak Street, London W1F 9SH. You can also buy wine from their website www.vinoteca.co.uk
PS London’s other high-profile wine bar 28-50 is opening a new branch next month in Marylebone Lane. Check out their website for details.
I ate at Vinoteca as a guest of the restaurant
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