Mountain
The most anticipated London restaurant opening of the year. The only new London entry to The 50 Best long list 2024 (it's in at 94). Awarded a Michelin star as easy as that. BUT IS IT ANY GOOD?
Mountain is the Soho sister restaurant of Shoreditch's Brat, helmed by that man Tomos Parry. Similar to Brat, Mountain specialises in Basque-accented dishes, many of which involve meat cooked on an open-fire grill. The signature potatoes from Brat make for a reprise on the Mountain menu, but I find Mountain's menu to be a little more adventurous than what you'll find at Brat.
There is much to go at here; certainly too much for one outing. I wanted to order more than what I ended up ordering, but my server (who was excellent) advised against it. As it goes, she was absolutely right, with the quantity being pitched exactly right to ensure that I left with my hunger satiated.
The doors to Mountain are in the centre of the restaurant, and were wide open when I rocked up on a Friday evening. The layout of the dining area is asymmetrical, with counters over to the left-hand side where drinks are made, and more traditional seating in the centre and to the right, a little closer to the open-plan kitchen. Despite not being seated in the midst of the action, I still got a good view of the chefs roasting ducks on the grill and delicately preparing the spider crab omelette.
Mountain's menu consists of plates big and small, but the point here is to construct your own meal; the menu has enough flexibility to allow for a completely bespoke curation as to your tastes and appetite. As such, I went for five savoury dishes and a dessert. My first dish, pictured above, was raw sobrassada (Spanish raw sausage) with honey on a slice of toast. The toast didn't doo much for me, but the sobrassada and garnish was a nice opener to awaken the taste buds.
Then came the walnut bread with loquat and lardo. I didn't get much from the lardo, but the citrus pop from the loquat was very much in evidence, the walnut bread being much superior to the toast I'd had in the previous dish. Despite this, one must put into perspective what this dish is; nice enough but hardly something to write home about.
Next up, cod cheeks with chorizo and braised chickpeas. The cod cheeks were soft and smooth, the chorizo excellent (it's sourced from Majorca), and the chickpea stew sufficient to bind everything together. It's a good dish, but one that you could easily make at home (I've made something similar that's a little more Andalusian, and was certainly bouncing with more flavour).
Next came the grilled mackerel with sweet, sticky onions and peas. The best of the savoury dishes I had at Mountain, I am a big fan of mackerel, and this was cooked excellently with the head left on. The accompanying vegetables worked with the smokiness of the mackerel, though I don't know why arugula was slapped on top of it. Similar to the green garnish on the previous dish of cod cheeks, I had to wonder: why?
Finally, I had the potatoes, a signature dish of Brat that make a return here. Just as with Brat, these are slightly crunchy on the skin but soft on the flesh, and are all around great potatoes.
For dessert, I had torrija (a Spanish take on pain perdu) with grilled strawberries and a vanilla ice cream. This was delicious, the torrija soft and syrupy, the strawberries not elevating the dish, but happily there all the same. As fine a pain perdu as one could hope for.
Now, I visited Brat a couple of years ago (I think; a firm sense of time eludes me), and I wasn't taken by it. I am afraid that my view of Mountain is much the same. This is not to say that it's bad, for it really isn't. This is a good restaurant with solid cooking and (more so than Brat, I think) a robust menu that will entice you into trying plenty of new things. However, nothing here really wow'ed me. It is a case of 'happy to visit, but probably won't be back anytime soon'.
Value for money? C. £80 for six dishes, still water and service charge. Definitely good value for money.
Would I return? It's a restaurant I can happily recommend, but personally won't be rushing to go back to.
