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Phone: 020 7388 3344
Open: Brunch Sat-Sun 11:30am-3pm, Lunch Mon-Fri 12pm-3pm, Dinner Mon-Sat 6pm-11pm, Sun 6pm-10pm
Sure-fire winner: besides the excellent food, York & Albany has a happy, relaxed atmosphere, great service and a stylish design
It is only six weeks or so since York & Albany finally opened for business in this renovated coaching inn, on the busy interface between the refinements of Regent’s Park and the scurrilities of Camden. It’s still quite hard to find since it doesn’t yet have a sign — not because Gordon Ramsay is naturally so reserved that he can’t bear to draw attention to the place but because somehow it’s still not ready.
No matter. York & Albany is busy anyway. It’s not easy to book for lunch at short notice — quite rightly, because it’s the best value in town, ridiculously cheap for the quality. Until last week, the three-course set lunch was £15. I had one such lunch here that would have been good value at twice the price: a perfect, simple starter of the tenderest beef carpaccio with rocket and parmesan, dressed in great olive oil, followed by a gratifyingly hoggish dish of braised pork belly with black pudding and sautéed potatoes and then a tangy lemon posset with raspberry coulis.
Now the menu has changed and the price has risen to £18. That’s still an amazing bargain. There are three good choices for each course — and, moreover, you actually get four courses. In addition to what’s listed on the menu, you are first brought a completely delicious chicken liver parfait, all foamy and liquid, served warm in a Kilner jar, to be scooped out with toasted crusts of sourdough bread. Even people normally iffy about any kind of liver moan with pleasure wolfing this down.
From the starters, you can’t beat the rabbit pappardelle, which Angela Hartnett, the chef in charge here, says she rates about the tastiest pasta dish in Italy. The braised rabbit leg, cooked in stock and taken off the bone in rough chunks, is served not just with parsley but little sticks of green beans and black olives. A goat’s cheese and caramelised onion tart was incredibly satisfying too, with the cheese melted in, giving a richer, deeper taste than any such tart has a right to have. The scoop of crème fraîche flecked with mint on the side seemed a superfluous relish.
From the mains, a half of baby chicken, nicely roasted and deconstructed into breast and leg, came with a delicious, liquidly tomato-ish lentil ragout, dotted with pancetta chunks — plus roasted radicchio, again really well caramelised, giving a sweet edge to the bitter leaves.
A large chunk of cod, from a big fish to judge by the size of the flakes, had been expertly roasted, with a crispy edge but moist and tender flesh inside. With it came braised salsify, lots of little mushrooms in cream and a whipped-up cauliflower velouté, delicately flavoured.
This cooking delivers on every level: it’s rustic but sophisticated, the balance of the plateful carefully thought through and faultlessly executed, all the flavours distinct yet combining happily.
To finish, pain perdu with caramelised apples, the nursery classic, was irresistible — the eggy bread and warm slices of fruit perked up with a scoop of intensely appley sorbet. And the “selection of artisan cheeses” was great too: four of them, including a particularly enjoyable, crumbly chunk of pecorino.
The wine list opens with a Malvasia or Montepulciano d’Abruzzo at £4 a glass. Stick to that and you can lunch here for less than £50 for two, including service. However, we launched into a fine bottle of 2005 Clos de Quinze, Château Bauduc, a fruity merlot-based single vineyard Bordeaux Superieur, at £23. “Still or sparkling water?” we were confidently asked and ended up with a bottle of San Pellegrino at £2.25, which pushed the total to £68.97. Worth every penny.
York & Albany just feels better to be in than any other Ramsay joint I’ve tried. Happier, more relaxed, stylish without being obstreperous. Whether or not Angela Hartnett is actually cooking there doesn’t seem to make a difference, either — head chef Colin Buchan is plainly doing a great job.
The service is highly professional and the design by Russell Sage works well too, only gradually revealing its textures. The cloth on the walls looks first to be an unremarkable taupe but then you notice it is full of unexpected threads, in different densities, red, blue, purple, gold ... The table-tops, too, are intriguing, made from a sleek synthetic, Kinon, that looks like grey watered silk, smooth to the touch and needing no cover, making the whole room less formal.
No criticisms? Before the room fills up, they tend to have the pokey sound system on too loud for my taste. At both lunches recently, we hadn’t had time to enjoy the chicken liver parfait properly — sharing one jar, it’s quite awkward to eat — before the starters came. Nothing else at all. The set lunch here is what I would delightedly spend my own money on and it’s what I would first recommend to a friend. If it doesn’t rate five stars, I don’t know what does.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
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What a disappointment. We were really looking forward to a great meal and great relaxed environment. What we got was frosty service in a terrible part of the restaurant and certainly not great value as a result. The food was good but let down by the rest of it. We were downstairs by the loos and the kitchen. The kitchen door banged continually throughout the meal which is totally unnecessary! Not sure where you get the great value from but then you are probably treated differently from the general public! Not a place to go back to.
- Sarah Richards, London
I lunched at York and Albany today with two friends. As described,the set lunch menu is £18 per head. We had no trouble at all choosing from this menu and the vegetarian among us was able to swap main course with no trouble whatever. We were also given lovely marinated artichokes in deference to her instead of the chicken liver parfait. Everything was excellent, from the warm friendly welcome to the offer of tap water without our having to ask. We had a 500ml carafe of wine and the three course set menu with wine and coffee for all was superb value at a total of £100 including service charge . The place was buzzing and if you approach it from the Regent's Park side you will completely understand why GR chose this spot. The bar menu looks like fun too. We will definitely return.
- Wjs, London UK
