rumbly in my tumbly: Tredwell’s, Covent Garden

Posted on September 15, 2014

Front terrace area

Upstairs gallery dining area

Tredwell is the new restaurant near Covent Garden from Marcus Wareing. More casual in style it focuses on small sharing plates and, before you yawn and roll your eyes; I think the sharing plates trend has taken off because it allows you to try so many different things without being stuck with one thing and getting bored halfway through, or worse having food envy if someone picked something better than you!

They suggest choosing 2 small plates and one large per person and I have to say this was more than enough food, especially if you want to have room for dessert (and believe me you’ll want to when you see what we had!)

Little delights including Pots & Jars

Larger dishes including the ones from the grill

Whilst we made our menu choices, and during the evening, bartender Victor appeared as the walking talking cocktail list (they did not have a cocktail menu as yet when we visited), enquiring what drinks/ spirits/ cocktails we liked and made suggestions as to creations they were going to have on their cocktail list/ bar menu, and brought the final creations for us to try. We kicked off with cocktails including Sidecar (their version with Dorset Brandy and Cider) and a Sparkling Cyanide (Chartreuse, Maraschino, and lime juice) – J loved these especially the summery apple notes from the Sidecar.

My small plates were chicken liver mousse with bacon jam (£8) and charred squash with raisins, goats curd and hazelnuts (£7). The addition of bacon jam to the mousse made this insanely good, we ordered extra toast so we could scoop out every last bit! The charred squash didn’t have quite the same sweetness as when I roast it at home, maybe it needed longer slower cooking?

Chicken liver mousse with bacon jam

Charred squash

J small plates were pork belly buns topped with ginger and apple (£5). Frankly, I wish we had got the large version of this, tiny bite sized morsels of perfection.

His second was dorset crab with mango chutney on toast (£9). I wasn’t quite as taken with this, for me the mango chutney overpowered the delicate sweetness of the crab.

Pork belly buns

Dorset crab with mango chutney on toast

For our large plates, J got the onglet steak with mushroom ketchup (£15). The mushroom ketchup looked an intimidating shade of grey but actually had a real depth of flavour.

My large plate was beef shortrib with baked beans (£38). The beef was meltingly tender but by this point we were quite full and couldn’t really do this dish justice.

I would actually lean towards getting more small plates, there were so many we had our eye on, the pork cheeks, the squid and bottarga crumb, we will be coming back to work our way through the rest of the menu.

Last but definitely not least was dessert.

I got the pain perdu with maple cream and bacon (£6). If there’s any take home message from this review it’s that bacon makes everything better, even dessert! J got a chocolate pot topped with Campari ice (£6). J said he would have liked a stronger Campari flavour in the ice, but the pot itself was good.

J wanted something sweet as a nightcap and Victor created their version of a Clock and Dagger – with Grand Marnier, Vermouth, Cognac and ginger beer, decorated with an orange peel. A perfect way to end the meal!