Behind Restaurant — Restaurant in London

Andy Beynon's restaurant is a wonderful space that reflects his passion and drive. There is an 18-cover copper horseshoe counter encircling the kitchen with a couple of rectangular tables almost in the kitchen space itself, all with fantastic views of the meal as it is being prepared. The ceiling is warehouse bare and the music reflects Beynon's personal tastes and is balanced to the course being offered. Beynon is an accomplished chef and a charming host. The chef and his brigade are part of the service at Behind, talking to diners about each dish as it is presented to them.

I have sampled some of Beynon's creations at City and Pollen Street Socials, when he was Jason Atherton's development chef, as well as at Hibiscus where he supported Claude Bosi. He has imagination and flair and it is little surprise that he landed a Michelin star within 21 days of opening his own place.

We enjoyed the 8 course tasting menu as a surprise (i.e. we did not want to know in advance what we would be eating). The whole room gets the same meal, with slight adaptions for dietary requirements. We also asked for the wine pairing. It is clear from the wine list that Beynon values artisan producers and is ethically inclined - there are many organic options from small vineyards across the globe.

The main focus is on seafood, sustainable, best-on-the-day produce that is served with care and a keen attention to detail. The brigade are not trapped at a particular station but move according to their role, as well as coming out of the kitchen to present their creations. On our visit we enjoyed fresh peas, smoked trout and pike garnished with trout roe, served in a paper thin fine pastry shell with pea shoots - a wonderful, textured mouthful; native oyster taco and oyster with cucumber, buttermilk, horseradish and oyster foam; crab pannacotta with white meat and sliced sharp gooseberries from Beynon's mother's allotment - a successful combination that has made more people than just his mother smile; another crab dish with ajo blanco and melon and cucumber balls with a warm crab broth and fine sardine toast; scallops with pickled fennel; wonderous hake, roasted, in a sherry sauce, served with fish croquettes coated in crisp scales and a silky, smoky mash scattered with seeds (the wine pairing to this was sublime - a glorious Spanish Red tasting of smoked Ribena); tender 7 day-hung guinea fowl accompanied by a superb South African granache from Wellington; a potion of rhubarb served in a tall glass with a foam to cleanse the palate; a subtle herb sorbet (basil, tarragon and verbena) served with lemon curd custard - quite sublime with a sharp raspberry and calamari sorbet with white strawberries as a refreshing finisher; a white chocolate and cardamom bomb; and a going home gift of freshly baked brioche pastry to go with coffee next day - a delicious reminder of the night before.

Beynon is a cool Hackney resident running a very cool Hackney venue. That he finds time to be a loving father and husband on top of steering his culinary dream is amazing. He recruited one of his brigade when the pair of them were taking their kids out for a stroll and recognised each other and got talking. Great to live and work locally at such a fantastic restaurant. Thank you for...

My wife and I did not have the opportunity to actually visit Behind because, on the day of our reservation, my wife had a strong reaction to her second jab and could barely get out of bed. My wife called the restaurant to see if we could postpone our visit by leaving a message. However, a couple of hours later, the owner called to inform us he would not refund or credit the £120 we had put down as a deposit due to their cancellation policy. She was disappointed but understood as it was the same day. When I came home 30 minutes later and she told me this, I suggested we allow our good friends to take our reservation. I immediately called the restaurant but nobody picked up. I called again at 5:30 pm and again at 6 pm when I reached the owner to let him know our friends would be taking our 7:30 pm reservation. His response shocked me - he said he would not allow our friends to take our reservation (he claims now that the voucher is non-tranferable but we could not find that in this policies) because he "had already set the table." When I protested that we had already paid most of the bill, he curtly dismissed me by telling me it was "too late" to make a change. I pointed out that I had been trying for an hour to reach him, and he admitted that he was "too busy" to answer the phone before 6 pm. I tried to reason with the owner when he became agitated and abruptly told me he would return our money. In the interest of compromise, I offered to take a credit if he preferred to which he shouted "FINE!" and hung up the phone on me. After I had been treated this way, my wife was not terribly interested in going to Behind, but I wanted to give the restaurant the benefit of the doubt in case the owner was simply having an off night. However, when I emailed Behind about the credit, the owner wrote back denying us a credit or refund due to their policy for cancellations. He completely disregarded his promise to refund or credit our money and did not even apologise for his earlier behaviour. Perhaps this restaurant has good food and maybe you will not be treated as poorly as I was, but do not expect any customer service if you have an issue with the owner of Behind. We have been to many restaurants and this was by far the worst we have ever...

I have not ever gave a review for a restaurant before because I just assumed they were doing their job in providing such a good service let alone writing a review straight after I ate because of the experience I got from it. So where do I start,

The service, from the head chef called Andy to the sommelier who knew everything there was to know about the wines on the wine flight this evening was immaculate. My father is a huge advocate for Chenin blanc and andy saw that and wanted my father to try this immaculate bottle from South Africa and hoped that my father would love it! (Which he did).

Every dish that was brought out to us was explained thoroughly in detail with enthusiasm which you could see the chefs put hours of work into and cared that we enjoyed it and knew every little detail there was to know about the dishes from how they were made to where the produce from. ( along with the wines too). Also with the fact that you got to speak to every chef working on the night and not just one chef who was assigned to your table.

Then last but not least. The atmosphere! You hear a 12 seater table and think you're all bunched up together however that's not the case. Each reservation is carefully thought out on where you're sat for the duration of the night with space in between each other so that it feels like you're on your own separate table. It is genuinely the best restaurant I've ever been too and whether it's your birthday, anniversary or payday (which is was for us😜) you...