Parlour — Restaurant in London

Parlour in Kensal Green is an oustanding restaurant somewhat off the beaten track. Its Sunday roast is reason enough to make a little journey - it really is exceptionally delicious.

I was once for a private dinner event at Parlour and then went back almost a year later for the Sunday Roast.

Parlour in Kensal Green is classy and modern at the same time. The interior looks simple and beautiful with a few interesting touches here and there. The restaurant is just lovely, not least thanks to the cute dogs that were sitting, or rather lying, next to me.

Perfectly suited for a Sunday roast, there was a table full of papers, so you easily find something to read in case your did not bring your favourite magazine or newspaper with you.

Unconventionally, at least if you compare it to your average pub, I started my roast with bread and butter. I found the bread slightly too sweet, however it was really tasty and the coarse-grained salt on the table just added to the pleasure.

My starter was a somehwat playful chicken popcorn thing. It was delicious and fun with a hint of mustard seed. This is usually not a flavour I like a lot, but in this dish it was well-balanced with the other spices and ingredients, the combination of it all resulted in delightful taste.

On that week, they offered a duck breast roast, nothing I came across very often before. This was truly one of the best Sunday roasts ever made. Like everyone expects from a decent roast, it came with lots of tasty gravy, and I made it my duty to finish it all. The duck was not dry at all and full of great flavour. It came with blood orange juice from roasted blood oranges, and this was a heavenly revelation of a sauce.

The roast came with the standard trimmings, made to the highest quality. The potatoes were just as perfect as the duck, crunchy on the outside and a pure pleasure to eat with a bit of pepper and salt, drowned in the beautiful gravy.

The Yorkshire pudding was also very good, especially to finish off the gravy. And the carrots were thick, well-prepared with a bite - simply a good side.

The roast came with a confit duck leg as a very welcomed bonus. However, the indulgence did not stop here, they also added a kind of pressed duck patty to the mix. It was pretty salty, but also delightful.

The Picpoul de Pinet that was recommended to me when I asked for a white wine was lovely and worked together with the food for me.

According to the menu, Parlour serves Allpress coffee. As this is one of my favourite roasteries, I ordered a cup. The coffee was alright for a restaurant. It actually was a good effort and better most other restaurant coffees I've had.

The one thing that upset me a little bit was that they gave me the dessert menu full of tasty dishes, and then kind of forgot to ask if I actually wanted to order a dessert. But then, I was probably too full anyway after the roast, so I was happy to leave without a dessert.

Parlour is a beautiful place. I yet have to go there for a normal dinner, the food at the private function was great. And the duck roast was one of the best Sunday roasts I can imagine. So far, all I can say is that everything is simply done without a fault and served in a beautiful restaurant with a...

Wow what a lovely start The waiter was great we said we had travelled a bit to get there and he was so attentive. Brought out some bread for us. When asked he had really good product knowledge. Even knew that the soda bread was dark from the treacle that was added to it. I don’t normally make negative comments with being in the industry I know how hard a job hospitality is. But this went down hill so fast. I think they must have had a change of shift as we got our starters we didn’t see the same waiter again, shame as he really was amazing. We got our starters and sorry to say they were average. The mushroom pate bland, just because the chicken bites is on the same plate as popcorn doesn’t make it popcorn chicken. Again chicken bland and the dip tasted of nothing. The goats cheese had been heated but not all the way through so was still hard. So to the mains. Macaroni cheese was so so. Needed seasoning and also not very cheesy for a 3 cheese pasta dish. The chicken Kiev looked amazing. The coleslaw had a funny taste to it. The Kiev was way to garlicky and trust me I love garlic. The hash brown was very tasty. I then tried the side salad to find it had the same strange taste as my coleslaw, must have been the dressing. So we finished and we were ignored at every turn. Waiter and waitress more interested in their phones or friends to care about us, we were the only 2 in the restaurant. Then when the waitress finally was going to come to give us dessert menus she had 2 drunk girls, who looked like friends, stop her and give her a birthday cake they had bought in themselves and could they have some plates and would she take it. This she did instead of telling them she was dealing with us and would be right with them. When she finally brought the menus I am sorry to say I had had enough so said no and asked for the bill. When it came I asked for service to be removed. I paid and left. Sorry to say we had travelled 2 hours to get there and I have been trying to get there for 6 months. Well safe to say won’t be bringing the owners of my restaurant...

We met up with friends for breakfast, and although the service was a bit slow, we all loved the food!

The whole restaurant had a very relaxed and laidback atmosphere, and we felt right at home. However, the staff members took a while to take our order which tested the patience of our hungry stomachs.

The menu looked cheeky, and not necessarily in the best of ways. I'm not a fan of egg, and I always substitute it for sausage or extra beans in other restaurants. However, on their menu they specifically say that this is impossible, dubbing it 'The (No-Subs) Full Parlour Breakfast'. I'm sure most people don't mind, but this restriction went against the comfortable, casual atmosphere I had enjoyed up to that realisation. Of course, I still ordered it because I love every other element of a Full English - and my partner really enjoyed my poached eggs.

Besides this setback, what I did eat was great overall. The mushroom was juicy, and suitably earthy. There was a LOT of bacon, which I always appreciate, and the sausage worked fantastically with the tomato. The hash browns were exactly as I like them, soft and fluffy - perfect for soaking up bean sauce. And the portion of beans was sufficient - which was a lovely surprise. I usually have to run out of beans early on in the breakfast, but these beans lasted.

The 'Yesterday's Bread' station where you can toast to your liking is a fun and novel idea. However, I found the toaster a bit unwieldy. I'm sure a more modern toaster would detract from the rustic environment they're trying to portray, but a few of my slices were a bit on the burnt side due to the imprecise nature of the appliance. Though it must be said that the bread was amazing. The non-burnt slices were crunchy, and the butter was perfect. I also helped myself to a soda-bread roll, which was thick and doughy, and I enjoyed soaking up the beans with it.

Again, it took us a while to get the attention of the staff and the bill after finishing the meal, but beside the slow service, this is a place that definitely...