Mountain

High quality cooking

Best New Restaurant 2024 Can Tomos Parry ever put a foot wrong? His follow-up to Brat – and Brat x Climpson’s Arch – has opened with a bang in Soho. There’s a familiar no-frills vibe to the large, light-filled dining room with its very open, fired-up kitchen and sultry, smoky smells. Of course it’s noisy, but that's all part of the tremendous atmosphere, and it matches the straight-to-the-point cooking of broad-shouldered seasonal dishes with Spanish overtones – notably the mar y montaña cuisine of northern Spain and the Balearic Islands. Parry’s pursuit of, and belief in, great ingredients brings a compelling set of flavours to his short, punchy menu, which is dominated by sharing plates – from a spider crab omelette or a dish of wild mushrooms with a runny-yolked egg popped on top to our fantastic opener of beef sweetbreads served with grilled young leeks and shallots, cooking juices and a little pop of acidity from slivers of fresh lemon. We followed with whole red mullet grilled on the bone, with a rich sauce of olive oil and butter spooned over – so simple, so fresh, and absolutely perfectly timed; all it needed was some richly flavoured, ever-so-gently smoked wood-fired rice (a dish that is fast achieving cult status). Sitting close to the kitchen, we could see that the mutton chops, four-year Jersey beef sirloin rib and eight-year Friesian sirloin rib were also doing a roaring trade. Vegetables are less in evidence but not neglected: plates of braised early-autumn veg and beetroot with mountain mint and sorrel were on offer when we visited. We weren’t so impressed by the ensaïmada (a Mallorcan pastry) with hazelnut ice cream, and regretted not ordering the torrijas (Spain's answer to French toast) with blackberries instead. Service is excellent, informed and highly motivated, and the short European wine list is well chosen, with everything available by the glass (from £6).

Located on Soho’s Beak Street, Anglesey-born chef Tomos Parry has drawn on his Welsh heritage as well as a love for cooking over open fire with a menu that showcases top class ingredients. Run by London-based restaurant Group Super 8, the team behind Mountain are no strangers to the north part of this list. Its other restaurants include Kiln, a former Best Restaurant in the UK, and Brat, which has previously held the number two spot, as well as Smoking Goat, and they have taken a similar approach at these restaurants to Mountain - ie a meticulous attention to sourcing, sustainability and ingredient quality, all delivered with fun and flair. Mountain is technically a fine dining restaurant yet it has a very casual feel thanks to its various spaces. These include a downstairs dining area that leads into the pastry section of the kitchen and bar with an excellent sound system and vinyl collection, while a ground floor dining room has an open kitchen to the rear and a casual counter at which people can sit and either eat or drink (or both). One can just as easily pop into for a glass of wine and a plate of food as a have a blow out meal, which can’t be said of many establishments of such ambition. The menu is eclectic, and has been designed with great care with dishes that include beef sweetbreads and violet artichokes; grilled red peppers with razor clams; and a whole lobster caldereta - Spanish for cooking pot – that comes to the table in an earthenware pot with many cooked on Mountain’s impressive bespoke wood grill.