Riding House Cafe

A few blocks from Oxford Circus, the Riding House Cafe (43-51 Great Titchfield Street, W1W 7PQ, 020-7927-0840), an English brasserie featuring comfort food, serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. The large space has the atmosphere of an English country cafe.

A collection of small plates meant to be shared are priced depending on the quality of the ingredients. The least expensive dishes were fresh salads, pickled fish and cheeses.  Sausage and lentils, buttermilk fried chicken wings, shellfish with chill, garlic and lemon were priced a bit higher. The most expensive were the steak tartare toasts, seared scallops, pork belly with cumin and smoked eel with pickled carrots.

The mains are standards like roasted Cornish cod, lamb chops with mint and liver, bacon, onions and polenta.  Some mains are designed to be shared. We had the pot roast corn-fed chicken with spring vegetables that was perfect for a cold and rainy night. We were hungry and needed some warming up, so the chicken hit the spot with meat turned sweet and succulent from roasting and buttery jus with spring fresh peas. Because all dishes are a la carte, we needed to order a starch to soak up the delicious sauce. A side of bread did the trick, although we were unaccustomed to paying for bread.