The Palomar | Life-Affirming Counter Dining Restaurant in Soho
What do you get when two Tel Aviv nightclub entrepreneurs and the winner of ‘Iron Chef’ Israel are sewn together?
Dubious surgery and a three-headed cooking party animal.
Scrap the sewing part, and they could just work together in autonomous harmony to bring London a pulse-quickening, free-flowing, seafood-bearing, shalom-giving, modern day rebirth of traditional Jewish, Southern Spanish and North African foods. Which they most certainly did, by opening The Palomar back in 2014.
And speaking of rebirth, after almost a decade of wowing the capital’s diners, the team decided that it was time for a wee refurb. So, they closed down the restaurant for a couple of months, and made a few improvements.
Here’s a virtual tour, with words:
After you’ve navigated Soho’s bustling theatre-laden streets and pushed through the steam-sealing glass doors, you’ll be showered with ‘shaloms’ and hand claps as the scents of modern Jerusalem diffuse along the air from the low, open kitchen. That open kitchen has been opened up even more, with more room for the chefs, and more countertop for the diners to perch at.
Georgia Rudd
Take a stool, and watch as they prepare orders to the over-bar-banter specifications they’ll unfailingly make you dish out. Alternatively, take a seat in The Palomar’s slightly more withdrawn and intimate back room, which has also been extended to include some intimate, velvet-lined booths, and some not-so-intimate 10-person tables.
Then sit back, and await the freshly scorched pitta breads that have been tossed onto the Josper grill, ready to swoop into luxurious folds of baba ganoush, beet labneh, and burnt courgette tzatziki… before ordering the pork belly glazed with Turkish coffee; perky fattoush and wild seabass tartare with ‘yoghurt caviar’.
While you watch the chefs work and wait for ginseng cocktails, feel free to bob your head to the rhythmic dance music of the Tel Aviv party scene. Because all the staff will be, including the resident three-headed cooking party animal…
… but that’s just Steve.
He was born that way.
NOTE: The Palomar is open every day except Tuesday. You can find out more, and book, on their website HERE.
The Palomar | 34 Rupert Street, Soho, London W1D 6DN
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