Core by Clare Smyth
Core review at-a-glance
Awards: 3 Michelin Stars
Rating: 93.5/100
Verdict: Given Chef Clare Smyth's years as the executive chef of Gordan Ramsay at Royal Hospital Road, I was worried Core would mimic the pretension and safe flavors of GRRH. Fortunately, these worries were unfounded as Chef Smyth clearly put her own imprint on Core. I am still not sure what exactly typifies British cuisine in the context of fine dining but this seemed to be the platonic ideal of what it should be. Ingredients were sourced from the UK to give the food a sense of terroir and a variety of techniques were applied to make exciting (albeit safe) flavors. Looking back at my meal, no one dish at Core stands out in my mind, but an incredibly high standard was maintained throughout. This standard combined with its’ homey atmosphere makes Core a worthy visit for any gastronome in London.
Price I Paid: €215
Would I revisit: Maybe
Date Visited: November 2022
Value: 15/20
Core and Chef Clare Smyth Background
Core is a three-star restaurant located in the Notting Hill neighborhood of London owned by Chef Clare Smyth who famously maintained three Michelin stars for years as the executive chef at Gordon Ramsay Royal Hospital Road. Given her background, Chef Smyth striking out on her own was met with great fanfare and Core almost immediately earned two stars in the red book. The third star was a little more elusive but was eventually (and deservedly based on my visit) awarded in 2021.
I went into Core without too many preconceptions about Clare Smyth’s cooking beyond some vague notions that it showed off British products. This vague notion turned out to be correct as the seasonal menu was focused mostly on products from the UK with fish, meat, and most of the vegetables sourced locally. Despite the restriction on province and the limitations of the UK climate, I found the ingredients to still be of very high quality. Perhaps if I was in the summer the gap between UK and French produce would be more noticeable but I left my visit very impressed with the effort the restaurant put into sourcing. The cooking at Royal Hospital Road (which I visited after Clare’s departure) was technically correct but painfully boring so I was quite happy to find the food at Core to be much more modern in style than at Clare’s alma matter.
Core offers a “classic” menu with its most famous dishes at £185 and a “seasonal” menu with the most recent inspirations at £215 as well as a three-course a la carte (lunch £145 / £165). It was a tough choice but I went seasonal on my visit as a few dishes sounded more appealing than their classic counterparts and I thought they would have more interesting flavors. The wine by the glass list was quite lengthy and reasonably priced with the majority around £15 give or take a few pounds. Wine pairings cost £135 and seemed like a dubious value unless you plan to drink heavily and maximize topping up given the cost of buying each glass individually was actually less than the pairing.
Compared to some of the hallowed institutions of London, Core tries to have a more laid back atmosphere. The dress code is come as you may and the dining room features lots of wood and natural light with nary a starched linen in sight - you really feel like you are eating in someone's well-appointed living room. In a city full of plenty of old fashion luxury (see The Ritz), this is a cozy nook I appreciated. Service was silky smooth throughout and relaxed to match the setting. I asked if they could serve the tasting menus in under 2 hrs and they happily obliged, sending out dishes like clockwork and managing the time well. This might seem like a given but not every kitchen can do this.
Reservations are nearly impossible to get, filling up almost immediately as they are released on a rolling 90-day basis. My recommendation would be to just check periodically online for cancellations which is how I booked my table only a few weeks before visiting. You can also email them to add you to the waitlist but I was able to find a cancellation online before they called me to notify me a table was free.
What I ate at Core by Clare Smyth
Snacks from left to right were a nori tartlet filled with jellied eel and topped with a spritz of malt vinegar, a pumpkin gougère topped with white truffle, foie gras parfait with a madeira jelly, and crispy smoked chicken wing with beer, honey and thyme. I will spare you a detailed breakdown of each bite but this was a very well put together opening act that portended great things for the rest of the meal. The execution was flawless across all of the snacks but my favorite was the foie gras parfait which had a deeply rich flavor that paired classically with a madeira jelly.
The meal got off to a strong start with steamed Portland crab being front and center with the kitchen team at Core making sure the entire crab was utilized by splitting it into three small servings. The most substantial of these was a sabayon which was mixed with crab meat and topped with caviar. Perhaps the flavors were a little too strong as the wonderful sweetness of the crab did not come through quite as much as I’d of liked. That said, the sabayon had great texture and made for a decadent bite with the caviar. Surprisingly, one of the highlights of the dish was a small cup of crab consommé which had tremendous complexity of flavor.
The second course, a Scottish cep tartlet with fluffet farms egg yolk, thyme, and toasted yeast. This really showed off why using seasonal ingredients can produce the best results. Peak-quality mushrooms were treated wonderfully by the kitchen to enhance their natural flavors and create a memorable dish. The tart was in good form and the seared mushrooms inside were particularly well-cooked with the thyme in the dish (a classic pair for mushrooms) well judged. The egg yolk in the tart was cooked to a jammy consistency which had a nice mouthfeel but I wonder if cooking it a tad less would have let it incorporate with the other components a tad more. Still, a top notch dish from Chef Smyth and the rest of the kitchen team at Core.
The most boring course for me was a chunk of cornish turbot that was served with grilled mussels, leeks, fennel and pepper dulse. This was a homage to Chef Clare Smyth’s Cornish childhood, the flavors reminiscent of the sea. It was a nice piece of turbot and cooked accurately but there was no exciting flavor that I can remember with herbal notes and textures muted.
Much better was a piece of veal sweetbread with honey mustard and Norfolk kohlrabi. Fantastic cook on the sweetbreads which were gloriously crispy and wonderful balanced by the mustard-based sauce and the pickled mustard seeds which added a great acidic tang to the dish. While I loved this dish (which was one of my favorites of the night), the flavor profile felt a bit off kilter with the rest of the meal as it was very Germanic. Kholrabi and mustard are two staples of Germany and even the crisp on the sweetbread brought back memories of schnitzel.
The main course was a fairly safe reimaging of the classic combo of beef and oyster, with a Guinness beer sauce to add another dimension. What I remember most about this dish was being surprised at just how great a piece of beef the UK was able to produce. For beef, it isn’t uncommon to see most three-star restaurants using something imported like A5 waygu (often at a hefty surcharge) so it was refreshing to see Core go through the pains of sourcing an excellent piece of Scottish Highland Waygu which had a pure beef flavor without insane fat content of A5. Cooked perfectly, this was a piece of meat to remember. Outside of the protein, the rest of the dish was functional and balanced but a tad restrained. The use of Guinness in the sauce did add a nice dark note which helped balance the rich beef.
Rather than a traditional palate cleanser, the kitchen sent out a playful dish called “the other carrot” with the name referencing Core’s most famous savory dish, “the carrot”. This was a clever reimaging of carrot cake, the cake turned into a bit of a crumble that was placed around a faux carrot made out of a flavorful infused cream cheese. On the side was a carrot sorbet which added a freshness to the dish that was well needed, elevating the flavor beyond your typical run of the mill carrot cake.
The main dessert “Core-teser’ was based around Chef Smyth’s love for the British candy Maltesers which is similar to an American Whooper. This was essentially an elevated (and much bigger) version of the candy, having plenty of that classic chocolate and malt flavor while also adding hazelnut. While I normally find chocolate desserts boring, this worked particularly well as the malt and hazelnut flavors helped balance it out and make the flavor profile interesting. What the dish thrived on the most was its variations of textures with the relatively simple dish containing many smaller components that worked together well. This won’t be joining the pantheon of my favorite desserts ever but it was solid entry.
The last treat from the pastry team at Core was a few small petit fours which included a chocolate tart fresh out of the oven and a few jellies. While they were well executed, it is hard to get excited about these especially when you consider the ambitious opening bites.
