Casual dining area set above Michelin starred Trinity by Adam Byatt

Upstairs is, as you would expect, a restaurant that is Upstairs from Adam Byatt who is the Exec Chef at Trinity. This sister restaurant is a casual option directly above his Michelin starred restaurant in Clapham serving tapas-style dishes to share at high rise tables with bar stools. Mr Byatt obviously oversees the design of the menus and this lunch afforded 9 small dishes to share between 2 people (no drinks) for roughly £35 per head which is arguably good value when they are at a decent level. It is a comfortable and safe bet as one would expect from Adam Byatt and would suit a drop in if you don’t have any specific plans and need to scale down a little.

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We started with pork frittas and walnut ketchup (£4) which were a deep fried as were the venison frittas (£6). These were pleasing in spite of appearing slightly over. Tomato salad (£5) had a pleasant kick from the dressing and I enjoyed the pickling in the onions and the quail gyozas (£6) had a decent filling with crisp and non-oily cases.

Soused mackerel (£9) was nicely cooked and charred with cucumber and creme fraiche and a lovely small plate. Roast pheasant (£14) breast came with a mixed jus and herb oil with oyster mushrooms and bbq spring onions which had a very good texture and flavour combination altogether. We were still a little peckish so we had a small pizza (£10) to share as well. The stonebaked mini pizza was a Bayonne ham, rocket and aged mozzarella and this was satisfying a hand made mini pizza. This is the one dish however, I would question the price tag for as it was very small and did not seem to merit the relative jump.

Two desserts were had, one being a decent enough cocoa sorbet (£3) and a delightful chocolate cremosa (£5) which had a silky and denser, mousse-like quality and topped with delightful honeycomb. The desserts represented extremely good value for money.

This was a pleasant collection of small dishes done well and I would certainly drop in again for a decent top-up. Before then, I will need to get back into Trinity itself again as I am now overdue a revisit and also popping into Adam Byatt’s new Charlie’s at Brown’s Hotel on Albermarle Street, Mayfair.

Food Grade: 66%