Grain Store Unleashed

We ate here twice a couple of weeks ago while staying at the hotel — once for breakfast; the other for breakfast. I will provide both reviews below.
First dinner, which was more of a tapas, collection of noshes. We loved it. We had the deep friend anchovies, game sausage with mushroom ketchup, beet root dip, potted duck, and a fresh fig with cheese special. All were yummy but the stars of the night were the vegetarian options (a surprise for the meat lovers) because of the delicate cheese options that they presented. Wow — we were totally blown away. I also had a couple of cocktails. One was a fresh fig cocktail and another was a champagne cocktail. I adored them both. We had the chocolate pot for dessert which was pretty good.
On to brunch the next day. I know that this is supposedly a popular brunch place. They had run out of croissants so I was somewhat disappointed that I could not have the breakfast sandwich that I had wanted. It was not memorable. My partner had the eggs royale and a yogurt and I had an ordinary breakfast sandwich. The gingerbread iced coffee was good. Service was slightly uneven.
All in all, I much preferred dinner to breakfast.

Had an amazing 8 course vegetarian tasting menu. Presentation and flavour was great, so many unusual things to describe — see my pictures and go and check it out! In particular though the corn brioche with avocado butter was great, as was kohlrabi & broad bean raviolo. Cocktails were delicious, particularly the lavender margarita. was a little quiet but it was a Tuesday.

Grain Store Unleashed is one of the latest ventures by Chef Bruno Loubet and The Zetter Group, based on a concept where vegetables are the stars of the show, with an even more adventurous and experimental approach.
Only the tasting menu is available during dinner service, of which you have the options to go for the 4 course (£28.50), 6 course (£34.50), or 8 course menu (£39). We went for the 6 course tasting menu, and started off with some warm corn brioche bread served with avocado butter.
The first course was the vegetal oyster & caviar, the vegetarian alternative using the edible root of salsify with a taste that is said to resemble that of oysters. Served in an actual oyster shell with some lovely pearls of caviar, it was really refreshing with a slight taste of the sea. With it came served «Bottom of the sea» which consisted of a dehydrated cracker with a slight hint of saltiness, topped with creamy droplets of purée and edible flower (s).
Next was the vegetable chorizo stuffed courgette flowers with parsley sauce. I do love courgette flowers, although I don’t think I was quite convinced by the texture of the vegetable chorizo marinated in spices (paprika?).
The fish dish was soya and sesame glazed mackerel — a few Asian flavours going on here which I liked, although I feel that the sesame seeds could have done with a bit more toasting to add a deeper flavour to it. This was accompanied by slices of pickled heritage raddish, beetroot and samphire.
The fourth course consisted of a single Charlotte potato with a spring cabbage roasted with bay leaf, caraway seeds and crème fraîche butter. Not quite your average substantial chicken dish, but rather served with a runny poached egg and a light crisp bit of chicken skin.
The meatiest dish was mini osso buco, an Italian/​Milanese style of cooking. Delicious, tender meat, and resembling a bone was a tapenade crisp. Served with summer vegetables and herbs, of which those sweet tomatoes were surprisingly one of the stand out ingredients for us.
We could each choose one dessert from the menu, and since there were three of us, we just ordered one of each so that we could have a taste of everything.
I would probably say that the lemon and strawberries petit pot with rosemary crumble was the best amongst them — nice texture with a pleasant amount of sweetness and topped with crunchy crumble.
If you’re vegetarian, vegetable lover, or just looking to try a lighter, reduced-​meat menu, then this may be the place for you.
Click on my blog for the full post with photos x

The grain store is well known to «brunchers» in London and this is a pop up version in Clerkenwell… «Brunch central». There is some pretty big competition in the area and I would say that grain store is unlikely to take customers from some of the more popular joints.
The menu is good, but the food was just ok. Service was friendly but a little on the slow side especially when it wasn’t really that busy. The coffee was good. but it is in almost ‘ll the other places in the area.

Pop up location in Farringdon. The space and décor is lovely and bright. Food was alright. Nothing really stood out. Service was slow despite not being very busy but service was friendly. All in all, not bad but not amazing.