By: Steve Dinneen
When Restaurant Story opened in 2012 it was that rare thing indeed: an instant classic. Like Restaurant Gordon Ramsay or Heston’s The Fat Duck, it immediately, indelibly marked its place on the culinary map, where it has remained ever since, gaining two Michelin stars along the way.
Aged just 26 when he planted his first beef dripping candle in front of an unsuspecting diner, Tom Sellers was the embodiment of the zeitgeisty rock star chef – co*cky and brash but delivering food at such a consistently high level that you had to admire his chutzpah, however reluctantly.
Back then Sellers leaned hard into the “story” element of Restaurant Story, with the menu split into “chapters” called things like “childhood” and “ending”. Each dish arrived with a precis of its origins, influences and emotional implications, often relating to a memory of the man himself.
“This dish smells like my nan’s sofa,” perhaps, or maybe “this one was inspired by the time I swallowed a battery”. It seems a bit silly in hindsight but this was 2012, a time when Heston’s Sound of the Sea was still considered the Hottest sh*t – you could get away with that kind of thing. Sellers even asked diners to leave behind a novel, for reasons I can’t entirely grasp – maybe he had a side hustle flogging second hand books.
The more outlandish of these ideas were gradually eroded, along with the minimalist, Scandi-chic aesthetic that was en vogue in the early 2010s. By the time the restaurant closed for renovation nine months ago there were white tablecloths and everything.
So what has changed? Well, the dining room looks pretty darn similar – it’s had a lick of paint and the wall hangings have gone but it’s essentially the same space, with the kitchen occupying a glassed-in square in the corner and hundreds of gossamer birds dangling overhead.
Rather than trying to fix something that wasn’t broke, Sellers decided to simply build more of it. There’s now an entirely new level – a second storey! – featuring a cosy waiting area, a private dining room with space for 14 and a balcony overlooking Tooley Street and the Shard beyond.
The menu – nine-ish courses, depending how you count them – is a combination of new and returning dishes. The Storeos are back, little nibbles that look like Oreos but are made from squid ink biscuit and some kind of savoury mousse. The “rabbit sandwiches” also return in a slightly refined guise and are exceptional: delicate strips of braised rabbit encasing confit onions and chicken mousse.
Then there’s that famous candle. If you haven’t seen this before, it’s made from beef dripping that melts delicious fat into a Wee Willie Winkie-style candle holder, which you’re invited to mop up with freshly baked brioche (this is the one dish that’s still introduced with a backstory; Sellers used to eat dripping growing up in Nottingham).
There’s an excellent “welcome broth”, a fermented lemon and langoustine consommé with a rich, umami flavour and a hit of seafood so pronounced it’s like sucking the brains out of a prawn. And I loved the impossibly creamy potato, served on more (diced) potato (and possibly some turnip), zhuzhed up with a brown butter emulsion and topped with a massive blob of caviar. It’s a belter.
The mains are a little more traditional but show a kitchen on top of its game. There’s a perfect little square of turbot, cooked on the bone to keep the moisture in, with roasted leek and the most delicious morel mushroom I’ve ever encountered. Even more pared back is the duck – 14 day dry aged, glazed, brought from the kitchen for a quick spin around the dining room, before being sliced into decadent pink slivers. No messing about – delicious.
I finished with a mille feuille most notable for the almost-savoury jerusalem artichoke ice cream it’s served with.
There is a swagger to Sellers’ restaurants, a slightly macho energy that’s been there from the OG Story through to the ill-fated Restaurant Ours (which he’s no longer a part of) and the recently opened Dovetale. You can spot it everywhere from the punchy flavours of the food to louder-than-usual soundtrack to the pep in the step of the staff. At one point the sommelier – who was great – promised to give me £20 if I could guess what was in one of the drinks, then looked a bit disappointed when I almost got it.
You pay handsomely to dine in one of London’s most lauded restaurants – the tasting menu will set you back £250 and the “elevated” wine pairing is a further £175. If you’d like me to do the maths, two people aren’t getting change from £1,000 once they’ve tipped.
Is it worth it? Yeah, probably. There’s nothing else quite like it, although, for all the daftness of the “story” concept, I reckon it has lost a little of its magic by eradicating it almost entirely. The silliness was part of the strange alchemy that made up its charm.
As I was finishing up I spotted Sellers on his way out, cap pulled low over his face. He’s still got the swagger – and why not? Story is the business.
• To book a table at Tom Sellers’ Restaurant Story at 199 Tooley Street go to the website here or call 020 7183 2117
