This restaurant has several incredible signature dishes and it was hard to choose a favourite, but this one just edged ahead.
Mushroom parfait - £18
The Dish
This parfait is Fallow’s version of a vegetarian foie gras, with a gorgeously silky texture and an intensely rich umami slap. It is served topped with pickled shallots, soy- and mirin-marinated shiitake mushrooms, and fresh shredded lion’s mane mushrooms, alongside grilled sourdough.
The parfait is a signature dish that has been on their menu from the beginning. It uses ‘second-class’ mushrooms from the market plus mushroom trim from their other restaurant dishes that would otherwise go to waste, in keeping with their laser-like focus on sustainability. Not only that, but the more exotic mushrooms are grown in the restaurant in their rather marvellous ‘mushroom room’ - basically, a foodie treehouse in their kitchen, accessed by a ladder.
The Other Dishes
My close-run second choice is their Chelsea tart with caramelised whey.
The tart has a crisp, delicate pastry encasing the seductively silky filling, a caramel topping and a sprinkle of sea salt to contrast with the sweetness. It is the most perfect mix of nursery comfort food and sophisticated pasty work, texturally faultless, simultaneously soothing and elegant.
The flamed mussels are also insanely good. They are served in a bowl over a slice of grilled sourdough which soaks up all the smoky mussel juices and rich bacon butter sauce, like an upmarket seafood version of the soggy, meaty, spicy underneath of a kebab shop pitta. Wondrous.
The Fallow burger uses dry-aged beef from ex-dairy cows (typically 12-13 years old, rather than the more usual 2-3), which has an intense beefiness and a gentle herbal note from the years of being grass-fed. Fallow’s chips are an excellent classic accompaniment, or you could upgrade to their confit celeriac with black truffle purée.
One of their most famous dishes is the smoked cod’s head; it may not be the prettiest thing on their menu (anyone else getting Game of Thrones flashbacks?) but it is one of the tastiest - and most interactive. Not for the squeamish, you need to prod, poke and pry your way to all the gelatinous morsels, turning it this way and that to reveal its hidden treasures. The head is served with extra jugs of the house-made butter sriracha sauce and drizzled with leek oil. The collar and cheek are particularly delicious and a more familiar texture for any fish head newbies at the table.
The Restaurant
Fallow is on Haymarket, a couple of minutes’ walk from Piccadilly Circus station. It is surprisingly large and swish, given its hip, no-waste ethos, but size doesn’t seem to make it any easier to get a reservation.
The focus on sustainability is genuinely central to everything Fallow does; more, it is almost responsible for bringing the restaurant into being, as the fine dining industry was infamously wasteful in the quest for perfect presentation. In a complete inversion of the advice attributed to Wolfgang Puck about getting the best available produce and then doing as little as possible to it, Fallow takes previously unloved and unwanted produce - peelings, trimmings, misshapen and damaged items - and brings its considerable collective skills to bear in turning them into something magical. I’m not quite sure why they don’t have a green Michelin star yet? Sort it out, chaps.
My favourite table is outside in the summer, for lunch. It feels more light and spacious and is a treat, particularly given the general double whammy of easier availability for tables and a good value set menu option at lunchtime. If it’s your first time at Fallow, this is a great place to start.
Any down sides? The interior of the restaurant can feel a little dark; this is probably more of an issue in summer than in winter, when it is quite cosy. Otherwise, just that its popularity means you have to book well in advance to be sure of a table.
The People
Chefs Jack Croft and Will Murray met and worked together at two Michelin-starred Dinner By Heston before deciding to open their own restaurant. They came second in the 2019 Brixton Cookery Competition which, in hindsight, had a ridiculously talented line-up: Budgie Montoya and Joké Bakare won with Sarap and Chishuru respectively, with Ruben Dawnay of Ruben’s Reubens joining Will and Jack on the runners-up podium.
This led to successful pop-ups and residencies at the likes of the wonderful Carousel, before they teamed up with restaurateur James Robson to open Fallow at 10 Heddon Street, another birthplace of champions - unluckily on 10th March 2020, just days before a global pandemic shut down the entire city (and most of the world).
Surviving by pivoting briefly to burgers, albeit Fallow-style, they opened the restaurant on its current St James’s site in November 2021, followed by beak-to-feet chicken shop Fowl in October 2023 and Roe in Canary Wharf in 2024, whose growing wall is the largest indoor aeroponic system in Europe.
More recently they have branched out into online media, with over a million followers on their YouTube channel and also on Herd (@herd.chefs), where they share recipes, chef cooking hacks and an insider’s view on running a restaurant. If you’re a fan of Sorted Food, Ebbers and the boys have long been admirers of Fallow and have several videos on their channel featuring Will and Jack, including one on the mushroom parfait.
In the Area
If you’re meeting friends for a drink beforehand, you could do worse than a seat at the Fallow bar for another classic, the oyster shell martini. Vodka, infused with leftover oyster shells which have been pasteurised and crushed to add a subtle salinity, is layered beautifully with a dash of verjus, jalapeño-infused sugar syrup and dry vermouth, then garnished with a single oyster leaf. (Oh, and if you’ve never eaten an oyster leaf before, do try it - it’s astonishingly close to the flavour of an oyster.)
Another stylish option is Swans Bar at the luxury publisher’s flagship London store, Maison Assouline. Undeniably pricy (cocktails start at £20 each) but achingly chic, it is a world away from the bustle of Piccadilly. You can always go for coffee instead, from £7 for a post-dinner espresso.
For something slightly less bougie, the bar at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is a cool place to meet for a pre-dinner sharpener.
Fallow: 52 Haymarket, St. James's, London SW1Y 4RP
A final word: please do comment below if you’ve been anywhere I have mentioned, if you have a dish you think I should try, or you just have something to say. One of the lovely things about Substack is the opportunity for this direct connection with your community, and I’d genuinely love to hear from you. Thank you!
I think I’d go straight for the deserts at Fallow!
Picadilly is a difficult area for food. I often work at the London Library in St James Square and my fellow literary scribblers (none too wealthy) are always bemoaning the lack of a good pub round there for our post meeting chatter. They are generally gloomy, smelly and loud!
If I’m going for a special meal I love 45 Jermyn St. - the old Fortnum and Mason restaurant - spruced a few years ago into a pretty classic restaurant with red leather banquettes, art deco lighting and (I think) the original ceiling and wood panelled revolving door. The food is delicious, and the staff are attentive and un-stuffy. But it’s far too pricey for a glass of vino with the crew!
For celebrity spotting Queen Camilla has been known to frequent 42 and Bill Nighy is reputed to breakfast regularly on those £7.00 coffees at Maison Assouline. I went in once, but did not dare order anything! I felt too scared to spill my coffee on the books.
Another little known fact: At the old Fortnum’s restaurant Welsh Rarebit or mushrooms on toast were much loved instead of desert or the cheese course. It’s a very old fashioned tradition - but I notice the Welsh Rarebit still features on the menu at 45.
I have still to visit Fallow, which makes me wonder what on earth I've been doing with my time