The Portman (Bar, Restaurant)

Top 10 things you need to know about The Portman:
1) The Portman is in London’s slightly made-up "Portman Village"; the handsome streets behind Marble Arch to you and me.

2) London is full of villages, but not village pubs. If you crave the trappings of a local (friendliness, local ingredients) but can’t bear the countryside’s crap mobile signal, The Portman pub could be your very own village pub in London.  

3) Downstairs is busy with after-workers cuddling pints of ale. The restaurant is all calm and simple conversations muffled by buttery leather banquettes.

4) On a day trip to the country, food is seasonal and well sourced. At The Portman there are delights such as rabbit and fresh seafood. We ordered crevettes. They came atop glistening mounds of ice; pink, perky and sweet.

5) The menu wanders, (there’s tuna and seaweed), but The Portman is quintessentially British. I can’t think of anywhere else in the world where a good drinking spot serves a chicken and tarragon pie stuffed with aromatic meat and topped by a huge puff hat only a few steps from the hell of Primark.

6) The best thing about having your village pub in London is that you don’t have to choose between the countryside and the seaside; equally good were the Cornish cod and Morecombe Bay shrimps.

7) Another advantage is being able to order great wine. My boyfriend once asked for the wine list in a rural pub and was told they had either red or white. Here, we opted for the Gamay de Touraine.

8) Desserts were on point: the plums in the tart tatin were sharp and autumnal as if they’d been picked from a tree next door; a merger of gooey fruit, sugar and crisp pastry. 

9) We dined next to a French family chatting over roasted monkfish and chips. The charming staff were a multi-national mix. So, London is a global village and The Portman is the local pub, but the nice kind where you can have a giant four-course dinner with brandy. They excel at classic modern British food exacted with no surprises.

10) If you’re a Londoner through and through, you can have the trappings of a more countrified experience without any fear of the music stopping when you walk through the door. Plus, a much easier journey home....read more