Grazing by Mark Greenaway

Local hero Mark Greenaway joins forces with the Waldorf Astoria, offering a unique take on accessible yet elevated bistro-style food.

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There’s a pleasing symmetry to Mark Greenaway’s new venture. Restaurant Mark Greenaway, his eponymous fine dining restaurant which closed back in September, was known for cheffy flourishes and a level of fine-dining complexity that was loved by a legion of fans. But an earlier restaurant was Stockbridge’s Bistro Moderne, which offered an imaginative, modern take on casual dining – and it’s this experience he appears to be drawing on for Grazing by Mark Greenaway, a new 160-cover restaurant inside the Waldorf Astoria (that’s the Caley, to you and me). In fact, Greenaway cheerfully admits the team have been looking to get ‘back to bistro’ for a number of years, but the right premises have eluded them. So this a canny move for both – the Caley get a little bit of star power to entice locals through the dining room doors, and Greenaway gets a big canvas to play upon. And play he does: the food here is creative, exciting and very good indeed. That’s not to say everything is perfect. Big rooms need generous numbers of diners to make them buzz and prices are on the high side, especially as most mains need a side. (Though it’s hard to grudge four quid for the amazing ugly potatoes – squashed knobs of tattie with cheese and garlic, yum.) But what Greenaway does so brilliantly is to use his fine dining instincts to elevate, creating dishes that are accessible yet so much more than the sum of their parts. So a starter of mackerel, as fresh as the hibiscus flower it comes with, is cooked very simply but comes with a complex little salad of apple and beetroot to layer acidity over earthiness over the fish’s oiliness. Halibut is simply, perfectly roasted, its herb crust turning out to be an intense, green garnish, topped with wee bits of salt beet. Hake likewise gets its flaky moment in the spotlight, while a striped cigar of rich seafood cannelloni adds colour and drama. And desserts? They’re no doubt all perfectly lovely, but if the sticky toffee pudding soufflé is on the menu there’s literally no point eyeing up anything else – it’s sweet-toothed heaven.