The setting for The Potting Shed, with its terracotta pots and other garden-themed accessories, is a charming spot in the basement of the boutique Dorset Square Hotel near Baker Street.

The Venue
One of the delights of visiting London is the proliferation of small, people-sized hotels. The Dorset Square Hotel is one such place. In its basement is the hotel’s restaurant with its own entrance onto the street, so it is also open to the general public. Once you have manoeuvred yourself down the outside staircase, you enter a basement room on two levels with a comfortable bar area, sofas and chairs and a well laid-out dining space that is a far cry from the name of the restaurant itself. This is no garden outhouse but a very pleasant and elegant room, cosy and warm, much like the welcome from the hardworking staff.

The Atmosphere
Popular with visitors and business people alike, The Potting Shed has a nice buzz about it, even at lunchtime. Some evenings there is the extra bonus of live jazz music which just adds to the pleasure of the dining experience. The lack of formality is appealing, although the staff are well-drilled in what they have to do that speaks volumes for their interest and true professionalism.

The Food
The set dinner menu offers a choice of six starters and six main courses, plus a selection of desserts and cheese. Pricing is straightforward at two courses for £19.95 or three for £24.95. There is a good choice for vegetarians as well as dishes for Coeliacs (a condition where you can’t eat gluten) are marked as are those for the health conscious. For starters, the crayfish tail cocktail makes a change from the traditional prawn version, with baby gem lettuce and brown bread and butter, although the crayfish itself seems to lack a definite flavour. The warm salad of chicken livers with bacon and soft-boiled, free range egg and a sherry dressing is a well concocted assembly of good ingredients, the livers with their strong flavour, the bacon adding extra texture and the dressing on the mixed leaves giving it an added piquancy.

Main courses exhibit definite imagination. However, the Lancashire hot pot with black pudding, spring vegetables and pickled red cabbage is not a great success. There is too much going on, the meat (off the bone) is too greasy, the discs of potato too thin and waxy instead of being crisp and brown and too much rather murky gravy with a mixture of vegetables is overly pungent in flavour. The black pudding and red cabbage served on the side, however, are just fine. Too much effort also goes into the baked haddock with shrimp and caper crust. The fish itself tastes good and hearty but it does not need a soggy green crust that only disguises the natural flavour of the fish which is fine on its own.

The lemon posset with rhubarb compote for dessert makes a good match. The lightness and deep citrus flavour of the creamy dessert is offset very nicely by the pieces of fruit served within it. Traditional Bramley apple and red wine poached pear crumble seems very un-traditional. Instead of a proper crumb mixture on top of the well-cooked fruit, the dish is scattered with what appear to be crumbled cinnamon biscuits, making it too crunchy and not soft and yielding as a regular crumble topping usually is.

The Drink
There is quite an imaginative wine list here with house bottles from £19 or £5.50 by the glass. The white at this price is a 2006 Tournesol Viognier, a very pleasant wine, soft and not too assertive with a fruity aroma. The red at the same price is Domaine du Jardin Carignan vin de Pays de l’Aude 2005-6. Elsewhere there are bottles from both the New World and the Old from £20 to the £60 mark, with a dozen or so available by the glass.

The Last Word
The Potting Shed is such an appealing place to dine and it’s sad that some of the current dishes don’t do the restaurant justice. Perhaps simplicity is the answer. Although some of the dishes are of an acceptable quality, from past experience, the restaurant has demonstrated that it can do better.

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