The Builders Arms Chelsea Review
The Builders Arms
Chelsea, London
Reviewed by Sean Dodson
You know how it is. You go on a shopping trip down to London. You visit, say, the King’s Road and then, after a hard day’s lugging your newly-gained around the shops you need a place to repair and recharge.
Now the King’s Road itself isn’t short of an eatery or three, but somehow, like Groucho Marx never wanting to join a club that would accept him as a member, you don’t feel that you want to spend the evening with a lot of other tourists. You want more authentic. You want a “real” Chelsea experience. Question is: where to go?
The answer is the Builder’s Arms on Britten Street. It is one of those hidden little places that locals love and tourists rarely stumble upon. To find it, you leave the King’s Road about halfway down, sneak up a little side street, just behind the Curzon cinema, and then, just around the corner, is an elegant Georgian house, with a couple of tables outside and the numbers 1820 painted in gold high above the door. Inside you will find a delightful gastropub, divided in the middle by a large bar. It is busy too – elbow room only on the Saturday evening we visited – and flush with quite a crowd. Over there a man with a comedy eye patch, here a gaggle of debutants discussing the merits of east London, over there a woman with a tweed jacket waiting for someone while she nurses her third martini.
Compared to the busy bar, the quieter dining area was more relaxed. Decorated with bare oak tables, plush sofas and lampshades fashioned from bowler hats, it has quite a taste for eclectic art. The bowler is a tip towards Rene Magritte, and several paintings reference Salvador Dali and other surrealists. The food, though, is a wonderful counterpoint to such flamboyance. Indeed, it’s rare to find a restaurant in central London that doesn’t try too hard to innovate. The menu offers several classic English dishes and the chef’s job concentrate on getting the classics spot on. Simple as that.
We sat down to a bottle of the supremely zesty albrino “con un par” (£22.50) and ordered chicken liver parfait, tomato and apple chutney (£7.00). The generous wodge of pate and accompanying doorstep of brown bread was a bit like your good auntie might make. The corned beef hash cakes (£8.00) were a tad overcooked for our tastes, although the crunchiness of the breadcrumbs was offset with homemade piccalilli, so delicate and sharp. For mains we enjoyed a 28-day-aged Scottish rib eye steak, served on the bone with a helping of proper chips and ramekin of béarnaise sauce (£22.50). The chips were truly amazing: triple cooked, they were perfectly crispy on the outside and as soft as powder within. From the specials board we spied a grilled whole lemon sole (£17.75), enriched but not overpowered by a salty caper and prawn butter, some new potatoes and leaf salad.
For afters we enjoyed a lovely bread and butter pudding with vanilla ice cream. It was suitably gooey and spicy; as well as a lemon sorbet (£1.50) helped down with a delicious pudding wine (Muscat de Beaumes de Venise, £6.50). And then we slipped out into the night as satisfied as a pair of schoolboys who had just raided the tuck-shop.
For more information or to book a table visit www.geronimo-inns.co.uk/thebuildersarms
