Fab Faber Restaurant Review – In an old Victorian building, on a corner just along from Hammersmith Bus and Tube station, is Faber, a relatively new fish restaurant, with appropriately named executive chef Ollie Bass (ex Quo Vadis and Sessions Art Club) at the stove.
The interior is fresh and airy with marble topped tables, and a clever banquette seating arrangement around the perimeter has a fabric covering that helps absorb noise.
Apparently, the idea of Faber started during lockdown, when co-founders Matt and Anthony were delivering shellfish, seafood, and cocktails on their bikes in East London, and they then transformed The Victoria Mile End into an East London pub that’s big on fish.
A strong focus is on sustainability, with ingredients mainly sourced from UK coastal towns, much of it along the south coast. Even the bread is from Cornwall.
The a la carte menu changes regularly, to highlight the very best of the catches from our British waters, and there’s a giant blackboard with the daily specials. The menu is a kind of ‘fishy tapas’ one, with lots of small sharing dishes.
While we perused the printed menu and the blackboard, I enjoyed a Lantic Negroni. This was made using Cornish coastal foraged botanicals, Lantic gin, Lillet and bitter bianco. It came in a glass absolutely packed with ice cubes, which rather hindered my enjoyment of this excellent cocktail. They should invest in some giant cubes, or straws. My husband chose, and enjoyed, a Duration Hazy Pale Ale. We were brought some great Coombeshead farm sourdough bread.
Our lovely waiter, Dan, suggested a selection of dishes for us to share to start: Cod cheek skewer with tartar sauce; Chalkstream trout tartare with soy, keta caviar and nori; Burrata with sea vegetable salad and dulse breadcrumbs, and scallop with lovage, cauliflower and pastis.
The trout was beautifully balanced, with a hint of spice and soy. There were three cuts of trout – belly, fillet and caviar and it was atop a tasty horseradish cream. It was a wonderful start to our meal. The scallops were divine: seriously good – very delicately flavoured and on a bed of cauliflower with a lovage dressing. I wasn’t aware of the pastis particularly, but the dish was very good indeed and the bread came in very handy for cleaning the last dregs of sauce from the plate.
The burrata, while beautifully presented, should, I think, have been our first dish to try. After the wonderful taste sensations we had been enjoying, it seemed somewhat bland in comparison, and needed another element to give the dish more ‘punch’. But had we started with it, we’d have thoroughly enjoyed it.
The cod cheek skewers were smoky, tender and very tasty indeed. They were served with crispy fried capers on top on a bed of homemade tartar sauce. All the dishes were well executed and there is obviously a highly talented team in the kitchen.
I’d chosen the langoustine from the daily board for my main course. They were served with chilli oil and rosemary and were deliciously sweet. But there were just three, and seemed very pricey for the tiny amount when extracted from the shell and legs. My husband fared better – he chose the Cornish pollock fillet with parsnip veloute, January king cabbage, anchovy and parsley sauce. It was a magnificent portion, and I managed to steal a small taste – only to give me serious food envy. And his serving of chips that accompanied it…well, they were divine. Dan explained that they do, in fact, take days to make, as there are so many stages to create such chip perfection.
I had enjoyed plenty of food though, and when the dessert menu was offered, declined a pud. My husband chose the honey tart, served with creme fraiche. I had a tiny taste and it was really good – such depth of great flavoured honey, without being overly sweet. I opted for an espresso martini to enjoy while he had his tart (and the sugar kelp Old Fashioned which Dan had persuaded him to have with it).
The wine list is carefully curated, with mainly British wines and spirits, and a few European wines, but nothing New World, as this would obviously affect the ethos of sustainability. The wines are perhaps on the pricey side, but there is an excellent range by the glass and also carafe. We were very taken with Faber – you could say we were totally ‘hooked’. I just hope they look to expand into Richmond or Twickenham, but it’s actually really easy to get to on the underground or the bus.
The Seasoned Gastronome