The Petrichor at The Cavendish Hotel is one of the strangest restaurants I've been to all year. Why? you ask. Well keep on reading through my excessively boring and monotone writing style and you'll find out. The Petrichor restaurant is located on the first floor of The Cavendish Hotel in Piccadilly, directly behind Fortnum and Mason. Upon walking in to this four star hotel was like nothing I'd imagined. Dated, tired, clumsy decor - it was not very Piccadilly. We made our way up the stairs, and round the corner to the restaurant which was the epitome of hotel dining, stripes, dark wood, acid tripping carpet and hideous quadruple glazed windows. I'm sure this was once the idea of luxury dining, but it hasn't aged gracefully.

But then the bread arrived. French stick, olive, rye, granary. All warm and absolutely stunning. Really, I am sucker for bread and it was perfect. The downside was not the tasty butter, but rapeseed oil. Why on earth would you serve rapeseed oil for dipping, it has absolutely no flavour at all. A delicious olive oil would have turned this bread course from excellent, to near outstanding.

Things then slowly started to change. Not necessarily for the worst, but for the most confusing meal ever. Our first starter was the honey glazed mackerel fillet, a crab salad, beetroot broth, apple and celery sorbet. Sound great, right? Well every element of it was perfect. But all the ingredients together did not work. Each was either too intense than the other, tepid, cold, or freezing - there was far too much going on. But at the same time that celery sorbet and mackerel fillet was sublime, there is certainly no doubt some talent in this kitchen.

On the other hand, smoked duck breast, toasted brioche, a poached hens egg, baby spinach, hollandaise sauce and crisp onion was a dish which sounded much more interesting than it actually was. The brioche was lovely, so was the hollandaise but the duck - well it was very thin and uninspiring. This would have been a fantastic dish for brunch, but I was eating here for mid-week dinner, not early on a Sunday morning.

Now how gorgeous does this next dish look? It looks mouth-watering. Well it was, partly. And i mean that quite literally. Pan fried chicken breast was perfect, succulent, juicy. Jerusalem artichoke puree was good, as were the morels and red wine sauce but the confit and breaded drumstick was unbelievably dry. Putting this dish together took a lot of skill, but to allow one part of it to overcook and dry out, let the dish down - it could have been easily avoided. It was a lovely plate of food which while wasn't perfect, could easily have been.

I seem to be turning more into a vegetarian every day that passes. So many restaurant these days are serving stunning seasonal ingredients, such as asparagus, peas, barley, or just the delightful thing that is Parmesan - I just can't resist. This pearl barley with smoked apple wood cheese croquettes, pea veloute and a crisp vegetable salad was magnificent. It was so light and fresh - apart from the huge portions. A vegetarian's delight, and almost mine.

Hungry? Read more - http://www.londonfoodaholic.co.uk/2014/06/review-petrichor-at-cavendish-hotel.html