Blazing hobs and cool martinis. That’s my first impression of Dover Street Counter in Mayfair, the younger, sassier sibling to The Dover two doors down. You want to be sat at the long, sinuously gleaming chrome bar, no more than a metre away from the bustling open kitchen. Placemats are paper, napkins thick linen, while small art deco lamps with blood-orange shades cast a warmly flattering glow. Nineties hip-hop fills the air with bass, while the extraction system, brutally efficient, whisks away any unwanted pongs. There’s a primal energy here, a visceral, barely restrained joy. The whole place seethes and sizzles like raw steak on hot iron. It has only been open for a couple of months, but Dover Street Counter is already the hottest stool in town.
Martinis are as pure as they are icy. They arrive fast, and are downed even faster. The menu, described as ‘feel-good’, is exactly that: American diner meets high-end room service, fast food clad in Ralph Lauren. There’s a nudge of Italian, a hint of Vietnamese and a whole lot of New York, too. Like The Dover, the food is far better than it needs to be. As are the prices. You could have a tuna melt and a cocktail and escape for under £35. Round these parts, that’s nothing short of a miracle.
‘Feel-good’ food: whipped ricotta and truffle-honey crispbread
Summer rolls are pure and clean, overflowing with crunch and zing. The Chop Chop Med salad – lettuce, cucumber, chickpeas, mozzarella and tomato – may sound like something from the bottom shelf of Pret. But doused in a sharp vinaigrette, it eats rather finer than it reads. Disco fries come topped with a hot mess of mayonnaise, pickled chilli and ginger. While the beef rib-eye tagliata, at a very decent £39, is not only a fine piece of meat, properly cooked, but there’s more than enough for two.
The burger is classic and no-nonsense: good beef meets soft bun, with a few wedges of pickle and a draping, as is right and proper, of processed American cheese. For pudding, apple and rhubarb pie, McDonald’s-style, scented with cardamon and sitting in a puddle of crème anglaise. Restaurateur Martin Kuczmarski is the absolute master of giving people exactly what they want. And he’s done it again. As I said, the food is excellent, but it’s that atmosphere – pure old-fashioned fun – that adds the greatest relish of all.
About £40 per head. Dover Street Counter, 31 Dover Street, London W1; doverstreetcounter.com
