108 Brasserie | Dishes for Two in Marylebone Village

It’s taken me the better part of a year to get to 108 Brasserie, a bright, modern brasserie hotel restaurant located in the heart of Marylebone village.

Since January I’ve been receiving emails detailing each Dish of the Month, a featured main course designed to share between two. So far I’ve missed Josper grilled, dry aged tomahawk steak for two, with crunchy beer battered onion rings, homemade black truffle chips and a warming bone marrow gravy; roasted whole turbot with trumpet mushrooms, baby onions, spinach gratin and potato mousseline; roast Rack of slow-cooked neck of Devon lamb with spring vegetables; pan fried John Dory, fennel, pink grapefruit and tarragon vinaigrette and September’s Balmoral Estate venison Wellington with Savoy cabbage.

Luckily, October’s Dish of the Month was just as appealing – Josper grilled dry-aged porterhouse, baked bone marrow, hand cut chips and Stilton butter. Yeah!

108 Brasserie London on Kavey Eats (c) Kavita Favelle-123334

I’m always a little nervous about hotel restaurants – some are soulless places with menus designed to meet expense-account expectations. But I needn’t have worried. The Marylebone has an excellent location, surrounded by specialist food shops, cafes and restaurants and a good balance of office space and residential, which means the restaurant is extremely handy for a wide range of customers.

Although when we arrived, only two other tables were taken, within an hour, the place was almost full – impressive for a Monday lunch. People watching – a favourite pastime – had me guessing about which tables were business meetings (definitely the three men in suits that were posturing wildly at each other), which were hotel guests (perhaps the family of three on holiday in London?), which were ladies who lunch (the group of five?) and which might be clandestine romances or other more interesting rendezvous!

108 Brasserie London on Kavey Eats (c) Kavita Favelle-123217 108 Brasserie London on Kavey Eats (c) Kavita Favelle-9288

Do not miss the home-made bread (£2.50) even if you’re not that hungry. Sourdough, Guinness brown bread and soda bread were all three very good but the Guinness brown bread was exceptional! Rich, treacly, moist with a deep flavour and just a touch of sweetness…

108 Brasserie London on Kavey Eats (c) Kavita Favelle-9291

And the good news is that it featured again in both our starters. The portion of Argyllshire smoked salmon was huge, though we ordered the smaller size (£9)– you can also order a larger portion and add scrambled eggs or avocado if you fancy, to make a perfect lighter lunch dish.

108 Brasserie London on Kavey Eats (c) Kavita Favelle-9298

Like the smoked salmon, my Dorset crab on toast (£12) came on toasted Guinness brown bread and with half a lemon handily wrapped and tied into muslin so the pips didn’t fall into my food. The serving of fresh, sweet crabmeat was generous, and I liked the balance of the lightly dressed watercress leaves and apple.

108 Brasserie London on Kavey Eats (c) Kavita Favelle-9305 108 Brasserie London on Kavey Eats (c) Kavita Favelle-9301

On to the reason for our visit, October’s dish of the month. We ordered the Josper grilled dry-aged porterhouse, baked bone marrow, hand cut chips and Stilton butter (£65) to come medium rare, and it was cooked perfectly.

The dish was garnished with the Stilton butter (a really perfect addition to the beef), an additional jug of sauce – we chose Béarnaise – and baked breaded bone marrow, served in the half bone.

Also included is a bucket of fat golden chips – if you’re having starters and desserts, this will be more than enough, but if you’re just having mains, you may need an extra portion of chips – the same size bucket is also served to diners ordering a one-person meal such as the hamburger or rib eye steak. They’re decent too – crisp outside and fluffy within and wonderful dipped into the cheese butter and Béarnaise.

The beef, for those who like to know, is Scottish Aberdeen Angus dry-aged for 28 days and it was really very good. Great texture and flavour, excellently cooked; we enjoyed it enormously.

108 Brasserie London on Kavey Eats (c) Kavita Favelle-9307

I’ve been to more than one restaurant that excels at starters and mains but falls down on desserts. That’s definitely not the case at 108 Brasserie.

Lemon tart (£7) is a brasserie classic and this one was perfectly balanced between sweet and sharp and with that just-set texture to the filling that is so delightful to cut into.

108 Brasserie London on Kavey Eats (c) Kavita Favelle-9316

My favourite was the brown bread ice cream with caramelised walnuts and honeycomb (£7). As you might already have guessed, the ice cream is made using that delicious home-made Guinness brown bread and that really lifts it into the exceptional category – the crumbs of brown bread retain a dense chewiness that gives it a more substantial mouth-feel than most ice creams. The caramelised walnuts are sweet but with a decent bitterness from caramel properly pushed to the edge – a much needed balance to the super sweet honeycomb. I rarely go for ice cream when there are options such as warm chocolate fondant with peanut butter ice cream or baked coconut rice pudding with mango and passion fruit but in this case, I absolutely could not have been happier!

The wine list includes several very reasonably priced bottles and the presence of the neighbouring 108 bar means a wide selection of cocktails are also available.

Having already had positive reports from several friends, I was confident we’d enjoy our meal at 108 and yet I was still surprised at how much we enjoyed it – the menu is full of exactly the kind of food we really love eating, and the prices seem very reasonable for the quality as well as the generosity of portions.

Also worth mentioning is the set lunch menu, an absolute steal at just £17 for two courses and £23 for three, with a choice of three dishes for each course and all of them ones I’d happily order.

Kavey Eats dined as guests of 108 Brasserie.

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36 Comments to "108 Brasserie | Dishes for Two in Marylebone Village"

  1. kaveyeats

    Yes, everything we had was really delicious, good quality ingredients, generous portions without being too much so, well prepared and cooked. And I thought value was good overall, and especially so for that lunch menu!

    Reply
  2. Choclette

    I lived close to Marylebone Village when I was a student. We could never afford to eat out in the area, but it was a fun one to hang around in. I always love the idea of sharing dishes, but when it comes down to it, CT usually gets the majority – he’s a much faster eater than me!

    Reply
    kaveyeats

    Ha ha, he needs to stop then, and let you catch up! I’m much faster than Pete too but I eat around half and then just stop! ????

    Reply
  3. kaveyeats

    It’s a good one to keep bookmarked for whenever you’re next in London. I’d love to see the hotel rooms too actually!

    Reply
  4. kaveyeats

    Yes, I like the idea a lot. And they’ve had some great sounding dishes, there have been some great fish ones I was tempted by. Not seen any veggie ones so far, though.

    Reply
  5. Lynn | The Road to Honey

    Wow! It sounds like you had some excellent people watching and an equally impressive meal. My hubby would definitely go for the porterhouse (he can never get enough steak). . .but me. . .I’d be all over that brown bread ice cream. Such an interesting flavor.

    Reply
  6. Sophia | Veggies Don't Bite

    I’ve never been there but it looks like you got the full service! I too am weary of hotel restaurants but there are a few by me that are amazing. I love the look of that brown bread! And I love lemon tarts. SO good.

    Reply
    kaveyeats

    Yes, some of them really are echo chambers with hardly any customers and rather dull menus. This one is definitely the complete opposite of that sad type of hotel restaurant!

    Reply
  7. Laura@howtocookgoodfood

    I am so surprised at what great value the set meals are here and agree the breads look so good as does that brown bread ice cream and that steak looks so well cooked I could easily be tempted down there!

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    kaveyeats

    Laura, yes it’s definitely one I want to visit again, not least for that amazing set lunch! The Guinness brown bread really was fantastic!

    Reply
  8. Camilla

    Wow this Hotel looks like it’s got it’s restaurant spot on for interior, food styling and menu composition! Loving the look of that brown bread ice cream in particular:-)

    Reply

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