The Petersham Covent Garden restaurant review: No egos, no theatrics, just sublime ingredients and confident cooking

The famous hidden gem that is the Petersham Nurseries restaurant in Richmond recently opened a new place in central London. Jade Bousfield paid a visit.

Petersham Covent Garden
(Image credit: Petersham Covent Garden)

Petersham Nurseries in Richmond, is the kind of unique place that you tell all your friends about. Hidden on the edge Richmond Park, it’s a place where you won’t feel out of place if you dress up, but at the same time it is a charming family establishment, with a sustainable ethos of pot-to-plate eating and minimal waste. When an outpost opened in Covent Garden last April, the owners vowed that they would keep the same philosophy.

This has translated to the new venue: the wine in their cellar, the food served in their deli, the florist decorating the space with British blooms, through to the food that ends up on the plates, which mostly sourced from their very own Haye farm in Dorset. The best way to experience it is via the tasting menu which changes constantly, depending on what is in season — sometimes several times a week.

Walk through the balmy outdoor courtyard and you feel like you’ve left London, transported to some hidden courtyard in Milan or Florence, where (weather permitting) you can dine alfresco.

Petersham Covent Garden

(Image credit: Petersham Covent Garden)

Heading inside the vast floral arrangements reminds us of its sister restaurant, and there is an ever-present theme of nature and the countryside, from the wild flowers picked for our table to the edible flowers in later courses. Even the tables have prints of maple, oak and vine leaves.

Whilst the cuisine is essentially Italian — as is the wine flight, which the sommelier guided us through beautifully — but the ingredients are largely, though not exclusively, British. Freshly baked focaccia arrives, for example, with olive oil pressed on the family’s Sicilian estate; we mop up every last drizzle. It is followed by a slice of melon with a sliver of parma ham — the perfume of the melon caught us before is made our mouths.

Crisp radishes, raw asparagus, fennel and a boiled egg come with a delicate smoked cod roe dip refreshing and set the scene for what was to come, matched perfectly with a Monterossa Blanc de Blancs.

Petersham Covent Garden

(Image credit: Petersham Covent Garden)

Venison tartar with freshly grated horseradish, a raw egg yolk and peppery nasturtiums was complimented with a rosé prosecco, a more round bodied choice to support the venison whilst cleansing the palate. We soon switched to a 2017 Manincor Reserve della Contessa whose acidity and oakiness accompanied airy little parcels of gnocchi, bobbing in a tomato consume, with delicate dattorini tomatoes — little bursts of pleasure, conjuring up summer nights sitting on a terrace in Tuscany.

Our sommelier, like a master of dance, gently glided us towards an oaked verdicchio from Le Marche as the right dinner partner for the delicate pan-fried trout with a beurre blanc, crushed new season potatoes and yellow beans.

Nervous at this point that the main course of duck would too heavy, but it was balanced well by the chefs with fresh cherries, beetroot and chard. The effect was so earthy, light and moreish, and balanced so well by a 2017 Turmhof Pinot Nero, that we were left wanting more — from joy rather than hunger. And the wine has since made its way onto my shopping list.

Petersham Covent Garden

If you want to take something home with you, there's also a deli at Petersham Covent Garden...
(Image credit: Petersham Covent Garden)

Finishing off was olive oil ice cream with honeycomb and chocolate was perfectly paired with the smoothest, unfiltered desert wine, whose yellow fruits on the nose rounded off the meal in superb style.

The Petersham doesn’t rely on theatrical presentation, or dishes prompted by the latest trends or the chef’s ego. Instead it severed up accomplished, confident dishes that showed off the sublime quality of its ingredients. We’ll be back for more.

The six-dish tasting menu at Petersham Covent Garden costs £60per person, or £110 with wine flight supplied by Petersham Cellar. The tasting menu is available for the whole table only. See petershamnurseries.com/covent-garden for more details.

The six-dish tasting menu at Petersham Covent Garden costs £60per person, or £110 with wine flight supplied by Petersham Cellar. The tasting menu is available for the whole table only. See petershamnurseries.com/covent-garden for more details.


How to make The Petersham's Summer Vegetables with Bagna Cauda

Ingredients (serves 4-6)

  • 40g garlic
  • 100g good quality salted anchovies
  • 200ml milk
  • 100ml olive oil

For the vegetables

  • 1 bunch baby carrots
  • 1 fennel bulb, remove the outer leaves
  • 6 spears asparagus
  • 1 bunch rainbow radishes

Method

  1. Prepare all the vegetables into bite sized pieces and refresh in ice cold water. Strain and place on a dry cloth.
  2. Gently cook the whole garlic cloves in the milk until soft and all the milk has evaporated.
  3. Using a pestle and mortar, mix the anchovies and peeled, cooked garlic to a paste.
  4. Gently whisk in the olive oil to the anchovies and garlic paste.
  5. Serve the bagna cauda with the crunchy vegetables.

Country Life

Country Life is unlike any other magazine: the only glossy weekly on the newsstand and the only magazine that has been guest-edited by HRH The King not once, but twice. It is a celebration of modern rural life and all its diverse joys and pleasures — that was first published in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. Our eclectic mixture of witty and informative content — from the most up-to-date property news and commentary and a coveted glimpse inside some of the UK's best houses and gardens, to gardening, the arts and interior design, written by experts in their field — still cannot be found in print or online, anywhere else.

Latest in Restaurants and pubs
Mh242XFvdv8rwaJWtdc6Mk.jpg
'After one lunch, our server took £5 out of a tip we had left and handed it back to our gobsmacked four year old. He’s still talking about it': The best places for Sunday lunch in south-west London
8Rcrn2nSajo3WR7ro8D3t4.jpg
This is how we brew it: The cafés of the Cotswolds
EBRINGTON ARMS
Why the great British pub is better than ever
bigfHTySbYgM2Yaz6Uohv.jpg
Pythouse Kitchen Garden: An ideal spot to reward yourself after battling past Stonehenge on the A303
You don't have to come here in a vintage Jag. Yet somehow it just feels right to do so...
The Halfway Bridge Inn review: A dog-friendly South Downs oasis
Mini Christmas cake canapes by Rachel Green
How to make mini Christmas cake canapés
Latest in Features
Diamond brooch
How Cartier became ‘the jeweller of kings and the king of jewellers’
A villa in Rome on the Via Nomentana
A historic villa for sale on the Via Nomentana worthy of Rome's rich history
dogs on Country Life 26 March 2025
Country Life 26 March 2025
Jade tiled bathroom
A tub carved from a single block of San Marino marble — and nine more beautiful things for the ultimate bathroom
Images of Edwardian Ashton House, near Chard
Eight bedrooms of unlisted Edwardian elegance with sweeping views of Somerset
Iron Age artefacts
Archaeologists in North Yorkshire discover ‘the biggest and most important Iron Age hoard ever found in Britain’