Archive May 3, 2025

The A-listers’ list includes the football star’s birthday party. However, as long as they pay at least £200 per head, and that’s before wine, anyone can eat at the fantastic Notting Hill restaurant.

I had a taste of the special chef-designed gourmet dishes his guests will be served at David Beckham’s lavish 50th birthday party for his famous family and hand-picked A-lister friends in London’s ritzy Notting Hill.

The ex-England captain and Manchester United ace can afford to hold his once-in-a-lifetime birthday celebrations anywhere in the world, but he chose his latest favourite foodie haunt and hired out the entire 55-seater fine dining space for the intimate dinner.

Beckham’s Instagram account is mostly pictures of his biggest fan – himself – but a year ago he turned food blogger when he posted pictures of his lobster dinner at Core by Clare Smyth, praising the “amazing team” and their Northern Irish owner chef Clare Smyth.

READ MORE: David Beckham ‘doesn’t know how marriage to Victoria has lasted’ as he turns 50

Chef Clare Smyth is the first British woman to receive the highly sought-after three Michelin stars for her food. She is also the former Gordon Ramsey, whose Hospital Road restaurant had become renowned for its seemingly endless list of ingredients that ended up in reductions and foams. The waiter pointed to the smear on the side of my plate when I asked where the partridge was that I had ordered.

Chef Smyth, who was raised on a potato farm in her native county of Antrim, has given the dish its own twist by nodding off to the humble spud. Her fine dining restaurant is among the best in the world, with an emphasis on natural, sustainable food that comes from UK farmers and fishermen.

However, we paid £457.50 for lunch for two with just one glass of wine for “fine dining,” which read “tiny portions at eye-watering prices.” The price for a bottle of Petrus or Pomerol, which costs £4, 000, was the lowest on the 74-page wine menu, which included a glass of lovely fresh Albarino white wine, which I had.

Because the seven-course seasonal tasting menu costs £265 per person without wine, and the three courses we chose from the daily menu seemed like a bargain, we ordered from the daily menu for £195pp, this is the kind of place where they put the price tag next to the listing.

After making the mistake of ordering “prairie oysters,” which turned out to be genitals, I asked one of the friendly and attentive waiters in their Harrods green bell-hop suits where the portion of my starter dish of sweetbreads came from.

However, when staff members suddenly appeared to me and said, “Your amuse-bouches, madam,” they placed a number of small rocks,mossy garden knolls, and beach-themed terrariums on our cream-leaf table and placed a selection of small rocks.

In fact, the main dining room resembled a luxurious car interior, which is how I imagine the local Kensington glitterati would arrive.

On one of the hottest days of the year so far, I enjoyed the 15-minute walk from the tube station, and I probably needed to get hosing down once I arrived to this haven of calm.

The exquisite amuse-bouches were presented on what appeared to be fairy bonsai planters, which turned out to be tiny jellied eel, lobster roll, mini seeded taco shells filled with microscopic chicken jelly cubes, pea and mint gougere (cheese puff to you and me), indicating the sea and soil from which they were derived.

However, I realized that not everything is edible when I sifted down what appeared to be a pebble, which turned out to be one.

In the end, it was just that the lamb’s sweetbread starter was from because it had been crispy and deep fried with honey and mustard on shavings of kohlrabi; to be honest, I’d happily eat it while deep-frying the carpet underneath.

But my main course, which consisted of smoked mussels on an apple and cabbage bed, was delicious and simply cooked. The portion size, which was clearly intended for customers on slimming jabs, was my only gripe.

Before pudding arrived, we were served the chef’s signature dish – a Core “apple” amuse-bouche which looked like a scene straight out of Disney’s Snow White.

I was sure the waiters had said it was a toffee apple, but I was wrong to learn it was just mousse in a jelly skin with apple pureed filling. I had assumed it was one of those glazed orange toffee apples.

Our final amuse-bouche, which consisted of mini jellied eggs made from sweet Sauternes and Banyuls wines, was placed on what appeared to be a sacrificial horn from a May day dance, and I thought the trend of serving food on pieces of wood or slate had become out of fashion.

The wealthy were obsessed with having food that was elaborately crafted, especially at feasts, to resemble other dishes.

Because my pudding of wild strawberries was finally delivered, they were freeze-dried and fashioned like a mini-tofu and mozzarella salad, and it seems like we haven’t moved on in 500 years. Very funny, but I was anticipating fresh wild strawberries and a little cheated up like I did with the Disney apple.

Head chef Jonny Bone waved us away after two and a half hours of marveling at the restaurant’s open kitchen, saying “It was fantastic, thank you.” I suppose I could have murdered a burger an hour later, to be honest.

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