Wallace and Co

SW15 2SW

London

Putney

146 Upper Richmond Road,

Wallace & Co is located in a huge space for Putney, where real estate is premium. This new venture from MasterChef's Greg Wallace, has obviously been based on substantial research. The space they have created is casual and homely and it feels as though you are walking into a terraced house dining room in this South West London suburb. It’s replete with exposed brick walls, stripped wooden floors and kitchen dining tables.

We visited in the evening the restaurant was filling up with civilised adult company. There was a gaggle of 30-something women, a retro-cool group of 20-somethings and most noticeably the restaurant offered up a big welcome to children. The menu reflected the homely air with wide variety of good, recognisably English food: pies, pea and smoked ham soup, chicken and chips. There was even Trealy Farm (Monmouthshire) charcuterie and Brit-pop farmer Alex James’ Blue Monday cheese and a special of smoked eel on the starters menu. We opted for the delectable morsels from Trealy Farm, smoked eel, and the triumph of our starter courses: beetroot cured gravlax with horseradish cream. The bright pink flesh of the salmon, enhanced by the beetroot, was super fresh and sweet with just a hint of the sea. A sliver combined with a wee nip of the punchy horseradish was a marriage made in heaven.

The next course arrived so quickly we barely had time to savour the wonderful Bulgarian Cabernet Sauvignon our waitress had recommended to accompany our meal. Choosing to stick with the English favourites, my Lancashire hotpot arrived in an enamel pot with a side of smooth mash. The gravy in the hotpot was a little watery for my liking but the flavours were good and the lamb incredibly tender with a crispy potato top. My companion’s monkfish skewers were a delight. The fish was meaty with the texture of a well cooked steak, but the delicate flavour of fresh seafood. Served with salad potatoes and a salsa verde, swimming with capers, it was just mouth-watering and I experienced a severe case of food envy.

Faced with the 10 puddings choices including the special of bread and butter pudding and the suggestions of the staff, I decided eventually for in-season rhubarb pannacotta. But what was placed in front of me minutes later was more like a pannacotta trifle in a drinking glass. There was a layer of rhubarb, a layer of fridge-cool pannacotta and, a layer of jelly! It was rather a lovely dessert: sweet with the poached rhubarb tang, vanilla flecked smooth pannacotta and an almost marmalade-like jelly. My companion went for a hearty slice of bread and butter pudding, thick with juicy sultanas and a brittle sugar-encrusted top. Complemented by a jug of speckled vanilla cream, it made for quite a decadent pudding.

We end our meal by sitting back to survey the room and enjoy the rest of our wine. This is a family café - ‘honest food’ as the manager tells us, and a great child-friendly London haunt.

Our meal cost just over £50 with the Bulgarian Cabernet Sauvignon coming in at a reasonable £17.50. All wines can be purchased by the glass. Wallace and Co do not add a service charge to the bill.  

**Reviewed by**: Anne Giacomantonio