Kensington Wine Room

This is the best thing that's happened to sleepy Ken Church Street, a wine bar for the 21st century!

I've been coming regularly since they opened, and it's become one of my firm favourites. 40 wines by the glass, yummy tapas, very female-friendly and a menu that's improved leaps and bounds since the place opened last March and just keeps getting better.  If you were thinking of KP think again, because this is where the atmosphere is!  You need to book if you want to eat in the restaurant in the evenings. 

magnus's profile     Other reviews by magnus     magnus likes    

This place is fantastic, the staff know their stuff, simple but interesting Tapas, The restaurant food was very good value.   Nice atmosphere but get there early as it fills up very quickly.   I wish there was a wine rooms in Chiswick!

carol's profile     Other reviews by carol     carol likes    

A serious wine list has become a pre-requisite for any restaurant or bar with the slightest aspirations of achieving credibility.  The starting point seems to around 40 varietals, but it’s not uncommon to see restaurants with wine lists which look more like an encyclopaedia.  The problem is that you also need an encyclopaedic knowledge of wine and most of the really good stuff is only available by the bottle, leaving us to keep to what we know for fear of spending a lot of money on a something we might not like.  However, the Kensington Wine Rooms could be able to solve all of that with the launch of their new restaurant and bar.

Over fifty wines are dispensed by the glass by one of their five ‘Enomatic’ fridges. These fridges store the wines behind glass cases under a blanket of inert gas, allowing them to retain their flavour once they are opened. Customers serve themselves by simply inserting their pre-credited Winecard and pushing a button to select the size glass they’d like.

The great thing is that they even serve the wines in taster sizes, so you can spend a small amount to experiment first.  For those who know what they want, they also have another 70-odd bins available by the bottle.  Prices are really reasonable too, ranging from £3.70 for a 125ml glass of Cedar Grove Chenin Blanc, 2008, to £12.73 for a taster of first growth Bordeaux, 1999 Château Margaux. New wines are introduced every fortnight, so you can be sure that there will always be something new to sample.

They also have a tempting tapas menu (think grilled squid, jamón ibérico, spicy chorizo) and a proper restaurant area for those after something more substantial.  Like the rest of the venue, the main menu is simple and designed to keep the focus on the wine.  For starters, Crab cakes with smoked chilli jam & rocket salad and Pan fried chorizo with new potatoes & broad beans both got the taste buds tingling.  My main dish of Rump steak was on the chewy side but full of flavour, whilst Greedy Glancy was far more successful with his plate of Tempura fish & chips.  Pudding was a big plate of cheese and a couple of glasses of port.

We hear that the guys behind The Kensington Wine Rooms are looking to open a few more sites.  If they are anything like this, I can’t wait!

Food: 3/5
Venue: 3.5/5
Value: 3.5/5

Check out my site at lovefoodlovedrink.com

 

Love's profile     Other reviews by Love     Love likes    

I’m not a big wine drinker but I like a gimmick as much as they next man. This place obviously has turned a neat trick, dispensing wine like chocolate bars out of a vending machine, into a successful business. Unfortunately our Prosecco had to come from behind the bar as sparkling and white wines are not dispensed from the swish machines lining the walls.

This place was only a few shades less then swinging on Saturday, groups of woman being conspicuous quaffing glassfuls of red wine and laughing loudly. The bar is smart, high stools and high tables share the space with lower comfortable tables beside the windows. Subtle mood enhancing lighting is lux perfect to still view the waiters and drinkers running hither and dither. To the back of the bar there is a medium sized dinning room which is somewhat brighter lit and had a load of diners having dinners.

Our wine was a bog standard and surprisingly the vino was not chilled enough, being just a degree below room temperature. I’m sure that if the bubbles had been colder the drink would have been that little sharper, it was lacking in zing.

The patrons were typical, Kensington youngish things with good careers and successful parents. One man sported a baseball cap, a casual shirt, a body warmer and cowboy boots…

I’m 40 and I suppose this place should be aimed at me but somehow the room seems just a little to devoid of the joy of life to see me back in the hurry.

Roifield's profile     Other reviews by Roifield     Roifield likes