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If you would like to try the Iberico pork at London restaurant Dabbous, then leave a date free for January 2013. That’s the first date the shabby-chic Fitzrovia restaurant will be able to fit you in.
So how did a four-month-old, unassuming eatery housed on the site of the UK’s first internet cafe come to be London’s most sought-after restaurant? It could be something to do with the 31-year-old chef and co-proprietor Ollie Dabbous, who trained at Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck restaurant in Bray.
The restaurant has only 14 tables, seating a maximum of 72 diners and lighting consists of bare bulbs. The food itself is resolutely “uncheffy” and prices are a not unreasonable £5 (about R65) for a starter and £14 for a main. The menu (which changes seasonally) currently offers English asparagus, charred lamb belly, and custard creamed pie for pudding.
Celebrity Michelin-starred chefs, such Gordon Ramsey and Antony Worrall Thompson, who have had to close multi-million pound London restaurants, must be scratching their heads - and wondering about Dabbous’s secret recipe.
So what if Madonna, President Obama or Brad and Angelina were to request a last-minute table? “Well, we’re not big on the ‘do you know who I am?’ attitude,” says the head waitress. “But for Brad and Ange we’d certainly try - it just depends whether they’d want to bring their children!” - Daily Mail