The Jam Tree

This is my first Unilocal review, and how appropriate that it’s for my fav neighborhood pub! It’s a bit hard to find, but don’t let that deter you — the eating is seriously good, the pub is cozy, and the staff is really sweet.
The mains range from £10−20ish with a range of options, there’s something for everyone. The portions aren’t stingy either, which I appreciate as an American. Here’s what I’ve tried and my opinions on each:
— The Sotong Manis (squid) appetizer is caramelized and sweet without being sickly. Yum!
— The hot wings are chunky and hot (for European standards perhaps? my UK/​European friends’ mouths were on fire but I loved it).
— The burger is thick, juicy, and moist.
— I usually get the sirloin steak though, and it’s always cooked JUST the way I like it — pink throughout without being bloody.
— The french bean side is amazing — just salty enough with the soy sauce and a little hit of chili but it’s no overpowering. so so good. order seconds.
— I will say the Puddings are not their forte, but who has room after all those savory dishes? The peanut butter cheesecake is true to its name and rich but very good. They had a sticky toffee pudding, but no mas :(get it if it finds its way back onto the menu
They’ve also started having pub quizzes on Wednesdays. so much fun!
and Sam, the owner, is always super accommodating to me when I book. what’s not to love?

My mum booked this pub/​restaurant for my birthday dinner because of a deal she saw somewhere.
The pub itself is very nice, the food was very nice and the staff are friendly and helpful (they were able to provide a specially altered dish for our vegan friend). However there were few negatives for me. These may not apply to all who visit though.
1. the meal deal we had was very confusing. It was something like, 2 people eat for £25 for food of value up to £40 including a cocktail. You had to pay the £25 up front and then pay anything over the £40 on the bill at the end. But we ended up paying an extra £20 per couple even though I would sweat that we didn’t eat £40 worth of food each.
2. they added a hefty tip to the bill which we didn’t feel like we could choose not to pay. It’s not that I don’t like tipping for a good service, but I like to be able to make the choice of how much.
3. the food was quite expensive although it was nice. I hate paying £11 for a burger. It is a restaurant in Kensington though so you get where you pay for I guess.
4. We had to wait quite a long time for our food both for the starter and main course.
finally, if you are in a party of larger than 4 and less than 8 I recommend asking for a long table as you may otherwise end up on the too large copper corner booth. This is an odd shaped table and it is really hard to have a conversation with anyone other than the person next to you. It is too large for a party of 6.
Despite these things, as I said at the beginning, the place is very nice where it counts.

We came here for dinner last Friday on the back of a Key Noir offer pay £25 for £40 worth of food for two people and a cocktail each. We bought the offer twice so four of us went.
I had sticky squid to start, which was fantastic. Good squid, not too chewy, with a sweet apparently soy based sauce/​glaze. I will definitely have this again. Everyone else also seemed to enjoy their starters.
For main course I had cod and prawn fishcakes with a poached egg. This was a step down from the squid tasty but basically just good pub food. Both girls had burgers which ranked in the top 2 or 3 burgers I’ve ever tasted. Evil had a lamb rendang which he said was great until his wife spilled wine all over it.
I had cheese for dessert which was a mistake, I’m new to liking cheese and this was massive portions of a few different cheeses all but one of which were very dry, and the only thing provided to add some moisture was branston pickle which I hate. I should have had jam roly poly with custard which Evil finished in about 5 seconds.
The Jam Tree’s website makes a big deal about the jam based cocktails, it seems to be almost the signature item on the menu. We were a little bit underwhelmed but then again we should probably have had them at the start rather than when we were quite drunk and after having eaten tonnes of food.

Well I nearly fell off my bar stool, sorry I mean restaurant chair, when the manager described this place as a pub. It isn’t. It’s a restaurant. A friend went and tried just to have drinks, but the management got shirty when they didn’t order food… nothing wrong with this, but don’t call it a pub if it clearly ain’t.
Food’s alright. Problem is that if you’re going to charge £16 for a duck leg, it had better be pretty special, and mine wasn’t. Blueberry sauce, ok, I get that… scattering of blackberries? Now this is just a confused dish. Five scallops for £18? Fine, if they’re amazing, but neither were they good scallops (just the sort of cross section of prit stick things you get from the frozen foods aisle), nor tasty enough to justify the price.
If you’re doing Haut Cuisine, you can charge for the idea, for the balance of flavours, for the ingenuity. If you’re a local start up claiming to be a pub, you can’t.
Malina by contrast hasn’t as far as I can tell, yet been registered on here, it’s on the Shepherd’s Bush road, by the end of Brook Green and I had a much larger, tastier, better presented, quicker, cheaper meal there a few days later, in MUCH nicer surroundings, from friendlier staff. Alternatively the Havelock seems to be back on form, or the Bird in Hand is a proper little restraunt-​pub. I could go on.
With this much competition, the Jam Tree just isn’t worth bothering with.

I came across this totally lovely little gastropub in a list titled something along the lines of «The Best Restaurants You Aren’t Eating At,» though it was possibly more clever than that. Regardless, I hadn’t been eating at it, it was the last night in London for my sweetheart and I, and we’d just finished washing the dishes in our rented flat, so cooking was off the table.
We set off, determined and won over by ingredients like «stinking bishop» — is it a pear? is it a cheese?* We were lead astray by google maps (When is a through street not a through street?) and so wandered about in a circle for a while, but eventually we oriented ourselves.
My omnivorous sweetheart, while normally suspicious of mushrooms, ordered the wild mushroom, artichoke and goat cheese baked in puff pastry with champ and truffle cream. I got the vegetarian rengdang curry with nasi goreng. Both dishes were immensely satisfying and deeply flavorful. We split the plum and rhubarb crumble with custard and white chocolate ice cream for dessert (I got the lion’s share of the crumble, and my sweetheart said the custard and ice cream was delicious). Tasty!
The staff is incredibly nice and was very accomodating when I asked about ingredients — I’d just been reading up on puddings and suet and was perhaps a little gun-​shy. The airy, loft-​like atmosphere is really quite wonderful — I kind of want to keep it to myself, but I live 5371 miles (8645 km) away, so if *you* can find your way there, it is absolutely worth it!
*We still don’t know because we got distracted by looking up «champ,» which turned out to be a potato dish. As a side note, I feel like a bit of a heel because I still don’t know which one is «bubble» and which one is «squeak.»

Tucked away in a quiet residential area this pub is a little gem. The food is amazing. The staff are so friendly and all of it is reasonably price. I almost hate to share this as a tip because it seems like such a nice locals bar with a great atmosphere. I’d suggest booking a table on the weekend for dining.

Great new place in Brook Green providing good competition to the other gastropub offering in the area, the Havelock.
Really good atmosphere and décor, friendly staff and very attentive owner.
The scallops have been mentioned in the first review and rightly so: fantastic dish! The wine list really impressed me with some great bottles for you to tap into. In terms of price, yes it is a little expensive but very much worth it.

Went to this lovely local gastro-​pub for dinner the other night and I could not recommend it more! Funky, airy space located in a very quiet side-​street round the corner from Olympia station. The food was absolutely brilliant. I had the asparagus and goat’s cheese salad to start– incredibly fresh and bursting with flavor. My colleague’s pork belly was moist and delish. I then had the scallops with croquettes– again just lovely. The wild garlic sauce was buttery and more-​ish and the scallops perfectly cooked. My colleague’s meal– mackerel with crushed potatoes was really tasty also. Service was friendly and one of the owners stopped by to check in on our table– he is apparently Rick Stein’s nephew! Overall– loved it and would highly recommend a trip to this friendly funky resto.