Mustard restaurant review, Brook Green ★★★★★

In a nutshell: A neighbourhood British brasserie, serving comforting dishes from omelette to steak

The welcome: Mustard is a much-needed addition to the local culture of Brook Green, which is not a destination, but rather a plummy, quiet enclave of well-to-do families carved out of Hammersmith’s rough and tumble.

The room: Design LSM have stripped back the paint to reveal the gorgeously elaborate original tiling of a Victorian butchers, painstakingly restored to perfect condition. Godly rays of sunshine beam through the huge front windows, where meat would have hung, and which now offer the perfect vantage point from which to sit and watch the world go by. It’s easy to imagine the lofty space, which still has its original cubby for the cashier, in a former life, filling up with customers of centuries past. With its walls painted olive green, Mustard is chic while remaining reassuring unselfconscious.

The food: It’s a big menu with something for everyone, including a vegetarian section, a selection of steaks, and an alluring cocktail menu of Mustard inventions as well as more traditional options.

The Devonshire crab salad was a highlight, as were the fennel and linseed focaccia – freshly baked on site – and the gooseberry and gin crumble. The unlikely hero was the omelette: an original dish with natural smoked haddock and kale, served in the pan.

There were, however, a few blunders: the ‘lightly’ fried squid was in fact quite heavily battered, and the hake slightly overbaked. To true whisky sour lovers, we wouldn’t recommend their so-so Mustard version, which is without depth of flavour.

There are, however, other intriguing options, such as the Vodka Marmalade Martini, the Mustard Gin Mary, and the Hedgerow Fizz, a tongue tingling cucumber and Prosecco concoction.

Would we go again? Yes, because it’s such a lovely place to sit and the staff are so genuinely warm and welcoming