The Ninth London

Exciting that chef Jun Tanaka bring his very own restaurant to Charlotte street, The Nineth. It serves French Mediterranean style food and all for sharing. That is what dining out is all about!
We started with sharing a few of the dishes from the snack section of the menu — Oxtail croquettes, Duck scotch egg, Barbajuans.
Then follow on with starters King prawn macaroni, chives and ginger. My favourite was the Rabbit confit lasagna, mustard bechamel.
We also tried the Razor clam ceviche from the hot and curd section of the menu. This dish reminded me of my first dining experience at The Pearl when Jun Tanaka was still working as a chef there.
It was then on to the mains and we each choice a dish to share from the fish and meat section, along with a few selection of vegetable dishes to accompany them.
It was wonderful to see a range of fish dishes on the menu, especially serving them as a whole fish which make them suitable as a sharing dish. It feels like home and the word family would come to mind.
We choice two fish dishes (1) Whole roast sea bream, lemon and miso, smoked aubergine (2) Roast plaice, chicken wings, shallots and beurre noisette. Each one was beautifully cooked.
Whole roast quail, smoked bacon, foie gras, lardo and grapes was full of flavour and cooked just right. The grapes made a good combination with the dish and it surprisinly worked. It has inspired me on what you can do with grapes. It’s more then a fruit!
We tried the smoked duck breast with caramelised chicory and walnuts, which was cooked just right.
To go with our fish and meat we tried a selection of vegetable dishes. The Pommes cocotte, rosemary and confit garlic was a taste of Winter, actually more like taste of Christmas. The roasemary brought fragrant to the dish and the garlic was perfectly roasted until soft. Alternative, the Honey roast winter vegetables was sweet I’m taste.
We finished our meal with dessert and my favourite being the Pain Perdu served with honeycomb and vanilla ice cream. The Nineth French toast had a crispy outside with a eggy custard on the inside.
Tarte Tatin served with rosemary ice cream was a sticky tart, which I felt was on the bitter side. The most interesting part of the dish was the rosemary ice cream. You have a very high chance of knowing it is rosemary as the flavour was very strong.
Overall the food was beautifully cooked and the front of house all seem very informative with the menu as well as providing us with excellent service. Dining at The Nineth was like fine dining experience but on a more casual and cosy.

The Ninth in Fitzrovia cooks overly delicious food and combines that with truly outstanding customer service.
Charlotte Street in Fitzrovia is a street known for its restaurants. Now, The Ninth is one of them — and if you ask me, one you should definitely check out.
The place is dimly lit and sports the trendy standard feature many openings in the past two years or so seem to share, an exposed brick wall. Fortunately, despite the trendy wall, this restaurant does not focus on being hip, instead it delivers excellent service.
As soon as I walked in, I was greeted by a lovely girl who looked through the bookings to get me a table. I got a nice place by the window. Just for about two hours though, not a problem for me.
As all the other guests, I got a brief introduction about the place. Good to know that the chef is always in, the fact that he is a «celebrity chef» was not of great concern to me, but some people might enjoy to hear that kind of thing.
Soon another waitress gave me the wine list, and I was quickly sold on the Riesling trocken, Wehlener Sonnenuhr, Weingut Heinrichshof, Mosel, Germany. It was a brilliant example of a well-​balanced Riesling, beautifully dry with refreshingly strong mineral notes. A great white wine on its own that also was a pleasure to drink with my food.
It can sometimes be confusing, when you are served by many different people over the course of a dinner. However, when all staff are very friendly and knowledgable, this is not an issue for me. I would probably go even as far as to say it was nice and fun to interact with all those different and equally professional people.
I really liked the Swedish waitress who took my order, she was probably the one who I talked to most. She gave me good recommendations and helped me navigate through the menu.
To kick-​off my dinner, I ordered the rabbit confit lasagne. The presentation was lovely when the dish arrived in a tiny iron pan. The lasagne tasted delicious and light. The tomato sauce added more nice flavours. The grilled pitta bread with oregano and sea salt was very good, just a bit messy to eat because it was sprinkled with, I believe, olive oil. As the waitress suggested, the bread was perfect to mop up the sauce.
The smoked duck breast with caramelised chicory and walnuts was a really tasty main dish. I chose two sides along with it, pommes cocotte, rosemary and confit garlic — kind of melting-​in-​the-​mouth buttery, roasted potatoes — and beetroot tarte tatin, feta and pine nuts on spinach. The crispy skin of the duck was fabulous and the cooking juices in the pan intensified the duck flavour. I thought adding walnuts was a clever idea to give the dish a bit more crunch.
The beetroot tarte tatin was a funny thing. I never had a combination of pastry and beetroot like this, and very much enjoyed it. I wanted to taste both sides, but in general, one side would definitely have been enough for me.
I think it was the manager, who surprised me by knowing exactly what wine I was drinking, despite not serving my table. His behaviour confirmed what I had already noticed from talking to the other staff, that they are attentive and focused on great customer service. He also convinced me to order a red wine to go with my main. I had a very small glass of the Merlot, Les Fleurs de Montblanc, IGP Côtes de Thongue, France. It was good, however as I expected, nothing I would order again. I would rather go for another glass of the Riesling.
I ended my dinner with a caramelised lemon tart, fromage frais with lemon thyme. It was a tasty and light dessert that actually was pretty nice with the Merlot, combining the fruit of the wine with the acidity of the lemon.
The longer I sat at my table, the less I noticed the background music — which is a good thing. As far as a remember, they play jazzy, souly songs, easy to listen to, without distracting or getting in the way of conversations.
All in all, my food was absolutely spot on, a pleasure to eat, and all of the staff were friendly, helpful and competent. I’ll be back.

Simply flawless cooking. Nothing more to add.

There are some amazing restaurants in Fitzrovia, and The Ninth has just joined their ranks.
A stylish addition to Charlotte Street, everything about The Ninth is just so aesthetically pleasing — from the choice of colour for the awning outside, to the clean, contemporary décor and the dishes themselves.
Felicia, Amy and I shared several dishes between us at lunch. We’d originally decided to pop along to try the confit rabbitm but unfortunately it’s only on the dinner menu, which is something to keep in mind!
Luckily, there were several other items on the menu that piqued our interest — to the point where we couldn’t decide and had to ask our waitress to make the choice for us.
We started off with the oxtail croquettes, which were wonderful — light and crisp on the outside, with an amazingly tender filling.
We chased the croquettes with several raw and cured dishes, including the flamed mackerel with dill, cucumber & capers, a sea bass carpaccio with salsa verde & pickled kohlrabi and cured pork belly served with pecorino & mustard leaf.
For me personally, the pork belly didn’t leave much of an impression — it was definitely outshone by the incredible seafood dishes. The piquant kohlrabi and salsa verde with the almost buttery sea bass was really delicious, and the flamed mackerel was exquisite.
The salted beef cheeks served with oxtail consommé and charred cabbage was so tender that it practically melted in your mouth. Although delicious, again it was outshone by our other main dish — the whole roasted sea bream, which was served with lemon, miso and smoked aubergine.
The cavolo nero with hazelnut pesto was the ideal side dish. It was perfectly seasoned, and had subtle flavours that enhanced and didn’t overpower the other dishes. We also had the fricassee of Jerusalem artichokes and truffle, which was a great accompaniment to the fish plates.
The girls also split an order of miniature Madeleines — adorable, freshly baked, and straight out of the oven.
It was all absolutely delicious — although on the whole I think the seafood dishes are the way to go, which is rather unusual for me. The service throughout was fantastic (our waitress did a fantastic job of ordering for us!) and I’d definitely recommend The Ninth for an intimate dinner with loved ones.

I’ve always seen Jun Tanaka at Taste of London doing those «show me how to cook xyz» type things but have never had the chance to try out his food. Well, when he opens one right in Central London on Charlotte Street, no more excuses, one has to go and try it out (excuse the French use of oneself).
STARTERS
— King prawn marconi hot starter was decent, but nothing special.
— Flamed mackerel, dill, cucumber and capers *** special mention. If you don’t mind fishy tastes, this is the starter for you. The vinegarette sauce is perfected such that the fish is divine, unable to help ourselves we ordered a second portion straight away.
MAINS
— Spiced cod — whilst nicely cooked, we didn’t like the roasted cauliflower, it was pretty hard to eat.
— beef cheeks — mmmm so soft and tender, yummy.
— smoked duck breast — again this is a hard meat to master but it was cooked just right, although slightly harder texture and so if you like your meat very tender this may not be for you. There is a bit of resistance to the meat.
DESSERT
— Pain perdu, honeycomb and vanilla ice cream *** again special mention. This is basically french toast and it was divine. Unfortunately the honeycomb was slightly burnt inside and I do not lament here because having watched Masterchef I have realised how hard it is to make the perfect honeycomb. Props for nearly getting it right though.
The décor was really nice. The waitress was also very attentive. Thumbs up for good dining experience here. Food was pretty good here and I don’t think you will be disappointed as the foods are of a high standard overall.