Frog is something else. s founder Head Chef Adam Handling has retained a sense of theatre and, most importantly, ambition rarely found in modern restaurants. Over the top maybe, but it does not chase after a certain terroir, style of cuisine or flavour. Rather it is the theatre of the unexpected, the inventive and, most importantly, the utterly delicious.
It originally opened in 2017, the restaurant is the flagship of the Adam Handling Restaurant Group, which is masterminded by the eponymous former ‘Masterchef: The Professionals’ finalist. It was awarded a Michelin star in 2022. It is not like anywhere else you will ever go.
The restaurant is beautiful with plush pastel-pink chairs, and soft white leather tables, most of which face the open kitchen rather than the window. This is a clue. What is about to come out of that kitchen is more interesting than anything that could be going on outside in Covent Garden.
The menu starts with a cornucopia of snacks – among the vast selection we had crab picked with elderflower jelly, egg custard on toasted buckwheat with wild garlic oil and parmesan foam and boneless chicken wings with tarragon. That description does not come close to describing the delights of the vast selections of curiosities we were offered, each more delicious than the last and all on a smorgasboard of smoke and colour.
But then to perhaps his most famous dish, and it is hard not to see why. It is described as bread with chicken butter. Oh my god. Chicken parfait, with crisp flecks of stuffing mopped up by a perfect roll. It has been described as the perfect roast chicken sandwich. It is, oh my goodness it is. I can still taste it now it was so unbelievably piquant and rich. For that dish alone I would pay the price of entry.
I could go on through each dish, but we will run out of space and also it would ruin some of the surprises. Cod, smoked bacon, beans, horseradish – clean, perfect cod with the saltiness of bacon and the unexpected umami of the horseradish. Balmoral quail with green herbs and garlic. Perfect deep sandalwood coloured surrounded by the zesty green sea of wild garlic. Epic stuff. It is food that plays on an imagination gone wild, and dishes that you cannot quite believe they have pulled off.
For dessert, a glorious thing appeared that reminded me of the old Robuchon place on West Street: a bright white sphere filled with vanilla ice cream and passion fruit, alongside a dollop of ice-cold yoghurt, a tart ball of ‘citrus’ and a neat coil of white chocolate. Cool, delicious and beautiful on one plate.
It’ just not a normal restaurant experience. Dinner takes a long time. The staff are expert and expertly drilled. From the exquisite modern art to the beautiful crockery, this is the stuff of dreams. There really is nowhere else like it. It’s not dinner, it is an entire event. Sure, it is expensive (£195 a head), but it is epic, epic, epic. There is nowhere else like it. I don’t think there ever will be anywhere else like it. Even if you just go once you simply have to go to see what someone with real talent, imagination and ambition can do. You might not like it. I think you will love it. Either way you’ll never forget it.
Frog by Adam Handling, 34-35 Southampton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2E 7HG – 020 7199 8370
