The World’s End Market in Chelsea is one of those places that I’ve been past a million and one times but never actually been in to. That all changed when I saw an Instagram post from them, which was, for want of a better way of putting it, absolute food porn. It showed a short rib which look immense. Seeing that was all it took for us to book a table. We even called before hand to check that it would be on the menu, and the lady I spoke to loved that that was our reason for booking.
We went on a Friday night and it had a great atmosphere. Every table was full and the restaurant was buzzy. The staff were really good, very helpful and attentive. Although it did feel at points that they were perhaps a bit too stretched.
Let’s move on to the food. To kick things off, I had the Burrata with Hierloom Tomatoes and Balsamic Glaze. I’d never had burrata before but I finally found out what all of the fuss was about. It was super creamy and went well with the glaze and the tomatoes. The green tomatoes were a bit hard, but I think that that was more down to the type of tomato rather than the produce its self. The boy had the Soup of the Day, which was tomato and roast pepper with a balsamic glaze. It was tasty and well seasoned, and lighter than my starter, which was probably a sensible idea given the main that we’d both chosen.
Obviously we were going to get the short rib. This was on the special menu and so may not be there if you go. It was Ox Short Rib and came with a shallot and caper salad. We then also got some chips and mash to go on the side. Both cuts of meat that we had were pretty large in size. It was melt in the mouth though and just came off the bone. It was quite fatty, and although this had kind of melted, I have a thing about not wanting to eat too much (the thought of it alone makes me feel ill!). That aside, it was well seasoned and I wished that my starter hadn’t been so big so I could finish it! The truffle mash was tasty and went really well with the meat.
As you can probably tell, by this point we were both stuffed and decided to forego dessert. We had a coffee and were then told about something that we didn’t expect. Downstairs at the World’s End Market, they have a kind-of pop-up, The Bletchley. Unfortunately we didn’t have a table booking but we did pop downstairs for a quick peek. It’s all based on code-breaking from World War II and it’s done up so well. We put our name down on the waiting list for a table, but unfortunately one didn’t come up whilst we were there. It’s definitely something that we’ll be going back to though!
All in all, we had a lovely meal and it was a really enjoyable evening. The menu at the World’s End Market is pretty extensive and I’d like to go back again to try something else. We also would definitely book a table down in The Bletchley, from reading about it online it sounds like a really fun (and different) evening out.
