Restaurant in London, United Kingdom
Relaxed sharing menu, easy to book.
Jackson Boxer's Notting Hill restaurant rewards repeat visits more than most at this price point. A seasonal sharing menu spans snacks to whole grilled fish, the wine list is nearly all available by the glass, and the room is calm and unfussy. The ten-per-evening burger, made from 50-day dry-aged beef with Gorgonzola Dolce, is the dish to plan around. Booking is easy; a few days' notice is usually enough.
Dove is a Notting Hill neighbourhood restaurant worth booking more than once. Jackson Boxer's seasonal, sharing-format menu at 31 Kensington Park Rd rewards repeat visits: the food spans quick snacks and larger plates, the wine list is genuinely flexible (almost everything available by the glass), and the room is calm enough to make conversation easy. Booking is direct, prices are in line with a confident neighbourhood bistro rather than a destination dining room, and the experience holds up across different moods and group sizes. If you are looking for a relaxed but considered dinner in west London, this is a strong answer.
Dove occupies the Notting Hill space that Boxer previously ran as Orasay, and the shift shows in the room's character. Reclaimed wood, lime-washed walls and restrained decoration give it the feel of a room that has been thought about without being over-designed. The lighting is soft, the tables are close enough to feel social without being cramped, and the overall scale stays intimate. For food and wine explorers who want a room that doesn't compete with the plate, this works well.
The menu is built around seasonal produce and is structured for sharing, which makes it a practical choice for groups of two to four. Dishes range from snacks — fried potato pizzette with bonito, burrata and mortadella — to larger formats like whole grilled fish and half a roasted chicken. That range is useful: it means a first visit can stay light and exploratory, while a second visit can push into the more substantial plates. A third visit gives you reason to chase the burger, which is worth its own paragraph.
The burger at Dove has acquired a reputation in London for good reason. Ten are prepared each evening, the patty uses a blend of 50-day dry-aged British beef (rib cap, brisket, chuck and suet), seared in beef dripping, finished with Gorgonzola Dolce and a Champagne-butter onion Lyonnaise, and served in a fermented potato bun. It is not always listed on the menu. That combination of limited quantity and low-key presentation makes it the kind of dish worth asking about specifically rather than waiting to discover by chance. If you are planning a second or third visit, this is the anchor dish to build around.
Wine list deserves attention. The near-universal by-the-glass availability makes it easy to drink well without committing to a bottle, which suits both solo diners and groups with mixed preferences. For a wine-focused visitor, the list gives enough range to make pairing decisions meaningful rather than perfunctory.
First visit: arrive and graze. Order from the snack end of the menu, work through two or three glasses of wine, and get a feel for the room and the kitchen's approach. The fried potato pizzette is a good read on the kitchen's sense of flavour. Second visit: move into the larger sharing plates , the whole fish or roasted chicken formats , and ask about the burger. Third visit: plan around the burger specifically, arrive early enough to secure one of the ten available, and use the rest of the menu to build a longer meal around it. Dove rewards that kind of incremental exploration more than most neighbourhood restaurants at this price point.
Dove is at 31 Kensington Park Rd, London W11 2EU, in Notting Hill. Booking difficulty is rated easy, which means you are unlikely to need weeks of lead time for most nights. That said, if you want to guarantee the burger, it is worth calling ahead or booking earlier in the week to confirm availability. The sharing format works leading for two to four diners; larger groups should consider whether the plate format suits their dynamic. The wine list's by-the-glass depth makes it a workable venue for solo dining at the bar as well. For more options across the city, see our full London restaurants guide, or explore our full London bars guide and our full London hotels guide for the broader picture.
Dove sits in a different category from London's formal dining room options. CORE by Clare Smyth and The Ledbury are both ££££ tasting-menu experiences that require more planning, more spend, and a different frame of mind. If you want a precise, multi-course progression in a formal setting, those are better choices than Dove. Restaurant Gordon Ramsay and Sketch, The Lecture Room and Library operate at the same ££££ tier with more theatrical environments and service formality that Dove deliberately avoids.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal is a closer comparison in spirit , a chef-driven concept with a signature dish at its centre , but the price point and hotel-dining formality at Dinner are meaningfully higher than Dove's neighbourhood register. If the burger at Dove is your primary draw, you are getting a carefully constructed signature dish at a fraction of the cost of a comparable moment at a destination restaurant.
For explorers who also want to understand the broader British fine dining picture, The Fat Duck in Bray, L'Enclume in Cartmel, and Moor Hall in Aughton represent the destination end of the spectrum. Dove is not competing with those venues and does not need to. Its value is in being bookable, repeatable, and genuinely worth returning to , which is harder to find in London than it sounds.
Dove is a sharing-format restaurant, so come prepared to order across several dishes rather than a single plate each. The menu spans snacks to larger formats like whole fish and roasted chicken, with a seasonal focus and a flexible wine list where almost everything is available by the glass. Booking is easy relative to comparable west London restaurants, and the room is relaxed enough that there is no pressure to perform a formal dining occasion. Jackson Boxer's previous project in this space was Orasay, so regulars of that restaurant will recognise the setting.
The wine list's by-the-glass depth and the snack-friendly menu format make Dove a workable solo dining option. Bar seating availability is not confirmed in our current data, so it is worth calling ahead or checking when you book if bar dining is specifically what you want rather than a table.
The burger is the dish with the most developed reputation: 50-day dry-aged British beef (rib cap, brisket, chuck and suet), seared in beef dripping, finished with Gorgonzola Dolce and a Champagne-butter onion Lyonnaise in a fermented potato bun. Only ten are made each evening, and it is not always on the written menu, so ask when you arrive. On a first visit, the fried potato pizzette with bonito is a good read on the kitchen's approach before committing to larger plates. The whole grilled fish and roasted chicken are the main sharing formats worth working toward on a second visit.
It depends on what kind of occasion. For a birthday dinner where the atmosphere should feel relaxed and the food genuinely considered, Dove is a strong choice , the room is calm, the cooking is serious without being stiff, and the wine list is flexible enough to make the evening feel considered. If the occasion calls for formal service, a tasting menu format, or a grand room, CORE by Clare Smyth or The Ledbury are better fits. Dove rewards occasions where comfort and quality matter more than ceremony.
For a similar neighbourhood bistro register with serious cooking, explore our full London restaurants guide for current options across price tiers. If you want to step up to formal tasting menus, CORE by Clare Smyth and The Ledbury are the benchmark choices in London at the ££££ level. For a chef-driven concept with a signature dish focus, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal covers that ground at higher spend. Outside London, Hand and Flowers in Marlow and hide and fox in Saltwood are worth considering for food-focused trips beyond the city.
The menu's seasonal and sharing format, with dishes ranging from snacks to whole proteins, suggests some flexibility, but specific dietary accommodation details are not in our current data. Contact the restaurant directly before booking if dietary restrictions are a deciding factor , the sharing format can make substitutions more or less manageable depending on the night's menu composition.
Booking difficulty is rated easy, so you are unlikely to need more than a few days' lead time for most midweek evenings. Weekends in Notting Hill fill faster. If the burger is a priority, it is worth booking earlier in the week and confirming availability when you call, given that only ten are prepared each evening. Walk-ins may be possible, but for a guaranteed table on a specific night, a few days' notice is sensible.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Booking Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dove | Easy | ||
| CORE by Clare Smyth | Modern British | ££££ | Unknown |
| Restaurant Gordon Ramsay | Contemporary European, French | ££££ | Unknown |
| Sketch, The Lecture Room and Library | Modern French | ££££ | Unknown |
| The Ledbury | Modern European, Modern Cuisine | ££££ | Unknown |
| Dinner by Heston Blumenthal | Modern British, Traditional British | ££££ | Unknown |
Side-by-side comparison to help you decide where to book.
Dove is a relaxed, sharing-format restaurant from chef-restaurateur Jackson Boxer at 31 Kensington Park Rd in Notting Hill. The menu runs from snacks and small plates up to whole grilled fish and half a roasted chicken, so order a range and share across the table. Booking is rated easy, so you are not up against a competitive reservation window. Come with an appetite to graze rather than a plan to order one dish each.
The venue data does not confirm a bar counter dining option, so it is worth contacting Dove directly to check. What is documented is that the wine list has almost every choice available by the glass, which makes a drinks-led visit with snacks a practical option regardless of where you are seated.
The burger is the standout dish to seek out: a blend of 50-day dry-aged British beef finished with Gorgonzola Dolce and a Champagne-butter onion Lyonnaise, served in a fermented potato bun. Only ten are prepared each evening and it is not always listed on the menu, so ask when you arrive. Beyond the burger, the menu includes fried potato pizzette with bonito, burrata and mortadella among the snacks, and larger formats like whole grilled fish.
It works for low-key celebrations rather than formal milestone dinners. The room is bright and simply decorated with reclaimed wood and lime-washed walls, and the atmosphere is relaxed bistro rather than occasion dining. If you want a tasting-menu format with full ceremony, CORE by Clare Smyth or The Ledbury fit that occasion better. Dove suits a birthday dinner with friends who want good food and a flexible, sharing-style evening.
For a similar neighbourhood-bistro register with seasonal produce, Dove sits in a distinct category from the formal options nearby. CORE by Clare Smyth and The Ledbury are both tasting-menu experiences at a significantly higher price point. If the appeal of Dove is Jackson Boxer's ingredient-led, sharing-format cooking in a relaxed room, it is worth comparing against other Notting Hill and West London neighbourhood restaurants rather than the city's destination fine-dining venues.
The venue data documents a seasonal, produce-led menu with dishes ranging from snacks to whole fish and roasted meat, but does not specify dietary restriction policies. Given the sharing format, accommodating dietary needs may affect how the full menu works at your table. Contact Dove directly before booking if you have specific requirements.
Booking difficulty is rated easy, meaning you are unlikely to need weeks of lead time. A few days ahead is generally sufficient, though weekend evenings may fill faster. The one exception worth planning for is the burger: only ten are made each evening, so if that is the reason you are going, mention it when you book or ask about availability when you arrive.
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