What Happens When A Top Chef Takes Over A Neighbourhood Restaurant?

Leafy Chiswick High Road isn’t where you expect to stumble across a serious culinary gem amid its big food chains and glossy cafés, but that’s exactly what The Silver Birch is. The three AA rosette restaurant opened in 2020, and since 2023 has enjoyed the steer of Nathan Cornwell, previously at Moor Hall. Until this summer, the restaurant ran an à la carte menu, but it has now switched to a tasting menu that better showcases Cornwell’s experience and intent. Michelin inspector bait? Perhaps. The restaurant missed out on a star when an inspector arrived shortly after its opening; this new direction feels like a bid to correct that, and over the course of eight courses, its ambitions are worn proudly.

The kitchen is visible to guests at The Silver Birch, inviting diners behind-the-scenes

The exterior is modest: a glass-fronted space about a four-minute walk from Turnham Green station, signposted by its namesake tree printed to an extended blue awning. Inside, the interiors are pared back, with warm wooden panelling, some standalone banquette seating, and cream walls accented by hanging kitchen spoons and natural materials. It feels surprisingly casual for somewhere serving a formal tasting menu. But peer through the glass panel to the kitchen, and the tone shifts – it’s all business.

The Food

Opening service is Cornwell himself, wheeling a trolley pile with fruit and vegetables. ‘This is dinner tonight,’ he announces. I’m dining with three food media professionals – a tough crowd – and the carnivores’ faces drop. But no, these are the raw materials, the produce and LEGO blocks that will become tonight’s dinner. It’s a nice, grounding touch and one I didn’t expect within three zones’ vicinity of central London. 

The ‘hamburgers’

The meal is all fresh produce treated with deft technique. Sourdough comes with lovage, parsley and lemon zest, plus a rich cultured butter. Whopper Cornish sardines are slicked with elderflower and rapeseed oil, accompanied by a pucker-your-mouth tomato consommé. Particular brilliance: the miniature ‘hamburgers’. Bitesize tartar dressed into patties are smothered in caper jam and cornichons (vegetarians swap the ex-dairy cow for salt-baked celeriac alternative, and it seriously holds up).

Cornwell is a tour de force with low-waste and theatrical menu planning. A native lobster dish centres on potato salad, with the shells transformed into a hollandaise while the tails are BBQed. Later, squab pigeon arrives dramatically smoking over lit herbs, served with girolles, truffle, and compressed blackberries. Consommés thread throughout, including two instances of strawberry versions used in savoury dishes.

The chocolate délice

And it ends on a high – desserts are exceptional. First a white chocolate shell – housing a locally foraged elderflower and cream cheese mousse – paired with Norfolk strawberries, buttery shortbread, and a strawberry consommé. Then, the finale: a dark chocolate and brown butter délice wearing a delicate tuile fascinator. It’s rich, balanced, and it’s the only point I wish for à la carte, because as I finish it I already desperately want another.

The Drinks

The wine programme leans toward small-scale producers and thoughtful pairings. A Pays d’Oc white lifts the sardines beautifully, while a Côte de Beaune is sourced from a grower who produces just a single barrel. It’s not dogmatic – larger producers appear too, when the wine justifies its place. 

The Service

Cornwell is visible throughout, but not in a way that feels staged. (Media dinners can sometimes feel overborne and overhandled, but here it reads as genuine care.) He chats about craft, formative kitchens, and about how ‘you don’t need to be an arsehole’ to run one — delivered with the easy warmth. Staff, meanwhile, are attentive without hovering, and the rhythm of service flows naturally.

Any Criticism?

It’s hard to nitpick. If Michelin wasn’t impressed on its first visit, I’d be shocked if that holds true now. The ambition is clear, and more importantly, the soul is there too – the meal is joyful, grounded, generous. My only quibbles are personal: the location is charming but I might be hard pressed to visit without much forward planning. But for locals, that’s a blessing. Chiswick deserves a contemporary fine dining restaurant like this – their little secret.

FINAL WORD

‘You don’t have to be an arsehole to do food like this,’ Cornwell tells me. He’s right. But with this much talent, he may also soon be able to say: you don’t need to be in central London to earn a Michelin star, either.

BOOK NOW

Tasting menu £90 for five courses, or £120 for eight courses | 142 Chiswick High Rd., Chiswick, London W4 1PU | https://silverbirchchiswick.co.uk/

All images by Rebecca Dickson