Step off Chiswick High Road into The Silver Birch and you’ll feel the day’s weight immediately vanish from your shoulders. In a calm, earthy-hued room with pale oak tables, spindle-back chairs, and handmade ceramics, Head Chef Nathan Cornwell brings his passion for food, people, and produce to life in a space that feels exactly how a neighbourhood restaurant should: warm, easy, and unpretentious.
Chiswick has that way about it—taking the edge off the city—and the restaurant reflects the mood. Friends, families and couples drift in, laughter mixing with the hum of an open kitchen, an excellently selected playlist filling the quiet spots. We begin with the sommelier’s suggestion, the seasonal aperitif: an English sparkler from Gusbourne lifted with strawberry purée. Crisp, slightly floral, and not overly sweet, it’s summer in a glass, setting the tone for a menu billed as “British Summer”—one that focuses on light plates packed with fresh produce and purity of flavour.
Three small bites arrive to start, all with clear thought behind them, and doing precisely what a snack should do: sharpen the appetite. A croustade of silky chalk stream trout and roe, enlivened with pickled shallot and nori mayo; a hazelnut sablé with indulgent foie gras parfait beautifully balanced with cherries and oxalis; and a crisp tartlet with mousse-like Spenwood cheese, walnut, and onion pickle—each as delightful in taste and texture as the next.
One of the great pleasures here is how the team talk about the food. Before the first course, ingredients are brought to the table in an awe-inspiring display, alive with all manner of shapes and colours, and their origins explained—tomatoes from a friend’s garden, always eaten within a day of picking, never chilled; rare-breed vegetables grown for flavour over yield. It sounds romantic, but it makes sense once you taste it. The freshness of produce takes precedence at The Silver Birch, with Nathan only working with small-scale British farmers, fishermen, and foragers to source the best of the best.
Quick-cured Cornish sardines, prepared boquerones style, open the meal proper, sharp with acidity and seasoned well. Holstein Friesian beef tartare follows—a nod to a hamburger, the team says. They use ex-dairy cow, dice the meat a touch larger to honour its texture, bind it with its own fat, and even work some into the bread that forms the base. The flavour is deep, savoury, and incredibly satisfying—made all the more moreish with dollops of aioli, pickles, and crispy Jerusalem artichoke bits.
Next, plump tomatoes from Tarleton taste of the sun and vine, paired with creamy cheese, glistening dill oil, and topped with a crisp bran wafer that brings a flash of nostalgia, like a posh picnic served at the table. Barbecued Native lobster follows, pearly and tender, sitting atop Jersey Royal potatoes smothered in lobster hollandaise, and crowned with caviar. A gently oaked Gusbourne Chardonnay mirrors it perfectly.
Day-boat turbot arrives firm and luminous, accompanied by a rich but not too heavy tomato, white wine, and shellfish sauce. Our waiter smiles and tells us it reminds her of her grandmother’s seafood stew—an offhand, personal anecdote that says a lot about the restaurant: technique is tight, but memory and feeling have a seat at the table, too. The final savoury dish, fire-roasted squab pigeon, delivers deliciousness on all counts: its breast is blushing and soft, the jus deep and rounded, paired with black truffle, salt-baked beetroot, and tart yet sweet blackberries—a glass of Etna Rosso ties in with fruit and smoke.
Desserts are light and simple: Norfolk strawberries taste purely of themselves, sweet and fragrant, paired with a sculptural white chocolate shell, buttery shortbread, and strawberry and elderflower consommé. But it’s the impossibly delicate dark chocolate délice that steals the show, served with raw milk sorbet and a crisp tuille.
Head Chef Nathan Cornwell’s background in top kitchens—time at Le Champignon Sauvage, Geranium, Kadeau, and four years at Moor Hall, where The Barn won its first star under his lead—shows in the menu’s precision and restraint. Under his helm, The Silver Birch has picked up 3 AA Rosettes and plenty of critical praise, including being named Restaurant of the Year by AA in 2024, but the food feels uninterested in just chasing trophies. Made with specially selected produce from the British Isles, dishes are focused, seasonal, and proudly English, with the lightest Nordic accent—exactly what the venue promises the moment you sit down.
Service runs on the same wavelength. Plates arrive with a steady pacing, explanations are confident but never forced, and the team seem genuinely happy to look after people. The whole room shares the same quality as the food: assured, authentic, and unfussy. The Silver Birch is elegant without being formal, thoughtful without being over-styled. It’s food that makes sense, cooked well, and served with care—the kind of meal that leaves you feeling happy in heart and belly, and one you’d gladly return for, time and time again.
To find out more about The Silver Birch and book, visit the links below:
THE SILVER BIRCH
142 Chiswick High Road
W41PU London
United Kingdom
Web: silverbirchchiswick.co.uk
Tel: +442081597176
Email: info@silverbirchchiswick.co.uk
Instagram: @silverbirchchiswick
Images © Rebecca Dickson