CORE by Clare Smyth

A pure culinary delight from the moment we arrived to the last bite of our luxurious tasting menu.

It is a pleasure to visit a restaurant where the emphasis on quality, friendliness, all in such a lovely tastefully decorated light room . Well done Claire

Food was truly magnificent. Each course was beautifully designed and utterly delicious. What really made it were the staff who were completely down to earth. It’s not a pretentious atmosphere, it’s just perfect. Thank you Core!

From the moment we opened the shiny black door leading into the reception area of Core we were impressed. After our coats were taken we were guided to our table passed the glass-covered kitchen, which we were proudly encouraged to look at. No smell of cooking. No wild bashing, mashing, clashing, just quiet precision. Artists at work.

Our cream leather-covered table allowed for no slippages. Very clever.

At Core the décor is light and tasteful especially with the addition of the Bridget Rileys - my favourite artist. And Clare's fingerprint is used to great affect on an immerse white relief and printed onto the crockery.

The food was the main event, of course, and everything was sensational in the true sense of the word, so much so that we found it hard to stop talking about it for hours after the meal. So many surprises. So spoilt.

We are not regular fine-diners - we cannot afford to be, but we do like a treat every once in a while. We have eaten in Le Gavroche, Pied a Terre, Spring, Fera and Gordon Ramsey's Hospital Road but Core is the favourite.

It was suberb. Thank you!

One do the best meals of my life!

Hands down the best fine dining meal I’ve had this year. Clare is a wizard in the kitchen and dining at Core is a feast for all the senses.

Just loved the attention to detail, with a warm feminine sophisticated vibe.
Very friendly service endowments Josh came out to explain about our entree. It was also a delight to meet Clare Smyth.

Best ever restaurant I've been to! Everything was outstanding, can't fault our experience in anyway!
The food and service was excellent.

An exceptional Oasis of civilization. Food sublime. Service outstanding. Defines potato

Quite possibly one of our favorite restaurants anywhere, a fantastic experience every time!

Simply outstanding in every respect. Well worth making the effort to bag a table. As good a restaurant meal as I have ever had.

Eating at Core was the highlight of our trip to London. We were excited to experience fine dining from a female chef, and we were not disappointed. My husband and I each tried one of the tasting menus with the wine pairing. The seasonal menu was bright and bold with fresh pops of flavor; while the classic was rich and luxurious with melt-in-your-mouth kinds of flavors. The wait staff was approachable and well informed. Overall, one of the best dining experiences of our lives!

You get high level service and excellent food at great value when going at lunch time. Its got a homey feel and we were lucky to sit on half of the chef‘s table as a group of 4, able to watch kitchen preparations. Give the experience you get its a very fair price for the service and food level you get, especially during lunch times. Will come again when we have an appropriate special occasion to celebrate.

Algunos platos excepcionales junto a otros algo planos de sabor. Las presentaciones ostentosas de algunos platos forman parte del espectáculo, lo sé, pero los cuatro canapés extraviados en un centro de mesa de corcho enorme, cubierto de musgos, me pareció exagerado. El ambiente envarado habitual de estas experiencias, roto amablemente por algún jefe de sala más cálido. El precio es el que es, aumentado por un cargo de servicio discrecional. Buena experiencia en general, aunque para hacer de vez en cuando.

This was quite simply the best meal I have ever eaten.
We had the 3 course lunch menu for £70 which was such a bargain considering it was more like 5 courses with the extra bits thrown in!
Amazing food from the chef/owner Clare Smyth who cooked at the Royal Wedding, with the duck main course and the desserts being perfect.
Impeccable service with real effort put in from the servers and chefs also who come to your table.

I will certainly be coming back again!

We had such a fabulous dining experience. Expectations were high...but somehow, they were met. It was perfect!

everything is perfect
but difficult to book another meal
always full!

Fantastic experience. Food was divine, very comfortable atmosphere.

Vegetarian tasting menu whilst pretty lacked any real depth of flavour across all courses.
Classic tasting menu was excellent as were the accompanying wine pairings. A strawberry/lemon verbena pudding was a complete lowlight - comparable to eating an air freshener far too heavy handed on the verbena.
Service on whole was very good although one blonde female server was oddly over familiar, to the point of being inappropriate in this level of restaurant. Also had one young male server lean straight across one of the party to deliver food to the other guest- noticed he had a sommelier badge so probably best not to have him delivering food when the Michelin inspector next drops by.
All in all highly recommended if you’re not vegetarian.

I have visited many Michelin star restaurants and was very much looking foreword to eating at Core. The experience more than fulfilled by expectations! The restaurant is very stylish and the staff are very friendly and anticipate your every need.
The food is absolutely fantastic! There wasn’t a single dish that was less than outstanding! Every dish was a delight for the eyes and the taste buds. Amazing combinations of tastes and textures. The Jerusalem artichoke dish was a revelation! The matching wines further enhanced the enjoyment of ever course.
Personally I would really like the possibility of choosing cheeses from an extraordinarily filled cheese trolley, but accept that that isn’t practical because of the steps within the dining area. The cheeses offered were in prime condition and very enjoyable .
I will definitely travel down from Manchester again to eat at this wonderful restaurant.

Great dining spot for a special occasion. The service was outstanding as you would expect from a Michelin starred place. We had the tasting menus and they were creative, well presented, and had exquisite flavors.

Superb food and service in a really nice atmosphere. Would highly recommend.

Fantastic! happy and engaging staff, beautiful wine, superb food, comfy decor, fun and friendly atmosphere. Deserving of their stars and popularity. Bravo, well done and keep it up!

After hearing so many great things about Core, I was so excited to do the tasting menu, however it was a huge let down. I did the classic and my partner did the season, both were equally as bad. The food had no flavour or depth to it and the scallops dish was not nice at all, nor where a few other dishes. For the price we payed, I should be writing a better review, however it was a huge let down.

We went for my husbands 50th birthday and we have to say it was well worth it!
The food was out standing! But what was more amazing was the service, they made us feel very special.
To watch Clare smyth working her magic in the kitchen behind the glass window was a real treat!
Will be back very soon!

Food was so nice!! Lovely atmosphere!

Fantastic food and service in a beautiful dining room. We had the Core Seasonal menu with wine pairing - both excellent.

It was our wedding anniversary, and they were very kind and complementary to us.

Simply outstanding.
Incredible food. Immaculate friendly service.
Straight tens.

All male party of seven and very well looked after great service & food.

Fabulous food with such attention to detail.
We had a wonderful lunch but it was slightly spoiled by a group of 8 men (possibly old friends from a rugby club?) who got progressively louder as their wine consumption increased.
A shame that there wasn’t a private dining area for them to have been seated in.....

Amazing food seansonal food with an incredible attention to detail, fantastic service. I have been to a lot of Michelin starred restaurants and this is one of the best yet!

The dinner was one of the most memorable meals we have ever had! The restaurant is beautiful, the service was outstanding and the food was absolutely incredible! We will be dining there whenever we are in London.

Fantastic ambience, wonderful food and friendly and efficient staff. Definitely worth trying out - we will definitely be back if we can get booked in!

We really wanted to love this place. As avid foodies and basing our travel around the best restaurants to experience, this one has been on the top of our list for a while.
I booked this as a surprise for my boyfriends birthday and it turned out to be a total let down and I felt awful that my boyfriends ‘big birthday surprise’ was a total fail.

On first impressions it was fantastic and a really beautiful touch to be welcomed by Clare Smyth and her staff in the kitchen. Unfortunately this is where the great experience stopped.

We chose the ‘Core Classic’ tasting menu and to be honest, I can’t remember a single dish we had, without looking at the menu to remind me, which says a lot about the food.
Each dish either missed something (mainly acidity) or was overpowered with seasoning, that really distracted everything else, and as each dish arrived we hoped that this would be the dish to wow us and that moment never came.

The service was good, however it was really hard to understand what they were saying about each dish, as they spoke too fast, with little passion or personality, which you’d expect to find at a restaurant of this caliber.
It was also a little frustrating to have to ask for our bill twice and wait for a total of 20 minutes until it finally arrived.

Overall, it was so bad, my boyfriend refused to let me pay. It was extremely overpriced for what we experienced, and I left feeling terrible that my boyfriend was being lumped with the bill. No meal should make you feel that way, and although he would never admit it, I’m sure he’s a annoyed by the situation and I feel like his birthday was ruined.

Food was amazing same as service! Can’t wait to go there again

Very good. Our table location wasn't the best but it was still great

What a lovely restaurant. We had an amazing evening dining at Core. The food was incredible. Everything was presented beautifully. The atmosphere was relaxed and all the staff were friendly, lovely to see Clare in the kitchen. We will remember our evening for a long time, very special place.

soooo goooood

Went on business meal, everything was outstanding!

A truly fabulous dining experience which we hope to repeat sometime