There are plenty of restaurants in London where the concept arrives before the food. Fire & Wine by Boxcar gets the balance rather better. Tucked away on a quiet street in Marylebone, the restaurant is the new incarnation of Boxcar Bar & Grill, now centred around open-fire cooking, seasonal produce and a wine list built around smaller, natural and low-intervention producers. The room is warm and relaxed, with plenty of wood and a softly rustic feel, while the fire gives the restaurant its focal point without becoming a theatrical backdrop. We took a table on the terrace on one of those rare London evenings when the weather behaved and settled in for dinner.
We previously looked at the story behind the restaurant's relaunch and the people behind its transformation; this time, we went to see how it all translated to the table.
The Drinks
We started with cocktails, and the drinks list follows the same approach as the food: familiar classics, but with enough of a twist to make them worth ordering. I went for the Jack Rudy, the restaurant's take on a Manhattan, served with a cherry. It was rich and slightly sweet, but still had enough strength to work as an aperitif rather than feeling like dessert in a glass.
With the food, we opened a bottle of Tinted Glasses, the restaurant's own-label rosé made in Saint-Tropez. Fresh, bright and slightly fruity, it was an easy match for the lighter dishes and particularly good with the seafood. The wine list is one of the more appealing parts of the restaurant, with plenty available by the glass or carafe, which makes it easy to explore without committing to a full bottle.
The Starters
The snacks arrived in two rounds. First came nori tarama on pressed potato, chicken liver parfait with blackberry on brioche and a Stilton gougère with apple. The tarama was savoury and delicate against the crisp potato, while the chicken liver parfait was richer, with the blackberry adding just enough acidity. The Stilton gougère was probably my favourite of the three. The apple worked particularly well with the cheese, giving the bite some freshness without taking away from the richness.
The second plate brought lamb belly on toast with tomato concasse and pickled onion, followed by an anchovy toast. The lamb was rich and sticky, but the anchovy toast was the more surprising dish. Rather than dominating, the anchovy gave the tomato a deeper savoury flavour, with the pickled onion keeping everything from becoming too heavy.
The pork belly arrived thick and tender, with egg yolk and pecorino, while the tiger prawns were served shell-on with garlic, chilli and seaweed. Both were generous dishes, but the cooking remained relatively restrained, allowing the ingredients to carry the flavours rather than covering everything in smoke simply because there is a fire in the kitchen.
The Mains
The 56-day-aged ribeye was the more substantial of the mains. Cooked medium-rare, it came with a black garlic and anchovy sauce that was deep and savoury, closer to a dark caramel than anything overtly fishy. The meat was excellent, but the sauce was what made the dish interesting.
The unexpected favourite, however, was the brie tortelloni. The pasta was delicate and filled generously with brie, then served with grilled chard. There was a gentle smokiness from the grill rather than an overwhelming char, and the combination of creamy cheese, pasta and slightly bitter greens worked remarkably well.
Dessert
The restaurant makes good on its promise to take the fire all the way through to dessert with its grilled croissant tiramisu. The croissant is baked in-house, warmed and caramelised on the grill before being topped with tiramisu cream. The edges become crisp while the centre remains soft, and the cream settles into the pastry rather beautifully.
The Pink Lady terrine with vanilla diplomat was a lighter alternative. Thinly sliced apple brought freshness and crunch to the vanilla cream, making it a good choice after some of the richer dishes earlier in the meal.
The Verdict
By the time we left, the terrace was full and the restaurant had settled into the kind of busy, comfortable atmosphere you want from a neighbourhood restaurant. Fire & Wine by Boxcar doesn't feel as though it is trying to reinvent dining in Marylebone. Instead, it has taken the former Boxcar Bar & Grill and given it a much clearer identity, with the fire, the wine and the produce all working together.
The best dishes were the ones where the kitchen knew when to stop: the anchovy toast, the brie tortelloni and that grilled croissant tiramisu. There is plenty of cooking over fire, but it never feels as though the restaurant is using smoke as a shortcut to personality. It is simply part of the cooking, and in the right dishes, it makes a very good one.