Review The Dysart Petersham - Richmond-upon-Thames

Very nice and intimate restaurant near Richmond We celebrated there our 21st wedding anniversary The food was delicious and the service very good For sure we will go back ❤️

I cannot recommend here enough! We had the tasting menu, which was delicious. I was pregnant at the time and they adapted the menu around the foods I couldn't eat. The staff were lovely and the atmosphere was relaxed. Can't wait to visit again!

Fantastic lunch, relaxed atmosphere, great food and wonderful service. Dog friendly too.

Beautiful venue with a non-pretentious but elegant atmosphere, which I loved! The food was delicious and creative. We particularly liked being able to order the wines in 500ml, which allowed us to choose pairings to the courses together as a group, rather than going by the glass. Looking forward to returning soon!

This hugely talented, yet modest, chef operates an absolutely superb kitchen at this very attractive and spacious restaurant on the Surrey/London border. He won the prestigious Roux Scholarship a few years back and his food illustrates the creativity and technical dexterity of a top end chef. Each course was a surprise in a good way and so different. Star of an amazing show was the charred bream, served in the most unctuous sauce with a real Asian twist. Front of house was impeccable: thoughtful, attentive, friendly. Could not fault the team at all. Everything you would want from a truly fabulous dinner.

What a wonderful unique experience! The tasting menu and wine, pairings, or especially delicious and well presented and prepared. The unique location was beautiful and well appointed .the service was first class, and the owner could not have been more gracious or welcoming. We very much enjoyed the evening and look forward to a return visit on the next trip across the pond.

We had a delicious meal and a brilliant experience. That staff were very attentive, informative and friendly. The food was delicious and interesting (which I like in a tasting menu). There were also drinks pairing menus for soft drinks, beer and wine - which I've never seen before and greatly appreciated

Entering The Dysart Petersham, we were met by Barny who is was of the best waiters and front of house staff you could possibly imagine. He was very welcoming, enthusiastic and explained every single individual meal with precise detail. He made us feel warm and extremely comfortable for the whole duration of our dining experience. The interior of the restaurant was beyond beautiful with some of the finest decor and wood carved tables. Everything was so clean it almost felt like it was a mini art gallery with their showpiece being the piano at the back of the restaurant. It is such a picture perfect modern design but with a tranquil feeling and atmosphere. The food was phenomenal, elegant and very well thought out by the chefs. Each course was a journey for the taste buds with simple yet sophisticated flavours that worked well together. The plating was done was everything you look for in a fine dining restaurant and flavour combinations were of the highest standard. Everything from the canapés, to the focaccia bread to the main meals left you wanting more even if you were so full by the end. That’s how good the food and service was. For nonalcoholic drinkers you will not be let down by the vast options of drinks they have on their menus from soft drinks to classic mocktails. The Dyasrt Petersham is a classic example of simplicity done right from the service, to the interior and then the food. Done correctly it leaves no room for error, you can tell that they care about their own standards and the consumer’s experience. I highly recommend this place for a romantic night out or a stunning friends or family lunch or dinner.

The bestie was in town so we booked lunch at dysart petersham for the tasting menu (£110). My friend did the wine pairing for (£65) and absolutely loved it. This was such a great lunch - we stayed for over four hours enjoying the food, the drinks and the service. The spiced pear tonic in the heat wave was just what the doctor ordered. My friend really enjoyed the pairing and also said he got a lot more wine than he was expecting as the glass portions were generous. The cocktails were well priced at a Michelin restaurant in London (c£14). The whole menu was delicious! My favourite was the peach dessert. Would recommend this place and would dine here again.

A wonderful lunch in stunning surroundings warmly delivered by a great team! Such beautiful presentation of all the dishes. Stunning flavours with wonderful fresh ideas. For me the pea soup( cold) with apple ice and smoked eel was just beyond brilliant!! AWSOME wine list that marries with the food to perfection

Had a wonderful dinner here for our daughters birthday. It has become our 'go to' restaurant for family birthdays and Sunday lunch with friends. Always a very friendly welcome, fantastic food, great wine selection and lovely ambience. Also love that they have vegetarian menus so that all of our friends are accommodated. Would highly recommend.

We had a delicious long lunch yesterday. The food was mouthwatering and beautifully presented. The service was friendly and efficient. A birthday was an excellent excuse to have the tasting menu with a flight of wines but we'll need no excuse to return.

Went for a Sunday lunch. Absolutely beautiful food and great service. We had pork and gnocchi with truffles, the food was definitely a Michelin standard both in terms of the presentation and taste. Both the host and the waiters were very polite, attentive and friendly. The complimentary canapes and chocolates added a special touch. Definitely will go back again. Highly recommended.

An absolute gem. Tasty, creative food and very friendly service. My favourite!

Just love this restaurant great food , lovely staff and perfect setting !

Wow The food was amazing Highly recommended

Lovely setting, food well balanced, but not being southerner I think the prices are very steep. Please tell the waitresses not to clear the table before everyone has finished!

I drove for almost an hour an a half with my 4 month old son to meet a friend who had booked a table here. When I walked in rather than being greeted, I was told that prams weren't allowed on the premises due to 'safety reasons'. I was told that I could remove the pram seat and put it and the baby on the floor while we had lunch (or we could push chairs together and put the pram seat on this instead). I was so shocked. By not accommodating everyone in our society, this amounts to discrimination by the restaurant. The 'healthy and safety card' can be played as much as you like but there are hundreds of cafes and pubs and restaurants with far less space between tables that people with prams visit every day so this is simply a convenient excuse. How is picking up a pram seat (which is not designed to lie on a flat surface) from the floor with a baby in it safer than pushing the pram?! If it is a space issue, are wheelchairs also banned from the restaurant? The lady simply kept saying it was restaurant policy, no apology, no smile, no attempt to be accommodating (though another waitress did look quite embarrassed about the situation). She went on to dig a deeper hole by added that families with more than 2 children at a table are also not welcome. Needless to say we moved on to another location for lunch. To say I'm disgusted is an understatement.

The Dysart was formerly known as the Dysart Arms pub,  not only have they changed their name, but it is no longer called a pub but a restaurant. Opposite the restaurant is the scenic Richmond park, and there is a beautiful garden surrounding the restaurant itself. Serving no pub food, but Modern British food (with some Asian influences). The Head chef, was trained in Michelin star restaurants in Dublin, France, Sydney and New York.

What a rip off!. We ate at the Dysart Arms this evening. Having been there a six months ago when we had a nice evening, we were shocked at the now tiny portions and poor service. It's testament to our overall experientce that when we complained about the starter being different to what was advertised on the menu it was met wth total indiffernce and no attempt to change our experience. It's a total rip off. It's not often that I pay £150 for two people and still feel hungry at the end of the night. What's more the place was virtually empty on a Friday night. Please don't waste your money on this place.

Lunch at The Dysart. I visited the Dysart for lunch last week and was very pleasantly surprised. The refurb has been really kind to original wood features, and the burning log fire was welcoming as we walked in.<br/><br/>Staff were friendly in their service, and the food was superb in presentation, flavour and value. i had a starter of fig salad, which was fresh and lively, and my partner had the more hearty duck egg with mushrooms on toast. Both delicious.<br/><br/><br/>Main courses were slow cooked venison and a beautiful piece of fresh cod. Again, fantastic.<br/><br/>For dessert we both had cheesecake which was delicious.<br/><br/>The place had a great lunchtime buzz, with almost all the tables full, but everything was calm at the same time.<br/><br/>Our three course bill was less than £20 each as well...<br/><br/>Not at all bad!!

Not Family Friendly. We were told to keep our kids on there chairs in the pub garden. At 18 months and 5 years old this is an impossible request to fulfill so we left. Dont take your children here the management is anti kids.

Sunday Lunch good value, and great music to accompany it

Confit leeks with Vin Jaune and 36-month aged Comté is a proper little number, insistently salty and impossible not to ravage, it finds balance by using a humble risotto as a supporting act, along with buttery strands of spring-green leek.

I've just found my new favourite restaurant, and it's in the form of a semi fine dining, unpretentious, relaxed, well priced former gastropub - serving absolutely stunning food. I could probably stop writing everything here on with that one liner but talking about this food is not only exciting, but extremely easy and a real pleasure. The only one criticism i can really give The Dysart is not being closer to my home. Nestled away in what I thought was deep deep Richmond really wasn't true. Taking a walk through the lovely village, down towards the river, through a stunning field and you're pretty much at the front door. With a choice to sit inside the beautifully decorated dining room, or outside in the lush green pretty courtyard - it's really up to you. One of the lovely things about The Dysart is that it's family run and owned. Manager Barny Taylor wants to see The Dysart thrive as a fine dining restaurant but still faces the challenge they need to overcome of letting people know th

Last week I found a restaurant which is too far away from home to justifiably call my ‘local’. Somewhere where the staff would know my name, the chef remember how I like my steak cooked (medium-rare in case anyone is offering to take me out!) and where without doubt I would spend most of my weekends, gossiping with girlfriends over wine or sharing a romantic meal with that someone special in front of the fire.

The Dysart (formerly The Dysart Arms) is a pub in the smart Petersham area of Richmond, which in recent years has gradually transitioned from “pub that does food” to “restaurant with a bar”. This has much to do with the current head chef, Kenneth Culhane, who won the Roux Scholarship in 2010, and who had previously worked at Patrick Guilbaud in Dublin. The chef has his own garden to grow many of the vegetables and herbs used on the menu.<br/><br/>The dining room is fairly rustic, with stone floor and well-spaced tables without tablecloths. Lighting is limited, hence the murky photos. There is a set menu available in the evening at £19.95 for three courses in addition to the a la carte. There is also a tasting menu at £49.50, with a full vegetarian tasting menu also available; we tried the tasting menu on our first visit, and a la carte in the second. The carefully composed wine list had choices such as Shaw and Smith Sauvignon Blanc 2012 at £42 for a wine that you can find in the high street

Richmond is a very posh part of London. It is for this reason I was worried about accepting an invitation to eat there, because as you may have noticed, posh parts of the country and good restaurants do not often mix. When was the last time you had a decent meal in Hampstead, for example, or Chelsea? Or further afield in Beaconsfield or Weybridge? Henley or Harpenden? With very few exceptions (there is Bray, I suppose, though that's largely the work of one man), high property prices and good dinners out don't go together, whilst conversely the parts of town that show up blue on the house price heat maps boast some smashing value restaurants - Camberwell, Peckham, etc. The only other time I'd been tempted on the 65 bus out to Richmond was when Petersham Nurseries (still the most famous restaurant in these parts) took on a new head chef and invited a bunch of bloggers/journalists to try it out. It wasn't bad , if you don't mind eating a lot of artfully arranged vegetables in a greenhouse

Richmond is a very posh part of London. It is for this reason I was worried about accepting an invitation to eat there, because as you may have noticed, posh parts of the country and good restaurants do not often mix. When was the last time you had a decent meal in Hampstead, for example, or Chelsea? Or further afield in Beaconsfield or Weybridge? Henley or Harpenden? With very few exceptions (there is Bray, I suppose, though that's largely the work of one man), high property prices and good dinners out don't go together, whilst conversely the parts of town that show up blue on the house price heat maps boast some smashing value restaurants - Camberwell, Peckham, etc.  <br/><br/>The only other time I'd been tempted on the 65 bus out to Richmond was when Petersham Nurseries (still the most famous restaurant in these parts) took on a new head chef and invited a bunch of bloggers/journalists to try it out. It wasn't bad, if you don't mind eating a lot of artfully arranged vegetables in a greenhouse, but I am never going to be in the target market for a £20 bowl of salad, nor the £4,000 chest of drawers they saw fit to attempt to flog in the same room, and so I never felt the desperate need to return under my own steam.  <br/><br/>The Dysart though is a different prospect entirely. The menu contains a great big list of all my favourite things to eat, from veal sweetbreads to duck for two to crème brûlée; alongside the usual wine matching menu they have an option to try matching beers instead, which is pretty forward-looking; and there's an astonishingly reasonable set menu for around £20/head. It even has its own bus stop. I was convinced.  <br/><br/>Of course I didn't actually ask for the £20 menu, I mean I'm not travelling an hour out of my comfort zone to do things by halves, so obviously we had the tasting menu, but the point is the £20 menu is an option, should you want it.  <br/><br/>A tray of neatly lined-up nibbles kicked things off - from memory a little cheese/tomato biscuit, a deep-fried porky nugget topped with chilli, a surprising mint/lemon/polenta cube (refreshing and smooth) and (celestial fanfare) scallop nigiri topped with freshly shaved summer truffle. No prizes for guessing which my favourite was.  <br/><br/>Next, bread (yes bread, that's a photo of some bread, just go with it), and this was really something. A soda bread of sorts, we were told, but I've never had soda bread quite like this, with a dark, biscuit-y crust encasing a moist, cakey inside. We did our best to leave some to accompany the next couple of courses but after barely a few seconds our resolve crumbled and we polished it off.  <br/><br/>Charred mackerel with braised daikon, ginger and champagne married a lovely technique (I have never not enjoyed a soft piece of mackerel fillet with a smoky, crispy skin) with some clever Asian flavours. It was very pretty, too - just imagine something approaching the opposite of how my photography makes it look.  <br/><br/>Local cep mushrooms were the main ingredient in this risotto of sorts, packing some deep, foresty flavours and bound with a silky sauce that I think might have involved chicken. It was very well presented, and miniature sprigs of "golden" oregano added a remarkably intense herby note, but it was all let down slightly by very underdone rice - not just slightly al dente but pretty crunchy. Still, you can see where they were going with it, and the rich flavours were enough to make up for the technical error.  <br/><br/>Wild sea bass, crispy skin, bright white flaky flesh, everything as it should be, came in a very interesting "spiced curry leaf sauce", shocking deep green with a dense, earthy texture. Bok choi and kohlrabi kept the Asian fusion theme going, and it all added up to a hugely enjoyable dish, hard to fault at all.  <br/><br/>The next course, beef in miso mustard sauce, was nothing if not experimental. Individually, all the elements were very impressive; a pink fillet of fine aged beef; a sticky, shiny puck of slow-roasted cheaper cut; swirls and curls of colourful heritage carrots. But though I loved the miso mustard sauce in of itself, it was way too powerful for the beef, and completely smothered the delicate meat with a blanket of vinegar and umami. But then having said that, I still enjoyed both the beef and the sauce, just not on the same forkful. Perhaps it would have worked better with a stronger, gamier protein like venison - who knows. Still, you have to admire their imagination.  <br/><br/>Local damsons with peaches were full of colour and the joys of summer, even if my photo makes it look like something left over from a surgical procedure. Damsons, like gooseberries or elderberries, can't be intensively farmed, so it's always worth choosing them if you see them on a menu.  <br/><br/>Desserts made sure the meal ended on a high - or rather, two highs. Valrhona chocolate and praline bar with miso salted caramel ice cream, well, you can imagine how good that was. The raspberries lined up neatly on top had a brilliant flavour, probably grown locally, and the chocolate "bar" was much lighter than it looked, containing a mousse-like, nutty interior. And pineapple and brown butter financier was hot straight out of the oven, golden crunchy brown on the outside and soft and moist inside. Blobs of cardamom jam added that Asian twist, as the miso did with the chocolate dessert.  <br/><br/>As you will have probably concluded by this point, the Dysart is a very good restaurant indeed. Fusion food has the potential to be a muddled disaster in the wrong hands, yet on this menu the odd Japanese touch here and there often only accented and enhanced the modern classical cooking, only occasionally proving a distraction. And then again, even when, as in the beef dish, the Asian seasoning was slightly heavy-handed, it only made an interesting mess, not a complete failure. And while it's easy to pick fault with things like undercooked rice, so many other things went right - and not just right, but stunningly well, that in the end it was impossible not to be utterly charmed with the place. On top of all that, £60 for a tasting menu and £18.50/£22.50 for a set menu is a hugely reasonable sum for cooking at this level. All of a sudden, Zone 4 seems a perfectly reasonable distance to travel for dinner.  <br/><br/>I was invited to review the Dysart

A tasting menu today was priced at £60 and began with two nibbles: a chive and piment d’espelette palmier, which was a touch dry (14/20) and a piece of hand-dived scallop with tomato jam presented on squid ink bread, the scallop sweet and the jam working well with it (16.20). In addition to the trademark Irish soda bread (16/20) there was caper, feta and violet potato bread, made from scratch in the kicthen (15/20). A further nibble was a pair of Indian twelve-spiced mussels, the spice balance quite subtle (easily 14/20).<br/><br/>Charred mackerel with kombu braised daikon, ginger and champagne was as enjoyable as ever, the mackerel fresh and carefully cooked, the flavour combinations harmonious (17/20); my dining companion felt that the sauce could dial down the acidity a touch, but this is a quibble rather than a criticism.<br/><br/>A star dish was foie gras terrine with eel, pain d’epices and applestroop (Dutch apple syrup). The foie gras was silky smooth and had deep flavour, the apple providing some balance of acidity, the eel adding an extra dimension to the dish; this was seriously good food (17/20).<br/><br/>Wild turbot with a Viennese crust and vin jaune sauce had excellent fish that was precisely cooked, though the sauce seemed just a touch sweet to me (14/20, more for the fish alone).<br/><br/>Between three of us we were able to try a trio of different main courses. Longhorn beef aged for 60 days came with miso mustard sauce and confit of heritage carrots, two different cuts of tender beef (15/20). Roast mallard came with an excellent celeriac croustillant and bigarade sauce (15/20) and woodcock was served with Perigueux sauce (a sauce flavoured with truffles and madeira) and a gratin of Cevenne onion and 32 month aged Comte cheese. This was the most impressive of the main courses, the cooking accurate, the sauce rich and the gratin full of flavour (16/20). <br/><br/>Cheeses were supplied from the main Paris market and in excellent condition. A pre-dessert of verjus granite with rosehip from the garden was light and refreshing, the rosehip flavour nicely controlled (15/20). I preferred this to the Valrhona Jivara chocolate and praline bar with miso salted caramel ice cream and cocoa nibs. The ice cream was excellent but the texture of the bar seemed a little softer than I recall it at a previous visit (14/20).<br/><br/> Petit fours comprised a Passe Crassane pear financier, sea salt caramel, passion fruit jelly and raspberry taffy tuile (14/20). The bill with accompanying wines and coffee came to £93 a head before tip. Service was excellent as ever. I continue to be very impressed by the cooking at Dysart. There are little tweaks that could improve things in places, but the best dishes are very impressive indeed, and here is clearly a genuinely talented chef. <br/><br/>---Previous Experience---<br/>The Dysart (formerly The Dysart Arms) is a pub in the smart Petersham area of Richmond, which in recent years has gradually transitioned from “pub that does food” to “restaurant with a bar”. This has much to do with the current head chef, Kenneth Culhane, who won the Roux Scholarship in 2010, and who had previously worked at Patrick Guilbaud in Dublin. The chef has his own garden to grow many of the vegetables and herbs used on the menu.<br/><br/>The dining room is fairly rustic, with stone floor and well-spaced tables without tablecloths. Lighting is limited, hence the murky photos. There is a set menu available in the evening at £19.95 for three courses in addition to the a la carte. There is also a tasting menu at £49.50, with a full vegetarian tasting menu also available; we tried the tasting menu on our first visit, and a la carte in the second. The carefully composed wine list had choices such as Shaw and Smith Sauvignon Blanc 2012 at £42 for a wine that you can find in the high street for £15, Chateau Musar 1998 at £69 for a wine that retails at £36, and a relative bargain in the form of Guigal Chateau d’Ampuis 2001 at £125 for a wine that will set you back £100 to buy in a shop.<br/><br/>An August 2013 meal began with a few nibbles served on a board. Scottish salmon sashimi topped a little ball of crisp sushi rice with smoked lime and vanilla and Vietnamese coriander. Cumin polenta came with fresh herbs and confit lemon. A delicate Parmesan shortbread was topped with Bloody Mary jelly and Pork head Kromesky came with a Mejdool date, pickled chilli and hyssop. This was all a far cry from a pub Scotch egg, the nibbles being of a high standard; in particular the salmon worked well, and the Parmesan biscuit was excellent (15/20).<br/><br/>Two breads were offered, both made from scratch in the kitchen. A Roscoff onion and courgette flower pain de mie was one, the other an Irish soda bread and fennel pollen butter. The pain de mie was rich and enjoyable, but the soda bread was particularly impressive, remarkably light; apparently this is due to a two stage baking process, but the effect is a world away from the dense soda breads that I have often eaten (16/20 bread). On the second visit the breads changed, but maintained the standard. Guiness sourdough had excellent crust, the soda bread was as good as before and there was an unusual Hungarian kalacs bread with pear and paprika.<br/><br/>Foraged chicken-of-the-woods mushroom was an amuse-bouche, topped with new season garlic, radish leaves and Chateau d’Estoublon olive oil. This was very pleasant rather than thrilling (14/20). I was quite taken aback by the next dish, charred mackerel with kombu, braised daikon, ginger and champagne. This was superb, the mackerel beautifully cooked, the Japanese-influenced sauce light and refreshing, the ginger going really well with the fish. This was serious cooking (17/20).<br/><br/>Veal sweetbreads had good texture, served with black truffle vinaigrette and fresh almonds (15/20). Wild stone bass was another star dish, served with a little block of celeriac, spiced herbal kaffir lime and green chilli sauce. The fish was timed beautifully, having enough strength of flavour to cope with the lively spicy sauce (16/20). Beef was served in two forms, a fillet and also a slow-cooked feather blade, served with heritage carrots, sumac and miso mustard sauce. The fillet was fine but the feather blade was impressive, with deep flavour and surprisingly tender, the hint of mustard going nicely with the meat (15/20). On a second visit grouse was very good, the bird not too gamey, tender and paired with girolles and little spheres of apple to provide acidity (15/20).<br/><br/>Blood orange sorbet, jasmine and Alphonso mango was a refreshing pre-dessert (14/20). The Valrhona Jivara chocolate and praline bar with miso salted caramel ice cream with grue de caco was excellent, the rich chocolate nicely accentuated by the slight saltiness of the caramel (15/20). Burnt honey custard with Chablis apple had good texture (15/20), whilst greengage and figs with nastrurtium flower sorbet came with a superb sesame tuile (15/20). The petit fours were also of a high standard. Cornish sea salt caramel and passion fruit and roasted coffee pate de fruits were very good (15/20), but the greengage and brown butter financier was remarkable, delicate and with just enough sharpness from the fruit (17/20). <br/><br/>The bill came to £104 a head, but that was with the tasting menu, plenty of good wine and pre-dinner drinks. On a second visit the bill was £86 a head, including pre-dinner drinks and coffee. If you ordered modest wine and went a la carte then a realistic bill might be around the £70 a head level all in. My third and fourth meal here confirmed the standard of cooking.<br/><br/>Service throughout the evening was excellent, with wine carefully topped up, the staff friendly. This meal was quite a revelation to me, as I had no real expectations of it. I based the visit on just a solitary tip from someone I know, and indeed at this point there is very little in the way of reviews to be found for it. Despite the lack of fanfare, the standard of the cooking is extremely high, and there are certainly worse restaurants than this with Michelin stars. In these days of over-hyped central London openings, it is great to find a place quietly turning out lovely food. Dysart is a hidden gem to which I will most certainly be returning regularly.