Disclaimer: The food at ONE08 Marylebone Lane (http://www.108marylebonelane.com) is good.  Although simple and increasingly unoriginal, it was a solid execution of scallops with mango and lime salsa for starters.  My crab linguine main was rich, meaty and garnished with perfectly cooked prawns and asparagus spears.  So good, in fact, that I completely forgot my own rule of photographing everything before tucking in, hence why askew cutlery appears in most of the pictures below.  P declared his Ribeye with peppercorn sauce and (now obligatory) triple-cooked chips his favourite restaurant dish of the year.  And this is a year that includes the same dish at Heston Blumenthal’s Dinner so you can draw your own conclusions.  The only disappointment being a slightly mediocre sachertorte but it was an anomaly in an otherwise excellent meal.  Head Chef Norman Farquharson is clearly ambitious and talented, which makes the comments I’m about to make seem all the more uncharitable.  But my problem with ONE08 Marylebone Lane (or is it 108 Marylebone Lane? The issues start before we’ve even begun) is that the concept is utterly half-baked.  

The website promises “where possible we source our produce and goods from local Marylebone businesses.  They provide the area with a rich and plentiful supply of stunning produce and it is our pleasure to help provide them with another platform to sell and promote their products within a village setting.”  

So far so good.  Marylebone village is indeed blessed with many excellent artisan food producers such as the The Ginger Pig, La Fromagerie and Biggles Sausages, all of whom are name-checked on the menu.  But these days, name-checking suppliers is table stakes for restaurants of this calibre.  You’re more likely to remark on it if your steak doesn’t come with a birth certificate and family pedigree.   

I thought the Marylebone village concept was going to put to work much harder.  I was hoping the menu would include a (beautiful, hand-drawn) map of all the local providers with details of their specialities and how to find them.  I thought there would be photographs of these local food heroes on the walls or the opportunity to buy samples of their wares from an enticing pantry area (for a master-class on combining dining with retailing see www.bills-website.co.uk).  Hell, I even went so far as to think that if I took my receipt from ONE08/108 Marylebone Lane to any of the aforementioned suppliers they might offer me a discount on my purchases.

But it seems I was wrong.  And if I hadn’t read the promotional literature and studied the menu in some detail the concept would have passed me by entirely.  It would be possible to dine here night after night and have no clue about the ‘village shop’ ambition whatsoever.  Which is a real shame because, as concepts go, I genuinely think it’s got legs and it needn’t be gimmicky.  It chimes with so many of the trends around provenance, authenticity and localism that conscientious diners pay attention to, plus if I can come up with 3+ ideas for how to work the concept through the experience in the 5 minutes I spent thinking about it, think what someone with real vision and commitment could come up with?

Sorry ONE08/108 Marylebone Lane but this concept needs more time in the oven.