Four Notting Hill set lunches to eat before Carnival
Carnival takes W11 on 30 and 31 August — these four set lunches all run before it
Notting Hill Carnival lands on 30 and 31 August, and for two days W11 belongs to the sound systems. The set menus do not run on either of them: every one of these four is a weekday lunch, or in one case Friday and Saturday. Which makes this the week to eat well in Notting Hill, before the barriers go up.
Four of them, all a walk from the parade route, from £24 for two courses to a £65 Michelin-starred three. Every price, day and window below came off the venue's own menu.
01 · The Shed
Notting Hill
Two courses £24 or three £28, Tuesday to Friday, four minutes from Notting Hill Gate.
The Gladwin brothers' Notting Hill original, on Palace Gardens Terrace, and the closest of the four to the Gate. The cooking is farm-to-fork in the literal sense: wild, foraged and locally grown produce, much of it off the family farm in Sussex, served under the shabby-chic shed roof. The Farm-to-Fork lunch is short and seasonal — a hand dived Scottish scallop, then lamb with butter broad beans, peas and radish, then honeycomb with dark chocolate and chantilly. Two courses are £24, three are £28, Tuesday to Friday from midday to 3pm.
02 · Mazi
Notting Hill
Two courses £24.95 or three £29.95, Monday to Friday, three minutes from the Gate.
Modern Greek on Hillgate Street, a few doors off Notting Hill Gate and the shortest walk on this list. It has been there long enough to be a fixture rather than an opening. The set lunch runs to tzatziki made with only a pinch of garlic and courgette cakes with a cucumber and mint dip, and finishes on a chocolate mousse with wild cherries and Greek coffee crumble. Two courses £24.95, three £29.95, midday to 3pm — and Monday to Friday, the widest run of days here.
03 · The Barbary Notting Hill
Notting Hill
A two-course lunch prix fixe at £28, Wednesday to Friday, Westbourne Grove.
North African, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cooking on Westbourne Grove, ten minutes up from Notting Hill Gate and nearer the top end of the route. The lunch prix fixe is £28 for two courses: datterini tomatoes with a burnt tomato dressing and ricotta salata, then half a coffee rub poussin with piquillo pepper and jus gras. The dessert on the card is an olive oil ice cream. Wednesday to Friday only, so Friday the 28th is the last sitting before the weekend.
04 · Caractère
Notting Hill
Three courses for £65 at a Michelin-starred lunch, Friday and Saturday only.
The most expensive thing on the list, and the only one that runs into the weekend. Caractère holds a Michelin star and sits in a former Notting Hill pub near Westbourne Park, five minutes from the station. The set lunch is three courses for £65: celeriac cacio e pepe with extra aged balsamic, steamed cod with stuffed mussels, saffron and tarragon, then 75% Peruvian chocolate with hazelnut and salted caramel. Friday and Saturday, midday to 1.45pm — which makes Saturday the 29th the last set lunch in the postcode before Carnival.
All four are on All Set with the full menu, the serving window and a direct booking link. None of them runs on Carnival Sunday or Monday — Friday the 28th is the last weekday sitting, with Caractère open on Saturday the 29th after that.