LS Review: Journey London in Chelsea

Editorial Rating:

Address:459 King’s Rd, Chelsea, London SW10 0LR

Opening hours: Mon – Week 5 pm-00 Weekends 12 pm-00,

Price: Starters from £8, Mains from £15

Text: Liam Woodlands-Mooney

Journey describe them selfs as “A restaurant to feed the explorers, a 3 story Renaissance Revival building on King’s Road”

Journey is the latest restaurant from the people behind ABQ – the Breaking Bad influenced cocktail bar, The Bunyabi – The Naked restaurant and The Bletchley that also lies within the same building as the newly opened Journey (October 2019).

Lollipop group, who runs all of the above restaurants has taken over World’s End Distillery in Chelsea (now called Chelsea Fun House) with this travel-themed restaurant who offers diners an experience based around travelling.

From the outside 459 Kings Road remains its authentic Victorian self. However, after arriving at ‘Journey’ and having our coats exchanged for passports for our ‘travels’, my friend and I were escorted through an extravagant and beautifully modern interior, sumptuously furnished and colourful with a DJ providing a relaxing and upbeat environment… also there’s a unicorn head on the wall spouting champagne for a stroke and a nominal fee.

The staff were very friendly from ‘take off’ to ‘landing’ and explained to us how the menu works. You pick a journey from the four options; Silk Road, The Raj, Castilla or Eastern Block. Each journey has 4 set courses. Some of them have more than one option. There is also an entirely vegan parallel of every journey readily available that my friend and I decided on. Each course originates from a specific country (see below) and is paired accordingly with an equally native drink. Simple. The food, on the other hand, was complex, artfully presented and utterly delicious.

The Silk Road (China -> Pakistan/India -> Persia -> The Mediterranean)
Castilla (Peru -> Mexico -> Spain -> The Philippines)
Eastern Block (The Baltics -> Poland -> Romania/Bulgaria -> Mother Russia)
The Raj (Great Britain -> Pakistan/India -> USA -> Kenya)

After dinner, we explored the other elegant and stylish floors before checking in our passports once more and leaving feeling full, delightfully dazed and well-travelled. Definitely worth a visit!