The Palomar

Three chefs came over from Machneyuda in Jerusalem in 2014 and brought the polenta with them, and the bread still arrives steaming in the tin it was baked in.

Why go

Layo and Zoe Paskin, the brother and sister behind The End nightclub, opened this on Rupert Street in 2014 as a spin-off of Machneyuda, the market restaurant in Jerusalem. Three of its chefs came in as partners and Tomer Amedi arrived as head chef "fresh from the kitchens of the original" (Londonist). The building is organized around one long open kitchen bar that doubles as the pass, and the 2022 refit extended it rather than replacing it with tables. The venue describes the cooking as drawing on "the rich cultures of Southern Spain, North Africa and the Levant" (The Palomar). Twelve years in, the Good Food Guide's judgment is that plenty of London has copied the format, which is a compliment to 2014 and a warning about 2026.

Order this / avoid

• Order: kubaneh, which the Good Food Guide calls "an essential accompaniment whatever you order, a puffy dome of golden-brown bread." ref Then the polenta Jerusalem style, and shakshukit, which the menu itself calls a "deconstructed kebab." ref
• Avoid: a booth or a back table if the kitchen is what you came for. Sit at the counter.

What locals & experts say

• Ben O'Norum, Londonist (June 2014), on the dish that travelled from Jerusalem: polenta "Jerusalem style", "a signature of Machneyuda and surely very soon a classic here too", and on his overall verdict, "The Palomar is culturally exciting, culinarily exhilarating and run by people whose passion is evident with every interaction." ref
• The same review, on the opening weeks: an onglet steak arrived with bone marrow butter where "the butter unfortunately is frozen. An irritating yet easy mishap for a new and busy kitchen to make." Twelve years old and quoted as launch-period evidence rather than a current judgment. ref
• The Good Food Guide, rated Good, on the seat and on the age of the idea: the energy "centres on the stools at the counter facing the open kitchen", and "The Palomar may no longer feel like the hippest venue in town, partly because so many places have copied the formula." Its close is the case for going anyway: "when the flames are shooting up behind the counter and your new-best-friend chef is offering a shot, there are few more thrilling perches around Soho." ref
• Industry votes: none. All 589 rows in our London chef-vote corpus were checked and no working chef names The Palomar. Its owners are on the other side of the ledger, naming twelve other London venues between them.

Good to know

• Where: 34 Rupert Street, W1D 6DN, the Soho and Chinatown border, in the middle of Theatreland.
• Booking: up to one month ahead for parties of six or fewer, up to two months for seven to fourteen. Walk-ins are taken when a table is free.
• Operator: small group. The Paskins also run The Barbary and The Barbary Next Door in Neal's Yard and Evelyn's Table, so this is a founder-led group rather than a single chef-owner or a rollout.
• Hygiene: Westminster rated the kitchen 2, improvement necessary, on 20 September 2025, with hygienic food handling 15, structural condition 15 and confidence in management 10, where higher is worse. No re-rating was pending when the register was read on 30 July 2026. The rating is disclosed here and it is the reason this would not go in anyone's first three. ref
• Michelin: a Bib Gourmand is on record for the Great Britain and Ireland 2019 guide. The cached 2026 London standings we work from cover stars only, so the current position is unconfirmed here.

Jeff's take (his words)

Jeff saved The Palomar with no note. His raw saved-places export carries an empty Note for this row, so nothing above is in his voice and no order is attributed to him.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

should-visit — Worth rearranging an evening for, and the seat is the recommendation. Machneyuda in Jerusalem sent three of its chefs and its head chef Tomer Amedi to Rupert Street in 2014, and the dish that came with them is polenta served Jerusalem style under mushroom ragout, which Ben O'Norum called 'a signature of Machneyuda and surely very soon a classic here too'. The kubaneh still arrives steaming in its pot. What holds it below the top rung is honest: the Good Food Guide says the room 'may no longer feel like the hippest venue in town, partly because so many places have copied the formula', not one of 589 London industry votes names it, and Westminster gave the kitchen an FSA 2 in September 2025 with all three components sub-satisfactory. Take the counter facing the pass, where the guide finds 'few more thrilling perches around Soho', and go in knowing the rating.