Pollen Street Social

Pollen Street Social
The exterior of Pollen Street Social
Restaurant information
Established	2011; 6 years ago (2011)
Chef	Jason Atherton
Food type	Modern European
Rating	(Michelin Guide 2011)
Street address	Pollen Street
City	London, W1
Country	United Kingdom
Seating capacity	60
Other information	Nearest station: Oxford Circus
Website	www.pollenstreetsocial.com

Pollen Street Social is a restaurant in London, England, run by chef Jason Atherton. It was Atherton's first UK solo restaurant, and was named the best new UK restaurant by the Good Food Guide, and the best new fine-dining restaurant in London by Time Out. It currently holds one Michelin star, which it gained within a year of opening. Elements in the restaurant such as the dessert bar have been subsequently included in Atherton's other restaurants. It has a current rating of 3 out of 5 for food hygiene on the Scores on the Doors website up from 2 based on a review on 30 March 2015.

Chef Jason Atherton had previously worked for Gordon Ramsay for ten years before opening his first restaurant, Table No. 1 in Shanghai. In 2011, he opened his first UK based restaurant, Pollen Street Social, which became his flagship location. The name came from the location of the restaurant, and Atherton described the "social" name saying, "I spend quite a lot of time in New York, and places like Stanton Social are popping up; and it's based around people being able to use a fine-dining restaurant for anything they want, not just for the food, but for the atmosphere, for the Champagne, for the private areas, for the bar. So it's a social place." It was funded by twenty years of Atherton's savings, as well as several minor investors in addition to a single private investor who owns 25%. He was relieved that there was a reasonable gap after the opening of Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, due to the buzz caused by Blumenthal's restaurant. The restaurant is located at 8-10 Pollen Street, London, where previously a Pitcher & Piano public house was located. Prior to opening the restaurant, he opened a pop-up restaurant for two days in October 2010 to preview the menu to be served at Pollen Street Social.

The interior of the restaurant is split into two separate rooms, with the bar located away from the main dining area which seats sixty diners. The tables in the dining room are located around a central service area, while the kitchen is at the back of the room, near the dessert bar. The dessert bar allows diners to watch the pastry chefs prepare the desserts. Elements from Pollen Street Social have been introduced to other restaurants run by Atherton. These include the dessert bar, which has been replicated in Atherton's Singapore based Pollen restaurant. Atherton described the most used piece of equipment at the restaurant as a Thermomix, a blender which also heats the food which is used for purées and making hollandaise sauce. The kitchen also has a plancha grill and a wood-burning stove.