It seems that I’ve missed posting about Kensington Street Social somehow. So putting it in since I have a reference to this visit in my post about Cirrus. This post was written back in 2016, so the details should reflect my thoughts quite accurately.
First was Commune Social. Then, City Social. And the tidbit of gossip I got from there was that there was going to be a Jason Atherton establishment in Australia. And here it is, Kensington Street Social.
City Social was Jason Atherton’s newest restaurant at the time, and its opening was the reason I found out about it at all. Now I’m gonna globetrot in his path! Or something. I was really glad to have visited; shortly after my dining experience here, this place was awarded a Michelin Star. I’m really starting to enjoy visiting restaurants where I have no expectations, because when it delivers, it’s amazing. It was definitely a fantastic experience!
I learned of a fellow called Jason Atherton not too long before I was due to visit Shanghai. He had opened a new restaurant in London called City Social, and upon further research, I discovered that he had what appeared to be a near-global empire of restaurants. My trip in 2014 spanned three countries, and thus began my own journey to sample the Social chain.
I was full of curiosity about the presence of a Western restaurant in Shanghai. Sure, it’s the international hub of China, but society and culture there caused me concern about the restaurant’s consistency and success – in a way it was a great opportunity to begin benchmarking restaurants and service levels around the world. The restuarant was an open courtyard, and in a preliminary visit before actually going, we were advised that the food portions were very small – but luckily I had known that already, it being fancy and tapas style, so I was prepared. The downside was, I had never ordered tapas style food for more than four people, so it became awkward when we were dividing tiny portions into six! I should have doubled all the orders, and that would have been enough.
