TOM PARKER BOWLES reviews a new west London wine bar: 'Tilly's will only improve with age'

Hidden away on a Shepherd’s Bush backstreet, in an old pottery studio just behind the Uxbridge Road, sits Tilly’s, a new restaurant and wine bar. By day it’s Bunker Coffee Works, a café and roastery, but at 5pm, the lattes and long blacks are replaced by gildas, margaritas and lots of things on toast. The room, with its sloping ceiling and whitewashed walls, feels like a glorified lean-to, an architectural afterthought with large bar, tiny kitchen and mismatched furniture. Lights are low, disco music blasts from the speakers, and the atmosphere is thickly exuberant.

Scampi fries are the first sign that everything is going to be all right, served with a pint of draught Estrella. Then spicy margaritas, properly tart and made with fresh lime juice – not that awful, cloyingly sweet pre-mix rubbish. This is a bar that knows its stuff.

There’s just one chef in the kitchen, working off one induction hob. A Rational steam oven is, they say, on the way, but for the time being the menu is limited by the lack of kit. We eat good anchovies, Ortiz I reckon, in a slick of grassy olive oil. And gildas: more of those anchovies, impaled upon a cocktail stick alongside a fat olive and sliver of fierce chilli. There’s pan con tomate, intensely sweet and lustily seasoned, piled high upon sourdough toast. And wonderful smoked mackerel pâté, bursting with herbs and acidity, alongside homemade pickles.

Tilly’s smoked mackerel pâté ‘bursts with herbs and acidity’

Tuna crudo is sliced from a fine fish, properly seasoned and scattered with jalapeño, while burnt leeks (our only hot dish) is remarkable, the sort of dish you’d be impressed by at Bouchon Racine, let alone cooked up on a single induction hob. The soft, sweet alliums are studded with shards of walnut, while goat’s curd adds a gentle acidity.

There’s little need for the toast that comes with it, as this is a dish that stands proudly on its own. We drink a robust, well-priced Côtes du Rhône from a serious wine list, and finish with a splodge of dense, fudgy slightly salty chocolate mousse, which tastes just like cake mixture. Service is as near to perfect as you’ll find anywhere, as sweet as it is savvy.

This is hospitality in its purest form, a neighbourhood restaurant with unfiltered charm that will only improve with age. On this most miserable of autumnal nights, Tilly’s is infused with joy.

About £25 per head. Tilly’s, 2B MacFarlane Rd, London W12; tillysw12.com