Cooking our oysters

Review: Ekstedt at the Yard, Whitehall

Ekstedt at the Yard is one of those restaurants that has gone all-in, put the gas and electric out to pasture, and claims to cook the entire menu on wood. This is why there is a mighty pizza oven just by the chef’s table, ensuring an extremely cosy evening no matter how many layers you …

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Laksa

Review: Laxsa, Soho

This year we’ve been doing a tour of SE Asia without leaving London. So far we’ve eaten Thai at Chet’s, Cambodian at Mamapen, Burmese at Lahpet, Filipino brunch at Kapihan and Laotian at Lao Cafe. Needing a bite of lunch in the middle of town today, we hit up Laxsa, a tiny Malaysian place in …

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Panisse

Review: The Horse Guards, Petworth

The perils of building a pub lunch into a proper walk in the country. By “proper” I mean a 16km hike, not a hour’s stroll. And the perils are clear: not eating enough beforehand (worried about not having an appetite) and so getting starving hungry on the walk, making the last hill before the pub …

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Review: Chet’s, Shepherd’s Bush

I remember the first (only?) Thai meal I had in America. This was, admittedly, almost eighteen years ago in California. Huge chunks of chicken breast, capsicum peppers, baby sweetcorn, all bathed in a sauce that was gunky and thick with coconut cream and flavoured with… well, nothing. Just the mildest hint of some familiar Thai …

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Pork toast

Review: Mamapen, Soho

Right in the middle of Soho is apparently the only place doing Cambodian food in London: Mamapen at The Sun & 13 Cantons pub. I’m not sure how long that statement will stay true? I’ve only spent a few days in Cambodia and didn’t search out a lot of local food (indeed, the only street …

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Review: Ekstedt at the Yard, WhitehallReview: Laxsa, SohoReview: The Horse Guards, PetworthReview: Chet’s, Shepherd’s BushReview: Mamapen, Soho

Review: The Tolcarne Inn, Newlyn

Categories:

Pubs, Rest of UK, Restaurant Reviews

25 July 2019

They have it pretty good for seafood in Cornwall. Especially if they’re a seafood restaurant in Newlyn, perhaps the most important fishing harbour in the whole of SW England. We wandered into a fishmonger to buy some fish for supper last night and everything was a third of the price it would be back up country. Not exaggerating. If I lived in Cornwall, I would overdose on fish. Apparently it’s a little trickier as a small restaurant – you can’t go through enough fish to actually buy directly from the market, so you still need to find a fishmonger to keep you in haddock. Even so, it’s going to be at least a day fresher than anything that lands on a London table.

The Tolcarne Inn is very much a no-frills dining room. It’s not really a pub any more, though it has the decor, and it still has rooms upstairs, a menu based on what’s good from the boats chalked up on a board, and a short but useful wine list.

Monkfish and sweetbread

Monkfish and sweetbread

To start we both have monkfish with battered sweetbread, pea mousse and a minty salsa verde. It would be hard for this to not be delicious, and it isn’t. Hang on. I mean it isn’t not delicious, of course. So it is delicious. Got a bit tangled up there, sorry. I proceed…

To mains. My silver mullet is naturally silky and perfectly cooked, with charred spring onions coiled on top along with some bright cubes of beetroot and some plump and vivid orange mussels that have added flavour to the butter. It’s set on a thick dollop of pease pudding, which I confess I’ve had seldom so couldn’t tell you if this was a great specimen. It certainly had a sturdier texture than mash potato and a gently beany flavour. This is a lovely plate of fish.

Ray

Ray

So is Maureen’s blonde ray. Shaved fennel and onion salad is good, along with a sea vegetable that I didn’t recognise and forgot to ask about. We had a bottle of wine quite quickly, you see. The ray was great. The pasta with a sauce of saffrony brown crab that accompanied was f.a.b. and could have stood up as a dish on it’s own. Ate very well with the sturdy white ray meat.

We even squashed in desserts. Lemon verbena posset with raspberries, super-summery and lip-smackingly sharp. Blackcurrant, orange and cardamom pavlova gave up all the flavours it promised in spite of the obvious strength of the blackcurrant. Nice little meringue.

You’ll be up around £40 for 3 courses. So not really pub dining, the price sets it one notch above all but the priciest London dining pubs. But it is veeeeeery good value for the care and attention put into serving up magical local fish beautifully. Good puds, nice atmosphere, decent wine list. Ought to be a candidate for the Top 50 Gastropubs list, really.

Silver mullet and pease pudding

Silver mullet and pease pudding

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Review: Shore, Penzance

Categories:

Fine dining, Rest of UK, Restaurant Reviews

25 July 2019

Shore, Penzance

Shore, Penzance

Let me tell you about Penzance and St Ives, the two towns on the edge of the Land’s End peninsula (or Penwith, as it’s more properly called). One of these towns has winding cobbled lanes absolutely stacked with lovely shops, galleries and cafes, many of which wouldn’t look out of place in Bath or Brighton. It has a pair of beautiful sandy beaches. It has a renowned modern art gallery and the garden studio of Barbara Hepworth. The other town has a handful of serious granite-clad buildings, a town centre looking kinda down-at-heel and missing quite a few shops. It has a harbour and a couple of rather sad hotels on the promenade.

The first town is St Ives, the second is Penzance. But Penzance has one thing that ought to make its chocolate box neighbour jealous: Penzance has Shore.

Stunning mackerel

Stunning mackerel

Chef Bruce Rennie’s restaurant has 24 covers, which is actually mighty impressive given that he works alone in the kitchen. This explains why the menu is a fixed five courses, and why only one of them is hot. I have to admit that I did notice that simplicity. Doesn’t matter though, this is a £60 menu that showcases fantastic produce and a lot of skill and inspiration.

There is a cup of hot umami broth to start us off, along with squid ink crackers and a roll of nutty dark bread with sesame oil to dip in. The first dish is a dark ruby jewel, a little bowl filled with diced sea bream stained burgundy by a beetroot cure. Like a sort of English market garden ceviche.

Mr Pollack

Mr Pollack

Next up is surely a signature dish. Beautiful piece of local mackerel, cured everso gently so that it picks up a slightly sweet flavour, has slightly sturdy flesh, but is still magically translucent with the oily fish flavours not at all covered by vinegars. The bright wasabi sorbet quenelle on top is perfect with it, the radish heat tempered but the flavour still distinct.

Next up, picked crab in a lovely gazpacho-y cold tomato soup with perfect little flavour-bombs of tiny whole heritage tomatoes. And so to the main course: Mr Pollack. He had been roasted to a beautifully slippery softness, but with a surface seared to a really nicely bitter-sweet black. There was a really deeply flavoured green miso broth with him, and some simple green beans. It all came together beautifully.

Beautiful dessert

Beautiful dessert

Dessert was an eyecatching ring of velvety red, filled with a sturdy almondy baked cream (or something!). I must admit, the lovely local strawberries, vivid basil sorbet and lush vanilla cream impressed my taste buds a lot more. The dish as a whole, very pretty.

Shore is an excellent high end seafood restaurant, and if you are coming to Cornwall you should take the trouble to dine here. It’s £60 and the cooking is flawless. The wine pairing was well thought out and for a reasonable £38 we enjoyed every one. And then of course you’ve got the stunning views of the Lands End peninsula on your doorstep…

Cape Cornwall

Cape Cornwall

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Review: Native, London Bridge

Categories:

Fine dining, London, Restaurant Reviews

1 July 2019

Dessert ants

Dessert ants

Normally ants on your ice cream is a source of consternation. But at Native they were there on purpose and added some great zing to a really beautifully made pea pod ice cream.

Native is tucked away in an unpromising spot, almost under a railway arch on a corner at the very start of the A3, surrounded by buildings marked for destruction. They’ve kept the stripped-back post-industrial look inside, with some rather sad looking dead birch trees to represent nature amongst the concrete. Just in case that sounds negative: I really liked the space, and the staff were all friendly and helpful.

Native, near Borough Market

Native, near Borough Market

Starters were a mixed back and a little underwhelming. Kebabbed pigeon marinaded in some punchy spices was very good, but the veg salad with it had an over-strong pickling and the big round flatbread it sat on felt distinctly un-deluxe and oversized for the pigeon. I think they just got seduced into making too literal a kebab. Maureen’s crab salad was a more elegant affair, though just… nice. The Alexanders veloute was in keeping with their foraging philosophy, but Alexanders are frankly dull.

Blessed luck! Things got absolutely cracking with main courses. Maureen’s beef came from a retired dairy cow allowed to roam post-retirement for another 18 months, and the very deeply beefy flavour of the sirloin was startling. It’s a taste I associate only with really well-made

Broccoli and egg main

Broccoli and egg main

gravy, so very awesome to find it in the fibres of the medium-rare steak. The Pomme Anna with it was grand, so was the dark gravy and pickled walnuts. Also went very well with the side dish of scorched hispi we ordered. Dressed with a really salty/cheesy miso, it was truly gnarly cabbage.

My vegetarian main was a stunner too. Roast broccoli stalk. I dunno how they roasted it, but it was brilliant. So was the sticky-silky confit pullet egg on a pile of sweet caramelised onion and scattered with the broccoli flowers. A pleasant green wood sorrel sauce added creamy peppery citrusyness. Real word. Big shout-out to the weird pink pickled things in tempura batter – they were great but I couldn’t identify them and forgot to ask!

White chocolate and marrow

White chocolate and marrow

And so to puddings, as good or better than the mains. I’ve mentioned the pea pod ice cream with wood ants already. Each ant adds a pop of intense but smooth citrus to the mouthful of pure delicate summer that is this pea pod ice cream. What looks like pea shoots are actually vetch shoots, similar taste. Meanwhile I’m scoffing something almost the opposite: a devil concoction of caramelised white chocolate and bone marrow, to be scraped out of the halved length of bone. It’s rich and funky, very good. My sister’s fermented apple tart with thick hay cream is excellent and across the table apparently cauliflower cheesecake is also great.

There are inventing and playing with food in a confident and very satisfying way at Native and I hope they go from strength to strength. Three courses will be £40 or so before drinks and I loved it. I’ll probably go for the tasting menu next time. Yes, there will definitely be a next time.

Retired dairy cow, yum

Retired dairy cow, yum

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Review: Kitchen Table at Bubbledogs, Soho

Categories:

Fine dining, London, Michelin

1 July 2019

Kitchen Table at Bubbledogs

Kitchen Table at Bubbledogs

Maybe Kitchen Table at Bubbledogs hasn’t got the oddest name of any Michelin 2-star restuarant, but it’s got to be in the top three. Out the front is a champagne and hotdog bar, which explains the name, and I was pleased to see they specialise in small champagne producers at sensible prices.

In the back it’s very much dining as theatre, with the 20 guests seated at a semi-circular bar around an open kitchen where James Knappett and his team prepare your 14 courses. Actually closer to 20 courses. The experience itself is wonderful; there’s plenty of action to watch in the kitchen, the chefs are friendly, deeply knowledgable and happy to share. We had a long chat with James over tea at the end. This is a place to relish the food, not to have a good ol’ natter with friends while you barely notice what’s being put under your nose.

Oyster and elderflower

Oyster and elderflower

So I’m not gonna give a blow-by-blow account of 20 courses. The first bite was lovely though, a delicately poached oyster with elderflower granita and a smoky tang underneath. A bit later on a filthy bit of wickedness: two sliced of perfect crispy chicken skin sandwiching lightly spicy bacon jam and marscapone.

The first really epic dish, though, was the sea trout done two ways. First, a smoky skewer of belly with a powerful flavour of scorched fat and cut through by thin slivers of rhubarb perched on top. Then a more meaty piece of the vivid amber fish, with girolles and a silky, earthy, creamy cep sauce. Really blissful. So was the scallop with white asparagus, Exmoor caviar and a delicate smoky foam.

Chicken skin

Chicken skin

It only got better. Dish of the night for me was orzo cooked with brown crab, the rich flavour sliced through with a powerful dose of aniseedy tarragon oil and a punchy reduced sweet tomato puree. Topped with white claw meat. If I had an entire bowl of this every evening for the rest of my days I’d be in heaven.

Oh, but then I also have to shout out the asparagus tart with foaming orange hollandaise and a bunch of sticky rich orange/citrus flavours inside. And the salad of insanely pop-fresh peas, strawberries, grelot onions, champagne butter and shaved truffle. Such a great combo. And the lamb with rose yogurt and… oh, but wait.

Adding truffle to chocolate

Adding truffle to chocolate

Moment of respect for the 196 day aged beef.

Damn, that was an amazing piece of beef. Such a powerful almost yeasty flavour and so sturdy in texture yet soft as a pillow to eat. Eating pillows? Maybe not my best. But the beef was stunning.

And then a lovely canter through a half-dozen wonderful sweet things. Loved the simplicity of strawberry, basil and burrata. Absolutely gloried in the powerful warm summer hay flavour of the woodruff snow heaped over the sour cream ice cream and beetroot candy. The gooseberry and almond finale was pretty as a picture and blast of sour and milky freshness.

Peas, truffle and strawberry

Peas, truffle and strawberry

We had tea to finish, because their amazing jug of fresh foraged herbs for tea was just so beautiful. Maureen’s dried fig leaf tea sticks in my mind for a wonderful bitter-sweet herbal flavour. Richly silky chocolate mousse with plenty of truffle grated over was a fine finale.

The price of the menu sails over £150 a head, but an evening at the Kitchen Table is a proper event and some of the best cooking in the country. There’s theatre in the surroundings, the open kitchen, but also in the vigorous use of British foraged ingredients, made to star and shine alongside more traditional luxuries. Go.

Woodruff snow and beetroot

Woodruff snow and beetroot

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Review: Ikoyi, St James

Categories:

Fine dining, London, Michelin, Restaurant Reviews

1 July 2019

Plantain and scotch bonnet

Plantain and scotch bonnet

Our first dish was a bit of a statement of intent. A crescent of plantain dusted with deep pink powder and a blob of vivid orange smoked scotch bonnet mayo. It looks like abstract art and tastes explosive and unexpected on a fine dining menu. Which this is, nine courses and a proper price tag. Ikoyi.

Next up is cassava, fried to a nice crispiness a bit like a very good chip, with a scrape of brain on top that doesn’t really register. But you have to love all the exotic ideas and ingredients on this menu, and the scrunchy cassava chip is excellent. There’s a pile of Exmoor caviar on top of a smoky tigernut and tomato mousse. Also a soft piece of hake and wilted greens covered in a deliciously spicy and creamy veloute.

There’s an outstanding lobster course done in three parts. Beautifully cooked tail makes one. Then a bowl of deeply dark gunk made with the brown meat. And two little blinis of dressed

Lobster three ways

Lobster three ways

lobster draped with a sliver of delicately pickled beetroot. Charred turnip with a spicy banga sauce is okay.

The main course of soft and chewy grilled iberico pork with clam sauce is delicious but knocked off the plate by the bowl of jollof rice with crab custard stirred into it and tangled greens on top. This is quite simply the best dish of rice I’ve ever had and I would eat it every day if I could.

Pudding is an afterthought of wild rice ice cream. Apparently desserts aren’t their thing.

I don’t care too much. Ikoyi is exciting and exotic, full of ingredients and combinations I’ve never enjoyed like this and am unlikely to find again. Also full of smoke and spice, two of my favourite things. It’s a great bonus that it is all deeply delicious and beautifully cooked. At £100 a head before drinks I guarantee you will remember the tasting menu here. Ikoyi is well worth your time and dosh.

Jollof deliciousness

Jollof deliciousness

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