Baked rice and duck

Review: Asador 44, Cardiff

The food scene in Wales has improved beyond measure over the last decade, with the charge led (I would argue) by Ynyshir on the fine dining front. It sometimes feels like half the best places to eat in Wales are headed by alumni. That aside, Cardiff itself has also burgeoned with good eats; The Plate …

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Scallop roe hash browns

Review: Heaneys, Cardiff

Heaneys is a handsome, friendly, comfortable and capable fine dining restaurant in the nice Pontcanna suburb of Cardiff. Thirty minutes walk, or a ten minute taxi ride on a rainy December night, from the Castle. We went with the long tasting menu, because ’tis the season to over-indulge after all! And a beef fat old …

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Pheasant

Review: Crispin, Clapham

We moved to Clapham five years ago, and the only small independent restaurant that critics and bloggers were ever bothered with – the Dairy – immediately closed. Roll on five years, and we’ve now got Crispin at Studio Voltaire, the third or fourth outpost of this lil’ bunch of small plate places. Let’s hope they …

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Shepherd's pie

Review: Cinnamon Bazaar, Covent Garden

Can I write a fair review here? We met up at Cinnamon Bazaar with friends, six of us for a sociable dinner a few weeks before Christmas (though close enough for all the decorations to be up in the streets and the festive menus to be popping up in the restaurants). So perhaps my mind …

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Edamame at Drunken Lobster

Review: Drunken Lobster, Ventnor

The Isle of Wight needs a bridge. How else am I to get over more regularly for good food? Looks to me that the Solent at its narrowest point is only a bit longer than the Isle of Skye bridge, so it shouldn’t be too hard. Loads more people live on and visit Wight than …

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Review: Asador 44, CardiffReview: Heaneys, CardiffReview: Crispin, ClaphamReview: Cinnamon Bazaar, Covent GardenReview: Drunken Lobster, Ventnor

Review: Lake Road Kitchen, Ambleside

Categories:

Fine dining, Rest of UK, Restaurant Reviews

27 September 2015

Lake Road Kitchen

Lake Road Kitchen


UPDATE Oct 2016 – just been back to LRK and it’s better than ever. They’ve switched to a no choice tasting menu, 5 or 8 courses, and we enjoyed snails braised in homemade grain miso, slow-cooked octopus with fresh cheese and lovage oil, best piece of guinea fowl I ever tasted with hedgehog mushrooms and cep sauce, broad bean and pea stew with homemade bean miso and a sea buckthorn eclair with scorched meringue. LRK is such an original, can’t recommend it highly enough. Here’s the original review:

I’m going to do the Lake Road Kitchen in Ambleside, and my readers, an injustice. Because it’s really far too long after our meal there to be writing this review. Things just got in the way. On the other hand, it might be interesting to see what lasting impressions a meal leaves you with, in this case almost a month later. I’ve had hundreds of fine meals over the years and there’s no very strong rhyme or reason to which ones stay with me. Originality, location and occasion are probably more important than the simple quality of the food. Noma and L’Enclume really stand out, but then I will always remember the very amazing Pri Lojetsu in Slovenia and the boldly eccentric Stravaigin in Glasgow.

Noma & L’Enclume are both very relevant to Lake Road Kitchen, where they have definitely taken the Scandinavian food trend and transported it to the mountainous north-west of England. So: a kitchen window framed by rough sawn-wood planking. A dish of butter roasted hen-of-the-woods mushroom. Foraged ingredients on every plate. Bottles of fermenting vegetables and fruit on a shelf in the corner.

Hen of the woods

Hen of the woods

That hen-of-the-woods main was really very good. Scattered with hazelnuts and served with bright, fresh yogurt to cut the buttery/earthy taste, along with a bit of acidity from nasturtium leaves and flowers. Maureen had a rich roast veal dish with charred lettuce and sweetcorn, great eating. I’ve started in the middle, since the hen (a huge fungus, by the by) was what I remember best. That and the pre-starter, a wooden board scattered with deep-fried nuggets of partridge to be picked up and dipped into little puddled of fermented wild garlic puree and fresh home-made yogurt. These were so darn good and more-ish I came within an inch of ordering another. Lucky I didn’t, as I remember we were stuffed by the time we left.

My starter was a gooey slow-cooked yolk and an even slower-cooked piece of sticky… oh drat, forgotten already. Pig cheek? Anyway, the nifty bit I do remember was the scattering of preserved wild garlic seed pods. Essentially these are treated the same way capers are treated in the

Charming carrots

Charming carrots

Mediterranean, and the result are funky little garlic hits. Magic! Maureen’s carrot starter was astonishing (astonishing because she loathes carrots, so why order a carrot starter?), and there was something in the goat-butter roasted carrot that tasted absolutely wow.

I know we had puds ‘cos I’ve got the photos, and my buckwheat pastry was scrummy, but it’s clear in my memory at least that the savoury courses were the stars of the show.

So there we go, that’s me reviewing from month-old memory. Sorry guys! We had a superb meal at the Lake Road Kitchen, the service was excellent, and I’ll be going back the next time we’re in the Lake District. If you make a special trip up to the Lakes for the delights of L’Enclume, I reckon Lake Road Kitchen should be number 2 on your hitlist. It’ll be interesting to see if it still lives in my memory in a couple of years – given the originality on show, it ought to.

A pretty pud indeed

A pretty pud indeed

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Review: The Black Swan, North Yorks

Categories:

Fine dining, Michelin, Pubs, Rest of UK, Restaurant Reviews

20 August 2015

Neat bar snacks

Neat bar snacks

They seem to be having a good time at the Black Swan, rummaging the fields and hedgerows for wild ingredients and making all kinds of concoctions and decoctions out of them. As it was a balmy day I enjoyed a bright green and refreshing glass of apple marigold lemonade to begin with. Other enticing cordials were offered, and our lunchtime tasting menu had plenty of forage on it.

The bar downstairs is a dark and properly pub-y space, although I don’t think the Swan makes any pretense of still being the local boozer; it’s a fine restaurant in the bucolic North Yorkshire countryside that happens to be in an old pub building. The dining room upstairs is hung with a changing display of guest artists and is otherwise bright, airy and country. Staff are friendly. Again, for a nominal “pub” the wine list was surprisingly high end, with all but one wine by the glass over £10. So: it’s fine dining.

A very carroty salad

A very carroty salad

The nibbles started down in the bar. Nice fresh radishes in a very good mushroom-y soil, neat scotch quails eggs with a tangy piccalilli sauce. We went for the five course menu, and our starter was a carrot salad. Roast carrot, raw carrot, radish, pickled baby turnips, a few sharp leaves and some hazelnuts bits. This might have come out better with some more deep, cooked flavours but there was just too much raw carrot. It was a nice scrunchy salad, I’ll grant you. Our fish was trout, with a glistening blob of smoked squid ink sauce on top, radishes and a “radish broth”. Which sounded interesting but was essentially chicken stock in flavour. So: inventive combo, but not a gigantic success.

They did a proper pub thing for the main. Lamb, new potatoes and mint: it’s nigh impossible to fail to please with those. And this was a great dish, with a fantastically flavoured piece of belly cooked to perfection and a firmer piece of meat (oops, I forget which!) equally well treated. Neatly presented too, and they even found room for some pickled radish! I guess the garden overfloweth with radishes this week?

That left one, that's a porcini lolly!

That left one, that’s a porcini lolly!

Pre-desserts were three charming ice cream lollies, and the first one gets a prize for most awesomest ice cream this summer; it was a porcini lolly! The dessert looked small, delicate and beautiful with flower petals scattered about so it was surprising how high it punched in flavour. The honey elements, such as the crunchy honeycomb, were all made with a really potent heather honey, the flower petals were a strong mix of bitter and perfume, the little yellow blobs sang lemons and the elderflower sorbet was very clean. Very small dessert, to be honest, but very good. Then again a couple of nice petit fours pretty much filled us up!

Chef Tommy Banks at the Black Swan is obviously thoughtful and inventive, and very clearly in love with the cottage garden they’ve got growing out back. Some of the dishes were not-quite-hits, but all in all I really enjoyed my lunch at The Black Swan as there was so much to like too. I have a good sense that they’re only going to get better. At £55 for the menu it feels about fair, though you could spend a lot on wine.

Beautifully presented pud

Beautifully presented pud

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Review: Fraiche, Birkenhead

Categories:

Fine dining, Michelin, Rest of UK, Restaurant Reviews

19 July 2015

Fraiche

Fraiche

Interesting. Sometimes, as a sort of car-crash voyeurism, I like to check out the bad TripAdvisor reviews of restaurants. Not because I’d ever trust them, but because some people’s semi-literate views are hilarious. And for Fraiche I fully expected the same kind of comments I saw for Casamia; “I was so hungry afterwards I had to go and have a kebab” or “I went straight home and had beans on toast”. Because the portions at Fraiche are small. Perfect for me, not for everyone.

Instead the negative reviews (there are few!) gripe about a “lack of atmosphere”. Well, Fraiche is a small dining room; chef Mark only caters for 12 covers, that’s it. It’s a very modern and fun space, with video projectors and some nice lighting. And frankly, I think you bring your own atmosphere. We chatted with the waiters all evening – really great pair of guys, very enthusiastic and informed. When we ate at 5 North Street we had the place entirely to ourselves. Loved it. If you need to be surrounded by a bunch of other sussurating, masticating diners to feel like a place has “atmosphere” then what you’re really after is a Pizza Express. Hey, just my opinion!

Carrot everywhichway

Carrot everywhichway

My opinion of Fraiche is that this chef can cook his socks off. We started with a shot of rhubarb bitters, a magic balance of sweet/sour/bitter and the proper defintion of “amuse bouche”. My mouth was amused and ready for the feast. The “summer tree” was a playful tree prop bedecked with foraged stuff and a lovely piece of air-dried ham. There was a beautiful bright pea and goat curd dish afterwards that I could have eaten all night, followed by a truly knock-out little tartare of scallop with grapefruit and avocado.

Carrot textures next, with crispy chicken skin providing the umami, along with a good sprinkling of summer truffle. Pureed, sorbet, pickled, roasted, tiny sprouts, there was pretty much everything you could do with a carrot on here. The final starter was a really funky pressed block of watermelon contrasted with a crispy salt/fish piece of tuna skin. What I was really loving about the menu at Fraiche was how bright and punchy everything tasted.

Full-on fish flavours

Full-on fish flavours

The sea trout was another great example, a gloriously glistening piece of melt-in-the-mouth fish with a really vivid seaweed butter and plenty of bright orange salty eggs, with herbal notes from aniseedy sprouts and sumac. The main course was lamb (again! It feels like from May to Sept you can’t move for lamb mains on tasting menus!) and it was an outstanding specimen, both of lamb and of finding flavours to make a dish stand out – in this case a beautiful block of pressed aubergine that formed the sweet/savoury backbone of this plate.

The main dessert, following three spiffy palate-cleansers, was a plate of raspberry textures including some lovely jellies and a honey crisp. The magic touch here were the blobs of smoked goat milk yoghurt, a really powerful train-yard flavour that sat perfectly with the rich fruit and lingered on the palate while I waited for a very good selection of well-kept cheeses. Even their cheese board is inventive, each cheese paired with an unusual condiment – pistachio powder was particularly wow.

Aubergine with lamb, lovely

Aubergine with lamb, lovely

So, a cracking tasting menu at Fraiche, and my favourite meal in a long while. It basically stands up in the same league with L’Enclume, Noma, Casamia and co. We took a wine pairing, and they certainly didn’t shy from some whacky options – like the funky Jura vin jaune with our first course. For those of you who like a good nosebag, I must add that this was the first time I’ve ever had a full tasting menu, ordered an additional cheese course, and still left the restaurant feeling comfortably full rather than properly stuffed. Perfect for me, maybe not enough for some. Anyway I loved Fraiche and can’t recommend it enough.

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Review: Pollen Street Social, London

Categories:

Fine dining, London, Michelin, Restaurant Reviews

3 July 2015

I’ve said this before: I don’t like waiters who treat you like some kind of simple-minded rustic come down out of the hills. I fed back to the maitre d’ at Pollen Street Social that our desserts had come too fast, one on top of the other. Oh no sir, that’s how it is meant sir, the first two are small pre-desserts, we time it carefully, blah, blah, blah. Cock. When they put the petit fours on your table while you’re still eating your main dessert, they want the table back.

Pollen Street Social

Pollen Street Social


Now I’ve got that off my chest, how about our eight course tasting menu at Pollen Street Social? Jason Atherton’s flagship restaurant has never dimmed in popularity. It’s a big dining room, comfortable chairs, white linen, and classic Michelin-style service from the staff. Somehow I expected a “Social” to be more… I dunno, sociable? Anyway, that’s what you’re gonna get. The wine list matches; the handful of under fifty quid bottles looking a bit lost and nervous among all their three digit colleagues.

The meal started well with some delicious snack bites; salt/sweet churros to dip in truffle oil, a powerful gulp of mushroom broth under a light parmesan foam, sweet red pepper financiers. The starters took off very nicely from here. White bean soup had another hit of truffle and came with a little beignet of slooooow braised rabbit and tarragon flavours. Next was a tiny bowl of – in appearance – spaghetti bolognese, but which was actually kohlrabi and potato spaghetti with crumbled haggis, and a nice note of thyme through it all. Our third starter was the best yet, a delicious crab salad with specks of black garlic giving it punch, tiny blobs of lemon goo giving it zing, and a puree of the brown crab giving it grunt. Yumyumyum.

Spag bol of haggis and kohlrabi

Spag bol of haggis and kohlrabi


The fish course was good, if restrained. Quite a thick piece of John Dory, roasted crisp on the outside, maybe a tad over on the inside, accompanied by glistening salty cockles and a wilted leaf of wild garlic. Mmm… wild garlic. Two more leaves would’ve been nice.

Our main course was roast lamb, a nice slice of braised chard, some sticky-delicious brown onion puree and mushrooms (though sadly not the hedgehog mushrooms promised – I guess it can be hard to consistently source a wild variety?). The accompanying side, potato fondue with some little blobs of braised lamb and onion, was unctuous heaven. Taken as a whole, a rock-solid main, though it didn’t really keep up the momentum of the starters.

Pretty solid main - lamb, full fat

Pretty solid main – lamb, full fat


So, those three desserts. Admittedly all a bit of a blur (dig-dig). First a muscat grape granite with a delicate foam on top, perfectly decent palate cleanser and unmemorable. The beetroot and blood orange sorbet was also nice. That’s faint praise, that is. And I actively disliked the pink foam it was bathed in. Pink room-temperature foam coating my icy sorbet just had a weird and phlegm-y feel in the mouth. Chilled it would have been fine. The main dessert was the only real cracker here, a cake of sticky flaky pastry with gooey caramel-coated bits of apple nestled within. The pieces of sweet pickled apple alongside were a good touch, but the ice wine vinegar ice-cream was honestly too subtle for a rustic like me. Hey, at least it scores on originality – I’d never seen that flavour before.

For a £90 tasting menu this was really only just up to scratch, perhaps saved by some spiffing starters. As I perused the business cards at the front desk, for the half dozen other outings by Jason Atherton in London, Shanghai and Singapore, I wondered if he might have taken his foot off the pedal back home? This certainly didn’t seem like a meal worth raving about. Jolly good, though.

Apple pud, not refined but yum

Apple pud, not refined but yum

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Review: Montpellier Cafe, Cheltenham

Categories:

Cafes etc., Rest of UK, Restaurant Reviews

21 June 2015

It took us a while to find our local restaurant in Cheltenham. We certainly spent our first year roaming around trying everything; the overpriced but unique Daffodil, the un-ironically retro Number Seven, the decently Swedish Svea, the zut-alors-tres-French L’Artisan, and a bunch more. We may live ten minutes walk from the 2 Michelin star Champignon Sauvage but popping down there every week or two would have a horrible effect on the arteries and waistline!

Proper fish and chips, Montpellier Cafe

Proper fish and chips, Montpellier Cafe

The trouble was, our favourite local restaurant hadn’t opened then. In fact the Montpellier Cafe only opened a few months ago, but we’re now pretty much regulars for brunch, dinner and the occasional cake. I can’t link you – they haven’t troubled themselves with a website, which is a shame because a clean and uncluttered site to match their smart grey-wood-red-white decor would certainly pull in a few punters.

Please, don’t go expecting fine dining miracles. Focus on the fact that main courses in the evening are seldom more than a tenner, and Sunday brunch is a ridiculous £6.50. Ssssh… don’t tell them… but they could charge a couple of quid more for everything on the menu and it would still be good value! Whoever the chef is in the kitchen, he or she just knows how to turn out a well seasoned, balanced, delicious plate of food.

Burger time at Montpellier

Burger time at Montpellier

Brunch first. They knock up a nice eggs benedict, with a properly tangy hollandaise. In spite of that, my order is usually the vegetarian breakfast with a side of black pudding. If that sounds contradictory, it’s because (a) I don’t need all the meat involved in sausage, bacon and black pud, and (b) the veggie breakfast comes with a helping of smashing bubble-and-squeak with just the right amount of leftover brassicas in with the potato and all blackened in places from frying. Mmmmm. The butter-roasted mushrooms are good too.

On to dinner. Well, I can talk to you about a beautifully char-grilled tuna steak, served with fresh asparagus and a jolly punchy sauce vierge. Or a really scrunchy-perfect pub style fish and chips, with creamy/tangy tartare sauce and “mushy peas” made with fresh peas instead – a much lovelier flavour, to my mind. On another occasion we tried their burger; good brioche bun, nicely crunchy skin-on fries, juicy meat cooked pink and flavoured with flames. I had a great piece of swordfish, cooked perfectly, on an artichoke and red pepper salad.

That's how to cook tuna

That’s how to cook tuna

So, yeah, don’t expect anything new and unexpected on the menu. But do expect it to taste great. They’ve chosen their wines and beers well too – the list is small and of course good value. If you live in Cheltenham, pop in. And if you’re visiting Cheltenham for a slap-up meal at the Champ. Sauvage, you know where Sunday brunch oughta be!

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