Jenny and I are keen readers of the Wednesday edition of the Metro as it’s the restaurant review edition. Aside from the reviewer normally tending to be quite funny (though I think sometime she uses too many foo foo words Jenny quite likes learning the new lingo) the restaurants that are reviewed, when positive, are made to sound quite appealing. When we read the Taste of McClements review we immediately though of each other and made a booking. The earliest we could manage between us was tonight (about five weeks after the review) so, fully expecting the restaurant to be booked out, we were surprised to find we were the only diners. The WHOLE night!

But first, a step backwards is necessary to explain the concept behind the restaurant and an explanation of why we were both excited to visit Taste of McClements and to make the special trip to Kew Gardens (not really a place either of visit on a regular basis) to do so.

Chef-restaurateur John McClement first gained a Michelin star in 2004 for McClements in Twickenham in 2004. However, after losing the star one year later, the restaurant was eventually closed in 2006 and relaunched as the more casual La Brasserie Ma Cuisine (now The Grill Room) because he felt that Michelin starred restaurants just didn’t make money. His stable now boasts six restaurants including Taste of McClements. Launched in Kew in November last year it has been written up as his attempt to win back a Michelin star because apparently he thinks there is a gap in the market in Kew for a restaurant for fine dining. Taste of McClements sits next to the Kew branch of Ma Cuisine which is an interesting move and I hope one that does not result in a case of one restaurant haemorrhaging the customer base of the other. It seems strange to be suddenly hearing a lot about this John McClement guy because out of the blue this week a colleague from work was telling me about how good Ma Cuisine was and he didn’t even know I had already booked in to go to Taste!

So, I’m now three paragraphs into this entry and I haven’t even said what Taste is all about. In essence the restaurant is all about the tasting menu. At dinner, for a measly £35, you are presented with 16 (18 if you count the amuse bouch and petit fours) elaborate tasting dishes. Spread over an up to three hour session this is definitely an experience to be savoured. The dishes are served, generally, in “courses” so you’ll get two or three at one time. You can also supplement the meal with a tasting selection of five wine for an extra £25 or seven glasses of wine and one dessert wine for an extra £45. With readers knowing how greedy I am you will know that such an offer I just couldn’t resist!

The restaurant deserves an entry which is almost as large as the one I wrote up for Fat Duck because, although not quite as scientifically engineered as Fat Duck, the meal took nearly as long and I believe the attention to detail paid to our dishes ran along similar lines.

As I mentioned in the introduction Jenny and I were the only diners in the restaurant tonight which led us to speculating what would happen on evenings where the restaurant didn’t have any bookings. Its hardly the type of meal which would attract walk-ins yet it seemed a waste to be all set up for fine dining and then have no one come in to take advantage of it. At any rate we appreciated the one on one service we received from restaurant manager Dominque Sejourne. During the meal I also saw the man himself, John McClement, take a sneaky peak into the restaurant.

First Thoughts

Physically speaking the restaurant isn’t very large and can accommodate up to 20 diners. I guess this helps the kitchen give the detail required to each of the dishes and also allow service to be quite individual and give the restaurant a sense of intimacy. I honestly don’t know how the restaurant makes its money because with the meal taking up to three hours to finish at a minimum it could probably do a maximum 40 covers in a night (realistically it will be much less than that) and with the meal itself being quite reasonably priced compared with the quality of the ingredients of the food one wonders where the profit margin is. Even building in the quite wine tasting menu I believe that the price is just too good to be sustainable. At any rate we were quite pleased to be able to sample the delights on offer.

What’s on Offer

I’m probably giving away a lot of the menu (though to be fair their own website has a pretty decent gallery itself) by going through each dish but we had so much fun eating it that I can’t help but share my excitement! Just a few comments about my photos – they didn’t turn out very well because the lighting in the restaurant was quite low and also the dishes appear much bigger than they actually were. On average the dishes, in substance, would fill a circle about 10cm in diameter I think. However, in combination I left the restaurant well satisfied and not at all hungry.

The Dishes	How They Looked	The Comment
Amuse bouche of toasted brioche and foie gras snow		This amuse bouche took us me by surprise mainly because I didn’t quite understand the title of the dish at first. The sweetness of the brioche was probably the dominant flavour in this amuse bouche but its light crispiness contrasted very well with the smoothness of the foie gras snow (basically foie gras flavoured ice cream) which thankfully didn’t taste too strongly of foie gras with just enough strength to give a hint of the flavour. Its possible that Jenny and I just didn’t put enough of the snow on to the toasted brioche.
Chicken quenelle with Roquefort		A quenelle is apparently some sort of mixture of creamed meats bound by egg and normally poached. I’ve never had it before but the chicken quenelle we received had a kind of jelly consistency covered by a cream sauce which was slightly cheesy. The quenelle was served on this small plate and once I finished it I thought I was done but surprise, there was some more once the plate was lifted off! Underneath was a chunky piece of chicken sitting in a very nice Roquefort sauce. I think it was supposed to be the same sauce as the one on top but I though it actually tasted much stronger.
Langoustine ravioli, chopped cabbage, Crab soup served with croquette, Lobster thermidor		The next four dishes were served together on a tray decorated with embedded stones. Working around anti-clockwise starting with the largest dish first is the Langoustine ravioli. The ravioli was very tasty but covered in an extremely fishy froth. I quite liked the dish but Jenny found the froth a bit too much. The crab soup was up next. It seemed to be a tomato soup with big chunks of crab. In all honesty nothing out of the ordinary but I did appreciate the big chunks of crab. The crab croquette, on the other hand, was perfect. A very light breaded covering and inside was a filling with a thick sauce consistency. Very tasty. Finally there was the lobster thermidor which was probably one of my favourite dishes. Nice and creamy .
Jerusalem arthichoke veloute Quail Egg ravioli		I was a bit disappointed with the Jerusalem artichoke veloute as the dominant flavour seemed to be salty. However, that’s not to say that it wasn’t smooth and velvety. The Quail Egg ravioli, on the other hand, was quite a pleasant surprise. Served on top of toasted brioche the ravioli was just the right type of runniness. An impressive dish.
Scallop royal and Sauteed scallop with squid ink and parsnip puree		The scallop royal was the first dish I found myself disliking. It was the roe of the scallop and the scallop blended up and set in some sort of jelly. It tasted just a little too fishy for me and lost the essence of scallop flavour that I do so love in scallops. On the other hand the sautéed scallop dish was delicious. Scallop was perfectly sautéed, the squid ink was surprisingly tasty and the parsnip puree was intensely flavoured. The paramesan crisp and crispy bacon provided the right counter-balance of texture and seasoning for the dish.
Duck “Landaise”		I’m not sure what “Landaise” actually means but we were served with seemed to be a sort of duck terrine, seared duck breast and foie gras served on top of lentils. This dish really worked well for me. This included even the foie gras which, I’m not normally a fan of, but had a lovely silky texture which had a nice grilled flavour.
Tuna cubes marinated with coriander seeds		Three cubed tuna pieces dressed with I think truffle oil and three cubed papaya pieces served with coriander seeds and pomegranate was a light dish after the more heavy and meaty duck dish. There was a slice of chorizo thrown in as well.
“Chaud froid” Dover sole, Dublin bay prawn		I didn’t like this dish at all despite the fact it’s quite a funky looking dish. For a start the dish was served cold. The dish also had a few weird jelly bits and was over-salty. As a cooking term “chaud froid” (strictly interpreted as hot cold) refers to the cooking of a dish and serving it cold after being glazed with aspic (a savoury jelly.) Not really my thing.
Tasting of Pyrenees’ lamb		Anyone who knows me knows that lamb is not my favourite meat so I was fully expecting not to like this dish at all. To my surprise the lamb, served three ways, was very tasty and didn’t have much of that lamb flavour that I normally dislike. It was also served with a tasty potato dauphinois on the plate and a more traditional shepherd’s pie on the side. I liked everything!
Chocolate Praline Louis xv, Violet ice cream, Calvados soufflé, Confit rhubarb with rice pudding		Desserts! By this time I was feeling quite full but knew I could easily fit in the desserts. It turned out that the next course was basically a dessert platter. All items on the platter were quite satisfying though surprisingly the confit rhubarb was kind of tart. The Chocolate Praline Louis xv, the recipe for which you can find on the Taste of McClements website, was extremely rich and the Calvados soufflé was so light on the tongue that it practically melted away. The violet ice cream finished off the platter nicely and though creamy was pleasantly refreshing.
Petit fours		Petit fours consisted of chocolate truffles, macaroons, and, one of THE highlights of the evening, a peach sorbet dipped in creamy white chocolate. We wish we’d had more of this last petit four. It was the perfect finish to the evening.

Final Thoughts

For the most part Taste of McClements gets their menu right. There were some dishes (normally anything that kind of had jelly like consistency) which were a bit strange for my palette but overall I enjoyed the dishes with many being an absolute pleasure to consume.

This is definitely a restaurant I’d recommend to the gastronomer or even anyone who is up for something a little different (though you may have to set aside the evening to do so!) This is fine dining at an absolute steal. (Oh! Also be sure to check out the toilet where you can re-perfume yourself!)