Category Archives: 2-Star Michelin

Mugaritz

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San Sebastian and the local region is a hotbed for amazing food – whether its fine dining in any of the Michelin starred restaurants (San Sebastian has three three-star restaurants alone and the most Michelin stars per capita) or picking up something from the local pinxtos/tapas bars, you are guaranteed some pretty good nosh.

Mugaritz is only a two Michelin-starred restaurant but it climbed to number 3 (from #5 last year) in The World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards for 2011, just behind Spain’s top restaurant El Celler de Can Roca which sits at number 2 in the world. A bit of that climb, it has to be said, was arguably due to the (controversial) leaving out of El Bulli from the list – historically Spain’s top restaurant, was left out most likely because Ferran Adria announced it would close after the 2011 season.

I must admit part of the reason that Su Yin and I chose Mugaritz for a dining experience in San Sebastian was because of its position in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants. Ha ha – such foods snobs! We only had three nights in San Sebastian so we wanted to make the most of it ..

Mugartiz is located way outside of the centre of town, at least a 20 minute drive? so be prepared to factor in the cost of the cab to and from the restaurant (and also factor in the fact that at the end of the night the meter is also likely to start at a crazy 12 euro flag fall …) Its location is very quaint and beautifully green though.

When we first arrived at the restaurant, and after taking the obligatory photos on the outside, we were taken to sit outside in the garden area. We were kind of confused as this was not standard restaurant behaviour but soon they started to ply us with amuse bouche. First they put together a non-alcoholic (at our request) green tea, fresh mint and lime aperitif before bringing out focaccia with tomato smashed on to it. Very delicate.

Then a trio of treats: Starch and sugar crystal spotted with pepper praline and spider crab, Olives, tapa beans and thyme and Toasted legume beer. The beer was served as a broth (therefore warmed) and certainly … interesting. I wasn’t sure I was loving all the flavour combinations but I could appreciate the delicacy and thought that went into the dishes.

We were even more confused after we’d finished with our amuse bouches as plenty of waiters came walking around but never really indicated at any stage that we should move into the restaurant. Well, we took it upon ourselves to do so!

Inside, the restaurant was quite large but broken up by white screens. Pleasingly there was also a lot of space between the tables. Floor to ceiling windows lined the outside walls and until the sun set at least gave the room quite an open air feel. Oh, and we had a little bench for our bags which was quite cute.

Upon sitting down we were presented with two cards, one which was marked “150 min … submit!” and the other “150 min .. rebel!” Turning over there were words which were consistent with the words on the front – supposedly depending on which card you chose to run with it would determine how you would feel or interpret the food to come. Honestly, like the first half an hour we’d been at Mugaritz, it just caused more confusion!

So, that’s the intro for our experience before the food started to come proper. What did we eat? Our first course was a mouthful of “The greenness of tear peas animated by blood sorrel and mascarpone”. The peas were incredibly crunchy but I felt a little underwhelmed by the overall flavour of this dish.

The Anchovy and Vinegar sauce which came next wasn’t actually on our tasting menu so we were surprised by its arrival. If you like anchovy then you would love this dish (I didn’t) – very intense flavour.

Pickled onion, tendon and tuna essence followed. Whoever would have thought of pearing tuna essence and pickled onion? The essence was quite mild to be honest but I adored the onion. I could see that there was a trend developing in our dishes – that of showcasing the regional food with one primary ingredient instead of having all these things going on at once.

Taking a leaf out of Noma’s book (not really sure who started the concept) we got a bit interactive when a mortar and pestle was delivered to our table. We had the opportunity to break up a bunch of spices and seeds before the waiter threw in fresh herbs and poured in a fish broth.

The texture of the next dish of Silky bread stew, infused with pink geranium leaves covered with crabmeat was interesting. The crabmeat and the broth was divine, not sure I was loving the sogginess of the bread so much. I guess you could liken it to having dumplings in the soup.

A simple Hazelnut and beans stew was up next. I liked the sugar shards that topped the nuts.

A surprised break before our next dish – a visit to the kitchen! Score. Supposedly there are 35 chefs who work in the kitchen for one night’s sitting. The kitchen was very calm, as I’ve found with many fine dining restaurants. There is a separate kitchen for prepping new dishes, a separate area for cold stuff downstairs with a video so that when the chef needs an ingredient he gets it immediately after it is shelled. There are three chefs who manage the garden and herbs. It was cool to see all the induction lamps and also seeing the chefs using tweezers for presentation.

Pork noodles with “arraitxiki” extract and toasted rice was the dish that arrived at the table after our visit to the kitchen. This was another dish where I didn’t really like the texture of the ingredients. A bit too slimy for me (thank goodness at least for the crispiness of the toasted rice) and I felt it was a little over-seasoned.

Filet of hake and milky reduction of stewed cabbage sprouts. Luscious citrus spread. The hake was lovely and fresh but I was very surprised at how bland this dish was. Not sure what the thought behind the milky reduction was.

The Textures of coastal fish brought flavour back to the table. It was very simple but sometimes simple is all you need.

Quail Armagnac. What? Odd.

Mugaritz had not been following their menu very faithfully so we were afraid that the next dish of Iberian pork tails, crispy leaves and toasted sweet millet oil was going to be left out for the night! But they’d saved their best (savoury) dish for last! The tail was perfectly cooked, tender but with a very crispy skin. The only neg was that it was a little oily in the mouth and might turn off those who don’t like that feeling or too meaty a taste.

Cool vanilla brioche and barley cream was the first off the Sweet train. Refreshing and incredibly light – it felt like we were eating cold, vanilla flavoured air.

Sticking with the white theme, Lemon cream with daikon radish and unsweetened sugar was a delight. We Asians are used to mixing vegetables and sweetness so I wasn’t surprised that this dish worked very well.

Finally, my favourite dessert dish of the night: Broken “walnuts”, toasted and salted, cool milk cream and armagnac jelly. The three items of the edible walnut, the jelly inside it and the cream combined well to give the texture and balance that served to push the flavour of all three items to the fore.

From beginning to end Mugaritz was a perplexing experience for me. Some dishes were okay, some dishes were disappointingly bland or of weird texture, with one or two dishes which stood out (but in comparison to some other restaurants I’ve been to didn’t actually come out and grab me as too exciting.) Service-wise it too was a mixture of experiences – slow at first with water top-ups (which at least was free), plates were never actually placed in front of me but off to the side, bread wasn’t provided until about the fifth course (is this a Spanish thing?), coats weren’t ready upon leaving and there was no offer to call for a taxi ahead of time so we ended up waiting for nearly 20 minutes for one to arrive at the end of our meal. On the other hand we were brought into the kitchen and for the most part our waiters were friendly. Don’t forget the added touch of toothbrushes in the toilets.

I really wanted to love Mugaritz (especially at 165 euro (before service!) but I hate to say that at the most all I can say is that it was alright.

PS I do have to point out that other tables who appeared to be having a different sort of tasting menu seemed to have food which was both more substantial and delicious tasting. Perhaps you get different dishes upon subsequent dishes?

Noma, Copenhagen

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Recently announced as number 1 in the S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurant for 2010, Noma is a restaurant delivering its take on Nordic gourmet cuisine. Noma is a combination of two Danish words “nordisk” (Nordic) and “mad” (food). Topping restaurants the likes of El Bulli and The Fat Duck it must have done something pretty significant to reach the pinnacle so I was inspired so much to try and get a booking at the restaurant. Clearly being named number 1 in the world had a giant impact on reservations ability – the old process clearly couldn’t handle the number of requests because over a course of a week of trying to get reservations the method to get a booking must have changed about five times! Eventually, however, perseverance paid off and I managed to get a booking for four of us on a Saturday. I was well chuffed to get a weekend spot!

Its pretty crazy to make a trip to another country literally just to visit a restaurant but that’s what Pat, Laney, Su Yin and I did. To save on accommodation costs we decided to take the first flight out this morning – a relatively early 7.15 plane out of Stansted … though still one of those flights where you might as well not have slept the night before you had to get up so early in the morning!

After arriving and checking into our hostel we took a long leisurely stroll to the restaurant. Its not actually that conveniently located but it does have a nice location near the water. We arrived quite early for our booking but Noma was very accommodating and didn’t even blink an eye that we were nearly an hour early (we were cold!)

Before we even had to make any decisions about what we were eating (turns out you really have two choices anyway – either a 7 course (seasonal) or 12 course (classic) tasting menu!) we were first served with a number, and when I say number I mean something line 9!, amuse bouches.

The first lot included Nasturtiums (edible flowers) and Snails and Sea Buckthorn Leather and Pickled Hip Roses. When the nasturtiums and snails came out in a vase we weren’t sure whether to admire or to eat! The leather and Roses reminded me of these fruit jerky type things we had when I was a kid in Australia.

Next up was this mysterious tin which when opened revealed Cookie with Blackcurrant Paste, “Speck” and a sprig of pine. Served with it was Rye Bread and Chicken Skin sandwiching a smoked cheese type pate and Leek and garlic – the bulb end of the leek had been deep fried and then what seemed like a roasted garlic tucked into the centre.

The Pickled and Smoked Quail Egg which came next was served rather dramatically in a large ceramic egg shaped container. Nestled inside on a bed of hay with smoke drifting up slowly it made for an engaging dish both in its presentation and taste. The eggs had been cooked to perfection and were exactly gooey in the way it should be.

Another conundrum was presented for us with the next dish. Instead of a vase of flowers we were presented with a potted plant. Was this to be admired or eaten? Turns out that what was potted (in edible soil) were baby radish and carrots. Such a cute dish!

Aebleskiver, or basically profiteroles, with a sardine was another cute dish. Though usually I like sweet and salty combinations this one was actually a bit too fishy for me!

The finale of our amuse bouche was another sandwhich – this time consisting of a wavy crispy bread and a crispy duck stock skin. There was lots going on in the middle with herbs (which were to be order of the day) and roe and emulsions galore.

Imagine that this all came before we’d even made our menu selection – a very stimulating start to our meal. Dishes came out at a decent clip though because we were all so busy taking photos it seemed that dishes came out quicker than we were ready for them. Heh heh.

Whilst we were waiting for our “main” meal to start we were given some fresh bread accompanied by butter and, rather interestingly, a lard with pork crisps. We appreciated the fact that the bread was served in a bread bed of sorts to keep it warm. The pork lard was an interest twist to a spread for the bread but the butter was more popular of the two accompaniments.

Chef René Redzepi’s focus at this restaurant is in serving food that makes the most of the local environment. So, if you ever see him talking about it, its all about going out into the local forest or seashore to gather what is available and use it in his cooking. As a result of many of the dishes we were served today consisted of a lot of greenage. Something I don’t think Laney was very impressed with – think she’s a meat girl. Ha ha! I must admit the meal is pretty unlike anything I’ve eaten before for its creativity and use of herbs and such and you can tell that an incredible amount of care was given in putting the dishes together and plating the dishes.

I’ll never look at lettuce quite the same again thanks to the first dish of the rank: Roasted lettuce blended and served with blanched flaked almonds was interesting. I couldn’t believe how intense the flavour of the roasted lettuce was. The almonds I could have done without (not really adding much in flavour) but they did give some crunch to the dish.

More greens on the next dish with Dried Scallops, Watercress with Biodynamic Cereals and Hazel Nut. A very strange and unusual dish. I’m not quite sure I liked eating the dried scallops – they were kind of too intense in their fishiness and I felt lost that essence of scallop that I love so much – which I think comes not only from its flavour but the fleshiness of the white meat.

Oyster and the Sea was up next. Rather dramatic presentation with the oyster sitting on a bed of seaweed, seashells, rocks and general sea things. Not a giant fan of oysters but this dish wasn’t too bad.

One of the most gorgeous dishes I’ve had came up next and it mostly consisted of onions! I do like my onion – though it has to be cooked down in some manner as I can’t stand it raw. This dish was ‘Læsø’ onion, onion cress and thyme, tapioca and onion broth. It truly was a lovely dish.

Well, we’d eaten a few things by this stage so it was now time to work for our meal! This could come across as a bit gimmicky trying to get the diner involved in their food but I thought it was a lot of fun. So, first out came some ingredients and equipment.

And then the instruction for The Hen and the Egg. The chef first squirted hay oil on to each of our heated hot plates and then the instruction was to crack the egg, fry to liking before adding thyme butter, lovage and spinach to wilt. This was then finished by herbs, flowers and fried potato curls. Admittedly we were probably a bit too concerned with posing for the relevant action shot than the cooking of our actual eggs … but the result was still pretty tasty!

Maybe there is room for us in the Noma kitchen … 😉

The egg was actually a good transition dish because it was sort of a bridging dish between the seafood and green dishes we had before to the meat dish we had next – the Deer and Wild Thyme, Red Beets and Red Fruit. The dish came with this mega-knife … though in actuality it was more a prop than anything as it wasn’t needed at all. It was a pretty serious knife which even came in its own case! The deer was good and enjoyed the beet that it came with.

You may not think that the next dish we received:

was a dessert but it was! How René managed to include greenage into his dessert and still make it work is a mystery to me! This time it was the Hay which had been blended down, on top of this was a Chamomile Ice with Sorrel and Wild Herbs. Really delicious and an extremely refreshing treat.

The official finale of the tasting menu was something a little special. “Gammel Dansk” (a Danish bitters), Ice Cream, Milk and Woodsorrel. The combination of all the items worked really well together. The wafers of what I think was frozen milk were a treat.

The official official finale to our meal at Noma were the petit fours served with our end of meal teas. A couple of interesting tins and wrapped packages came out for this part of the meal.

They were what was in essence a Danish marshmallow, bitter chocolate covered potato chip sprinkled with fennel seed and finale, my favourite, the Noma classic Bone Marrow Caramel. Kind of like a very extreme meat flavoured salted caramel this one really grew on me.

Aside from the food the meal at Noma was certainly an experience from the first minute. The service was excellent – the waiters make an effort to find out where you are from so that they can send out the chefs who are from your country to speak with you. Out of a full kitchen of about 30 chefs there were about 5 or 6 from Oz and the sommelier was from Oz so they all came out to say hi. In addition to this personalisation of the service, dishes were brought to the table by the chefs themselves who presented them to us. Great care was taken to ensure that our dishes were served at the right time – I remember at one stage that there must have been mis-communication with respect to the timing of our dishes so when they were bringing out our Oyster and Sea dish we saw this line of chefs come out to bring the pot to us … but then when they saw we were still eating our dried scallop dish the chefs did this very smooth and fluid circle around us and back to the kitchen! Towards the end of our meal the fire alarm went off so we were all sent outside whilst it was sorted out. We forgot how absolutely cold it was outside so we were a bit freezing!

But were warmed up by the free champagne and then the firemen who came along, not to mention chatting up, I mean, to the chefs …

Had a brilliant experience at Noma today – I could well understand why it is rated amongst the top restaurants in the world.

The Ledbury

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For a special treat Sandra, we’ve known each other five years now!, we decided to check out The Ledbury, a 2-michelin starred restaurant in Notting Hill.

The Ledbury couldn’t come from a better pedigree with stable-mates including Chez Bruce, La Trompette and The Square. As an added plus there’s an Aussie at the helm in the kitchen, Brett Graham!

The first sign that our meal tonight was going to be special was the fact that The Ledbury provided us ladies with a table hook for our handbags and (excuse me gentlemen) provided us with some womanly products in the toilets. Now I know, what’s all this got to do with the price of fish – well I think it’s a sign that someone was clearly thinking of the little details in putting this restaurant together. Oh, wait, and get this – to purify the tap water they serve The Ledbury uses charcoal! How green! I most definitely approve!

But on to the main event… here is a round-up of our food.

As we were perusing the menu we had a potato crisp upon which was a line of smoked cod roe. Interesting. This was followed by a selection of bread including a bacon and onion brioche, white sour-dough and malt bread. I skipped the sour-dough but tried both the brioche and malt bread. Warm and delish.

Next was our amuse bouche which started with a marinated salmon and frozen horseradish sitting in a bowl which was then covered by a chilled courgette soup with parmesan cream and seaweed oil. So much going on, so much detail! This was the theme of the night – really intense flavours with incredible focus on the detail.

I’m not really one for chilled soups but this one was lovely and refreshing.

If I said to you our first course for the evening was a tomato and goat curd dish it would sound pretty boring right? Well, this is what the Heritage Tomatoes with Green Tomato Juice, Goat’s Curd and Herbs looked like:

Wow. If I do say so myself one of my favourite dishes of the night.

Next up was the Flame Grilled Mackerel with Cucumber, Celtic Mustard and Shiso. An interesting way to showcase the cucumber is all I can say.

The Saute of Chicken Wings with Milk Skin, Girolles and White Asparagus which was our next course sure sounded interesting on the menu. The plate looked like a total mess but the dish was cooked pretty spot on with the chicken being extremely tender and juicy with the texture being provided by the crunch of the skin and the asparagus and a gorgeous nearly fruity flavour of the girolles.

Back to fish for our next dish with the Roast Turbot with Truffle Puree, Cauliflower, Parmesan Gnocchi and Sea Vegetables. How much do I love truffle! The puree really complimented the meatiness of the turbot. I’m also loving how the cauliflower is being seen more often on our plates.

My other favourite dish of the night was the Crisp Pressed Suckling Pig with a Croustillant of Grilled Celeriac and Walnuts which was next. Okay – if I’m honest, anything with suckling pig in it is always going to be a favourite of mine. But I loved how this dish was presented. The only negative – that there wasn’t more of the stuff! Ha!

However, it was probably a good thing there wasn’t more because by this time Sandra and I were getting pretty full which I think is an indication that the portion sizes were just about right. We still had dessert to go!

A pre-dessert first of an olive oil pannacotta (who would have thought this would work!), peach jelly and peach sorbet.

Before moving on to the main event – the Creme Caramel with Apricot and Jasmine Ice Cream. Yummo! As delicious as it looks lovely!

Even though we were well stuffed at this stage we couldn’t resist ordering some tea which, as in all good restaurants, was accompanied by some petit fours. In this case we could choose from a selection including Raspberry Jelly, Marshmallow, Macaroon, Eucalyptus Ganache, Almond and White Chocolate.

Service was excellent and friendly but not too much in your face. Staff were happy to chat, for example, when I went to the lav the waiter came over to keep Sandra company, so we felt at home. The restaurant has quite a relaxed atmosphere so it doesn’t feel overly pretentious. Price-wise I felt it was decent value for money (£75 for the tasting menu before the 12.5% service) for how full we felt and the quality of the food we got – though at that price its probably a good restaurant for a special occasion.

Last Words? The Ledbury earned its second Michelin star at the beginning of this year and I think its very well deserved.

Putney Pop-Up: Phil Howard’s The Square

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A new way of fund-raising for Haiti has recently hit the Putney area. The Putney Pop-Up Restaurants involves taking on fabulous restaurants, restaurateurs, showmen and chefs to produce a series of pop-up restaurants at the Phoenix Bar & Grill in Putney during March only. Chefs/restaurants involved include Matthew Harris, Bibendum; Rowley Leigh – Le Café Anglais; Atul Kochhar – Benares; Bruce Poole – Chez Bruce; Helen Puolakka – Skylon and many others.

It was lucky that Sandra had spotted the teeny weeny tiny article in the evening standard about this fund-raising event a few months ago as it certainly does not seem to have been well advertised. Word of mouth, however, has been more than enough advertising it seems if the fact that most of the events have been fully booked out anyway, including tonight’s Philip Howard (of The Square – a 2-michelin starred restaurant) meal which Sandra was luckily able to get us a booking for. Second nights for some of the chefs were also needed to be put on to accommodate their popularity. Luckily I was also able to get us a booking next week for Rick Stein (The Seafood Restaurant) so tune in for that review.

We didn’t try booking anymore because two meals is just about what I can afford anyway (starts at £60 with the food not including extras such as drinks, tea/coffee, extra fund-raising contributions and service)! Plus it would probably be not very fair to deny other people an opportunity to participate in this event.

The Phoenix is a lovely newly renovated pub about a 15-20 minute walk from Putney Bridge tube station. I joked to Sandra that most other people dining tonight would have likely caught a taxi or got driven to the venue! Ha ha! It has a nice little outdoor area but on this wet evening we were all dining inside. Inside gives the impression of being quite cosy as all the rooms (around about 4) are split up to fit between 5 up to 10 tables rather than being one big open space.

Sandra and I were the first diners to turn up tonight. We were greeted by Rebecca Mascarenhas, owner of The Phoenix, well-known restaurateur and organiser of the Putney Pop-up. It felt rather awkward really as number of chefs and the waiters were kind of standing gathered at the entrance (where there were a number of lounges as a waiting area) and they all turned to look at us as we walked in. We were about 10 minutes early so we thought we might have interrupted their preparations but they were more than happy to seat us. We were followed very closely by another group who I think were from some sort of special organisation as they were directed to another room which they didn’t fill with diners until the rest of the rooms were filled.

So, out of the £60 we were paying for food tonight £50 was going Haiti. I didn’t quite know how the drinks situation would work because there was a short wine list which including contributions apparently of 120 from Jancis Robinson, and contributions from Liberty Wines, Laytons and Bibendum Wine. I’m not sure that any of the wine money would go to charity but the £10 corkage per bottle on B-Y-O certainly does. Sandra thought it seemed a bit tight not to order a glass of wine (glasses averaged about £9.50) but since it wasn’t going to charity I didn’t think it would really matter. Not that I would normally order wine anyway!

Bread was plentiful tonight and because when we arrived it was relatively quiet the waiter continued to bring bread around at least 3 or 4 times until both Sandra and I had had enough. The butter was delicious! Mmmm!

The special charity dinner tonight consisted of four courses: an amuse bouche, a first course, a second course and dessert. Phil Howard’s menu seemed to be a cross between what they offered at The Square (e.g. the Smoked Loin of Venison with Beetroot Purée, Root Vegetables, Pickled Pear and Green Peppercorns which Sandra had for her main and the Brillat-Savarin Cheesecake with Passionfruit and Lime we had for dessert) or variations.

What I did notice about all the food that was served tonight, perhaps with the exception of the dessert, was how messy and not delicate the presentation was. I was actually expecting delicately plated dishes but if felt like most of them were plonked and piled on top of each other so when you look at the pictures the food doesn’t actually look all that great. I’m sure great care was taken with the presentation but they were not how I’d pictured how the dishes would come. They tasted great though so that is the main thing!

Our amuse bouche was a Salad of Beetroot with Eiswein Vinegar, Goat’s Curd and a Balsamic Cream. This to me was a disappointing amuse bouche in concept because I couldn’t count on my hand the number of times I’ve had this kind of combination in restaurants in 2009. The delivery, however, was a little more unique. The balsamic cream was a nice touch and I liked the fact the beetroot came in an assortment of colours! It was quite odd to pick up a pale square of something to find it was actually very strong tasting of beetroot!

Sandra and I had the same starter: Ravioli of Scallops and Langoustine Claws with Wilted Iceberg, Champagne Foam (aaaaargh!!) and Clementine. What an interesting combination to throw in the clementine! I really quite liked this dish even though, as I mentioned earlier, it looked to be a wonderful mess of flavours!

Where Sandra moved on to meet with the Venison for her next course I continued on with seafood with a Loin of Monkfish with an emulsion of spätzle (a type of pasta), Cauliflower, Salsify, Chanterelles and Truffle. Sandra loved her Venison. She said the smokiness of it was amazingly concentrated. I loved the intense mushroomy flavour of my dish – could it be that I can taste truffle at last (I’m still not convinced it was the truffle I was tasting … damn my inability to taste it!)

When our waiter was bringing out our pre-dessert we must have some sort of horrified look on our faces because he had cause to comment that we shouldn’t be scared! I think he thought we thought what he was giving us was our cheesecake dessert? Who knows! The pre-dessert was very cute. I loved the fried donut touch which I kept in my mouth as I ate the rest of the treat: vanilla yoghurt, blood orange jelly and blood orange mousse.

Dessert (the cheesecake)! Yum. Sandra commented that the orange bits tasted like the orange solero ice block! They really did! It was a nice dessert … more cheesecake would have been appreciated though. Heh heh.

At tea-time the push for the raffle tickets came. It was kind of weird – Rebecca came over and said would you like to buy raffle tickets? She didn’t say at first how much they were or what they were raffling so we were a bit confused! Turns out they were raffling vouchers for various restaurants. To be truthful at these fund raising events you could hardly begrudge buying a raffle ticket or two no matter what they were raffling off!

Additional treats were a take-away box of nougat and truffles which tasted like salted choc caramel truffles with a rice crispy shell. It was divine.

Its quite hard to be judging of an experience like tonight – one-off, staffed by volunteers (service tonight was a bit hit and miss e.g. none of our dishes were really explained to us), raising money for a good cause. However I reckon a good night was had by all and we couldn’t believe how quickly the night had gone. After a slight misunderstanding with our coats (buried under about six others it took us about 15 minutes to find them!) we were off.

How sad for the night to be over! … until next Tuesday then to see Rick. 😉

Hibiscus

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Its only recently that I’ve started to realise that sometimes eating off a set meal or special menu at these Michelin-starred restaurants is a bit of false economy – though you’re saving at least 50%, if not more, on your total bill you’re actually short-changing yourself on the experience because quite often the set menu will be quite limited in its choice and, whilst showing-casing some of the skill of the kitchen, is unlikely to offer the best options from the a la carte or official tasting menu. Still, it is a good way to sample the restaurant that’s friendly to your pocket and can pave the path for you to return should you like you’re experience enough. You do still get a Michelin-starred experience .. .which is what we got tonight at the 2-starred Hibiscus.

Hibiscus is chef Claude Bosi’s restaurant. Training under such big-name French chefs as Alain Passard and Alain Ducasse he earned his double starring for his Hisbiscus restaurant in Ludlow. He moved the restaurant to London in 2007 and managed to retain the double star rating.

Our dinner menu (4 courses for £48.50) read like this:

Appetiser
—
Warm Royale of Parmesan & Walnuts, Salsify Veloute
—
Poached Gurnard, Casserole of Pearl Barley, Carrot and Black Treacle Puree
OR
Roast Shropshire Partridge, Caper & Raisin Sauce, Glazed Savoy Cabbage, Smoked Butter
—
Ice Coconut Parfait, Lychee & Rose Water Sorbet

I love how the menu had a disclaimer “GAME: We kindly remind you that some Game dishes may still contain traces of shot.” Ha ha!

Our meal started with some lovely warmed cheese rolls. Lovely and warm and extremely cheesy I could have happily eaten them all night! Then we had some slices of warm brown bread and a lovely butter served on a gray slate.

We weren’t sure what to expect with our appetiser which turned out to be this:

A multi-Moroccan spiced soupy creamy froth in an eggshell concoction. And though its not the first time a dish has been presented in an egg shell it was still pretty cute. The soupy creamy froth was pretty tasty too.

Quickly following our appetiser (really what would function as the amuse bouche in other restaurants) was our veloute and partridges (both Sandra and I opted for the bird over the fish, especially when our waiter described the Gurnard, I must google that later, as an ugly fish!) We had really cool if not exactly function knives to go with our partridges.

The portion sizes of both dishes look bigger in the picture than they were in reality so we made sure to take our time eating the dishes. Both were quite nice and well seasoned though I think I’m a bit over game bird now – they are, well, a little gamey for my liking these days.

Before our parfait dessert we were presented with the sweetest little pre-dessert: Granny smith apple compote, celeriac jelly, chestnut foam. Very strong tasting though it was a bit awkward to try and get a spoonful of all flavours at once.

Finally we had the lovely dessert which included all the flavours I love – coconut, lychee and rose. Mmmm … tasty and even though Sandra isn’t a big fan of coconut even she enjoyed the dessert!

We had a lovely experience at Hibiscus tonight and though it may not seem like for all the food we appear to have eaten we were in and out of there rather quickly. It wasn’t like we were rushed or anything but I guess small portions don’t really take all that long to chow down! The service was very friendly and efficient. As an example when one of the waitresses was pouring the water out for us she accidentally spilled it outside of the glass so she actually took it away to replace/dry before bringing it back to reserve the water! Additionally because neither Sandra or I were up for a bellini the drink man produced a delicious non alcoholic cocktail for us which they went to great depths to explain the ingredients to us!

The room is quite intimate and small. You may also end up being quite close to the table next to you but despite that overall feel was of people carrying on discrete conversations rather than trying to shout at one another. We could probably make out the couple’s conversation next to us if we had concentrated.

An interesting experience and another 2 michelin starred restaurant ticked off my list. I would one day love to go back and try the Suckling Pig two ways …

L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon revisited

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Lana and Mike are soon to depart for Australia so I thought it would be a good idea to take them to a nice Michelin starred restaurant which offered decent value for money. At two courses for £22 or three for £27 (it’s gone up £2 in less than a year since I’ve been here!) before service L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon gives the punter a bit of a taster of the potential the restaurant could offer. I also like the fact that, generally, you get to dine at the bar which surrounds the kitchen and prep area which makes for a pretty cool dining experience.

After the last time I ate here I said I’d eat off the tasting menu rather than a set menu but of course I hadn’t anticipated that I’d be coming back from a holiday where I did enough shopping to fill my suitcase, practically empty on departure, to the brim. Heh heh. So, only the more budget-conscious menu for me on this occasion.

Once again the starters offered a choice of a terrine (wild boar) and veloute (corn). At least the ingredients were different! I quite liked my veloute of Hot Corn, shallots and golden croutons though I could have done with a bit more … but I always say that don’t I … greedy thing that I am!

For mains the options were between a leg of lamb or hake. Cleary I was going to go for the hake! The hake came with a requisite breath of foam and smeared puree (of parsley roots.) I could have done with a triple portion. In hindsight I should have done what the guy to my right (who Lana swears was some sort of celebrity) did and ordered extra dishes from the a la carte menu! Actually, celebrity or not, it was clear that the guy was a regular visitor as the wait staff spoke to him as if they saw him every day and even asked if he wanted his “usual” whatever that was.

Dessert of the day was this apple cake/crumble combination which worked very well though I was hoping they’d do their signature chocolate dessert dish.

I hope that Lana and Mike enjoyed themselves tonight though I think we were a little less focused on the food and more on catching up since I hadn’t seen them since we parted our ways after the Lapland trip!

L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon

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I’d always had the perception that the Michelin-star rating system was kind of like the rating system for hotels – the more stars a restaurant had the more amenities and services you should expect. Jenny and my experience tonight at L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon prompted me to come home and look up exactly what Michelin-stars meant because in all honesty I could not see why this restaurant in particular had been awarded two stars.

This is what I found:
– One-Michelin-star: A very good restaurant or pub in its category. The star indicates a good place to stop on your journey.
– Two-Michelin-star: Excellent cooking, worth a detour. Specialities and wines of first class quality. This will be reflected in the price.
– Three-Michelin-star: Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey. One always eats here extremely well, sometimes superbly. Fine wines, faultless service, elegant surroundings. One will pay accordingly!

To date I’ve been to four One-Michelin-star restaurants and one Three-Michelin-star restaurants so I had something against which to measure the Two-Michelin-starred L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon.

Excellent cooking, worth a detour? Well it was hard to judge on our three-course pre-theatre menu but I think on the balance in combination with what we ate and what we saw being plated and delivered to other diners I believe L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon demonstrated excellent cooking that was worth a detour.

Tonight for starters we had a choice between a rabbit terrine and a French onion soup. Jenny went for the former and I went for the latter. We were pleased to see that the rabbit terrine was in fact a terrine and not a pate as we’ve had in other restaurants. The terrine was served simply sliced (about 1.5cm thick) with a small side salad. I could see that the terrine was very meaty and I’m sure tasted quite lovely, though Jenny was happy to leave the lard that surrounded it behind. My French onion soup was presented to me in one of those soup bowls with a large outer rim. The waiter first placed an empty bowl down in front of me with only three little fried croutons topped with cheese and onion and chopped chives sitting it in. He then proceeded to pour in the soup from a small tiny bottle. The soup was admittedly very tasty but only filled the bowl, which was about 20cm in diameter, about 1cm high. You know that I’m already starting to talk about portion sizes. Nice but not really anything here that separates it from other good French restaurant.

Our choice for mains was between fried pollock and suckling pig. Of course both Jenny and I went for the pig. Again, what we received was very simple. A slice of the suckling pig about 2cm thick and perhaps 15cm in diameter plated. It was covered in some sort of brown gravy and topped with some green (I think a fifth of a gem lettuce.) On the side, in a separate dish, we were served with some attractive looking polenta. The pig was extremely tender though it was extremely fatty around the edges. The flavour of the meat itself, though, was gorgeous but I would have been much happier with a more generous portion. The polenta was extremely delicious though I’m not quite sure what went into it. Again, nice food but again I didn’t think anything that separated it from any other good French restaurant.

Still feeling quite empty we headed to desserts where we had a choice of sweet of the day or cheese. The French waiters had twice explained to us what the dessert was but we only caught that it was chocolate something or other. The cheese was Roquefort. Cheese as a dessert is not really my thing and even though I don’t generally like chocolate dessert I still preferred it over the cheese. I was not disappointed. The dessert had quite complex layering: on the plate was a mound of cocoa/sugar, then we had a bowl within which lay from bottom to top chocolate liquid, mini maltesers (think of those things you get in muller corners), chocolate mouse, chocolate late crumbles (fantastic!) and white chocolate ice cream. I’m sure there was also something else in amongst the layers but I couldn’t identify it. This was then topped with a chocolate “lid” (with sprinkles of gold dusting) and a mini chocolate disk with the name L’Atelier stamped on it. Considering I’m not a chocolate dessert fan I really enjoyed our finale and probably for this it deserves some recognition. Like Jenny I was seriously tempted to lick my bowl and plate clean but restrained myself in favour of good taste. 🙂 The dessert (le chocolate sensation) lives up to its name.

The pre-theatre menu didn’t not have a wide variety offering only two choices for starters, mains and desserts (for desserts it was dessert of the day or cheese…) so probably on that alone I would say its excellent cooking though not worth the detour (except for the chocolate dessert above.) On the other hand the food from the a la carte we saw being prepared looked fabulous and it is clear that great attention to detail is paid to not only the plating but the production of the individual ingredients making up the dishes. If you’ve seen the website you know just how attractive some of the dishes are so for that I have to give it to the restaurant for the “worth a detour.”

Specialities and wines of first class quality? We didn’t drink any wine so can’t specifically comment on that but I’m sure the restaurant delivered. As for specialities. Again difficult to judge on this but from the looks of some of the dishes coming out from the kitchen I’m sure there were quite a few of those dishes. The dessert was pretty special in my opinion.

This will be reflected in the price? Definitely yes. Our three-course meal was £25 which, around London, is pretty reasonable I guess for a restaurant of this class and establishment. I do protest, however, to paying that much for the quantity of food that we got. A little bit over-priced in my opinion. However, the measure is not value for money but that the excellent food etc. is reflected in the price so a most resounding yes for this criteria. Just as a side note starters ranged, from what I could see, from £12-£19 and mains from £15-£44 and desserts were a flat £10.

So on those criteria I think the Two-Michelin-star is totally justified. However! Yes there is a however. I don’t know how service is measured in the criteria. For a Three-Michelin-star the service should be faultless and I think this is definitely where L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon is let down and why probably it has not been given that next star. Front of desk were good, the maitre d’ was good, and at first our head waiter was okay. He did that thing I absolutely hate – asking what drink we wanted before we’d even had a chance to settle in and look at the menu. In fact, we hadn’t even been given a menu at that stage!! so I asked for a drinks menu. At first he simply gave us the wine menu which required me to further ask for a non-alcoholic drinks listing. After about ten minutes he finally supplied this after giving us the excuse that the bar man was going to come over and explain what he could do for us. What the? So, first bad mark for service. Bread was brought to us soon after that which was fine. But no butter! We asked for the butter and again that took about ten minutes to produce. By then our starters had arrived so it was a bit awkward – do we eat the bread do we start on our starters. Second bad mark for service. Finally, the third bad mark for service was the lack of attention that we received. In a place like this you expect that there will be a waiter or waitress hovering around waiting to either sweep up your plate as soon as it was clear you’d finished or at least hovering around in case you need their assistance. Neither of these things happened so that when our mains were delivered, they had to be placed down near other diners, and our starters cleared before they could serve us our suckling pig! Also, getting the attention of any of the wait staff proved almost impossible. It wasn’t like they were being rude, because when they did serve us they were perfectly friendly and ready to answer our questions, its just that for the most part they just weren’t there. On the plus side no one fussed about me taking photos. Heh heh.

From an aesthetic perspective I found the restaurant very attractive but as one review has pointed out its like you’re in a bento box! I wholeheartedly agree because it was all kind of black laquer with minor splashes of colour (mainly red.) I loved all the plastic fruit around especially the giant apple at the front. We were sat on the ground floor around the kitchen so it was actually pretty cool to see what the chefs were up to and also to see what everyone else had ordered. One of the chefs in particular was highly energetic – and he only looked about 17 years old!

The bill for the two of us came to £63 which included the 12.5% service and one diet coke, one diet beer and two three-course meals (set menu) and with both Jenny and I actually considering going to get something else to eat to top-up so to speak so its hardly cheap. I’m tempted to come again to try one of the découverte menus to explore some of the more creative dishes L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon has to offer however it may take me a while to save up my pennies to get there.