Fera at Claridges

Another of the most anticipated meals of my time in London was dinner at Simon Rogan's new restaurant at Claridge's.  It was epic.  The make over the room has undergone left it almost unrecognizable as the same room Gordon Ramsey occupied until late last year.  In true Rogan style, the meal was dazzling. I won't bang on, beyond saying we showed some restraint and went for the 10 courses, instead of the 13 courser, at £95 per person.  Here's what we ate:-

 Ox eye daisy and smoked eel, puffed wheat

 Top: mackerel, seawater cream and caviar

Bottom: Stewed rabbit with lovage

THE BEST THING EVER: winslade, potato and duck heart

Essentially cheese soup

 BREAD!!  With mushroom broth, a surprisingly modest bread course

Raw beef, smoked broccoli cream,

scallop roe and apple juice 

Prawns from Gairloch, pickled alexander, 

asparagus, shellfish butter. 

Monkfish, sweetheart cabbage, sea purslane and 

black saison (yes, I dropped my phone in it) 

 Goosnargh duck, yellow bean puree, leek and hyssop

Pineapple weed, butterscotch and celery 

(there's actual celery in there, not cool)

Iced sorrel, nitro sweet cheese and apple

Clockwise from top left: sweet cicely cake, soda blackberry,

blackberry and lemon verbena and smoked meringue

All very beautiful and all very delicious.  Simon was there delivering the odd dish, not to our table unfortunately.  There's an air of opulence, obviously, including a gold tree in the centre of the room.  I'm so fortunate to have had the chance to go, thanks to Art for booking, and for tolerating my drunkenness yet again, and providing a bed for the night when I missed the last train home to Kent. 

Fera at Claridge's

Claridge's Hotel

Brook St

Mayfair

W1K

9/10

City Social

Bel and I spent an evening at City Social while I was back, the aim being cram in as many Atherton restaurants as possible in the 2 weeks.  Not really, but we do love him. 

This might be a really silly thing to say, but there were a lot of suits in there.  It really is in the City.  Duh.  There was a minor kerfuffle when we dared to request the goats cheese churros, from the bar menu, as we were sat in the more formal restaurant (they both have the same air of formality actually) but they let us in the end.  They were brilliant.  Less cheesy than I expected with a sweet truffle honey dip (£6).  Everything was quite subtle, didn’t get much truffle flavor either.

For starter we shared the poached egg and asparagus, and it was a really generous portion given that we’d asked for it to be split.  We thought they’d just given us 1 each actually.  Full list of components - Wye Valley asparagus salad, parmesan sablé, soft poached hen’s egg, 2 year pecorino, bone marrow crumbs (£14).  Really lovely. 

For main I had the Line-caught seabass (£32).  I surprised myself ordering this, it was the accompaniments of deep-fried oyster, cauliflower, sea fennel and oyster velouté that swung it for me.  A girl at a neighbouring table leaned over to ask me what I had ordered, it did look good.  The fish was a generous portion and I was really happy with my choice.  Loved the deep fried oyster especially.

 

For dessert we went for the custard tart (£8), again to share, served with nutmeg and milk sorbet.  There’s a hint of bourbon somewhere in there too.  The pastry was perfect, as you’d expect.  I remember seeing Marcus Wareing doing the most incredible looking custard tart on the Great British Menu a few years ago, and this one looked identical. 

We moved into the bar after pud and had a few cocktails.  I hated one of them, it tasted like liquid smoke, not my cup of tea at all and the barman offered to replace it with something far more up my street.  We were the last to leave and we larked about in the foyer in some Dr Evil type chairs on the way out.  The toilets have the most amazing views across London, I lingered in there a bit longer than one should.  It’s that good. 

This won’t ever replace Berner’s as my Atherton fave, but the food is up to scratch, Atherton’s London take over continues at pace, oh he is good.

City Social

Tower 42

25 Old Broad St

EC2N

8.5/10

Lyle's

When planning my visit back to London in May, one of the places I knew I had to fit into my trip was Lyle’s.  James Lowe’s hotly anticipated new opening certainly didn’t disappoint and was one of the culinary highlights of my trip.  It’s a daily tasting menu which I love and the venue has been revamped in a lovely clean and bright way.  Think exposed brick, open kitchen and white things.  It was all very lovely.  Here’s what I ate:-

 Crab and potato crisp with a pasty (I forget the filling)

Blood Cake and damson

 Asparagus and walnuts

This was one of the dishes of the night, was served in a larger 

portion for Art as a replacement for one of the fish dishes, so so good. 

Smoked eel and turnip broth

Clean and light, loved the use of leaves across the meal

Sea kale and mussels

Delivered to the table by James Lowe himself, who informed us the sea 

kale was foraged the day before, excellent.  Such a pretty plate of food.

 Suckling kid, new season’s garlic and onions

 Baked riseley and chegworth leaves

This was the best dish if I’m forced to pick.  Melted cheese, bread 

and leaves (in an accompanying bowl) to break up the richness.  

Love riseley, great twist on a cheese course.

 Rhubarb and custard

Another winner.  The custard flecked with vanilla, some crumble 

underneath with the poached rhubarb for texture, and a rhubarb syrup for sweetness. 

All of the dishes were beautifully presented, in a simple and clean way, this meal is a prime example of what I miss about cooking in London.  Lowe is quite brilliant and I’m already looking forward to my next trip back to revisit.

The price point of the tasting menu is an absolute bargain at £39.  The sourdough bread was brilliant, service was polite and not in the slightest bit intrusive.  The wine list was short but solid and we ended up spending around £90 each (after cocktails at Merchant’s Tavern). 

Lyle’s

Tea Building

56 Shoreditch High Street

EC1

9.5/10

 

May Round Up

Eeeeek, I’ve neglected my blog.  Apologies.  It’s been all go.  A whirlwind trip to London during which I was Maid of Honour at my sister’s wedding, it was one of the best days of my life, it, and the trip, when far too quickly. 

So, here’s a quick round up of things I ate in May before I head off.

Biiru

Love love loved Biiru, went for an impromptu dinner on one of the first really hot summer days in Montreal.  I am beginning to see what people meant when they spoke of a seasonal transformation.  It has really come alive now the snow has gone, and I’m falling for the charm of the place.  Anyway. 

Biiru is a recent opening in the Downtown area and it’s great.  An Izakaya, it’s the kind of menu that’s really difficult to pick from, they have ramen, yakitori, sushi, japadogs etc. etc.  In London these things are generally offered at separate restaurants.  I like to know where I am with a menu. 

I opted for the mushroom and truffle okonomiyaki ($14) and chicken thigh yakitori ($6) and both were brilliantly done.  I wish I’d been braver with the yakitori and had hearts or livers, next time.   

I also got to try the agedashi tofu and the sesame edamame, always winners.

Biiru

1433 Rue City Councillors

Latin Quarter

H3A

8/10

Restaurant Helena

Had a speedy 3 courser here with a work buddy.  Lovely corn soup with chunks of chorizo inside to start and paella for main.  Some weird fruity thing for pud which I didn’t like but for $22 it’s an after thought. 

I blagged my way onto a table in the heaving dining room with no booking.  It’s really popular here, solid unfussy cooking.  Better for lunch than dinner due to the excellent value of the offer.  It's round the corner from my office, I'll definitely be back, vibe is workers with clients on lunchbreak. 

Restaurant Helena

438 McGill Ave

Old Montreal

H2Y

7/10

Kaza Maza

I tried this place with Grace, Patrick and Margharita one Sunday.  Really enjoyable ‘middle Eastern’ mezze type menu with small sharing plate.  Cold dishes only early in the day and a fuller menu available for dinner.  Hummus was as good as expected.  

Cheese plate with rose water jam and the mouhammara, a dip containing ground walnuts with pomegranate molasses, were the highlights.

There are olives and unlimited flat breads.  The beetroot dip was excellent too.  Cheap lunch, I think we paid around $30 each and outstayed our welcome.  Everything is well spiced and fragrant.  The earthenware dishes are nice, the service lovely and the room open and airy.  I think they have belly dancing nights, too so I’ll obviously be back.

Kaza Maza

4629 Park Avenue

Plateau

H2V

7.5/10

Trius Winery

A few of us took a holiday weekend road trip to the Ontario wine region.  I did a bit of research and found Trius Winery to be the most lauded eatery in and around Niagara-on-the-Lake.  I booked us in for the tasting menu with wine pairings on the Saturday night.  The gewurtztramier was the stand out wine of the night, surprise surprise, always a fave of mine.  The size of their wine glasses was astonishing, one used to serve a red fit an entire bottle, we made them test it.  Some of the dishes I had.

 Frozen lollipop canape, beetroot and chocolate. 

Can't pretend I liked starting the meal with chocolate.

Chicken wings with scallops on a sweetcorn puree, very nice.

 Dish of the night was the beef fillet with heritage carrots.  Lovely.

Highlight of the evening was a drunken cellar tour.  They were ever so nice, and patient with us.  The food wasn’t great to be honest, some fails, including a cold hard boiled quails egg with asparagus and balsamic, and the desserts were too frozen to cut with a spoon, but this is wine country, just go there for the wine.  5 course tasting menu was $75 and the showcase (not just any old) wine pairings was $45 each.  45 DOLLARS!!  So good.

Trius Estate
1249 Niagara Stone Rd  
Niagara-on-the-Lake
Ontario
6/10

Majestique

I've been to my first new restaurant opening in Montreal.  This is momentous due to the fact that as many as 90% of my London blog posts were about meals at new restaurants.  So, it's less happening that London, obviously, but there are interesting places popping up here if you know where to look for info.

Majestique was named one of the 12 most anticipated openings of 2014 by Montreal Eater, in fact it was top of the list.  The room is lovely, full of quirky little pieces and interesting light fittings, the long bar is inviting, there are casual tables at the front and booths for larger groups towards the back where the kitchen is located.  I liked the vibe, I read someone say it feels like you're in a sepia photo, it really does. 

The list of people behind Majestique reads like a who's who of the Montreal dining scene, Richard Holder and Charles-Antoine Crête, even I have heard of these guys!  Here's what we ate in the order it appeared.

Salade de Boeuf Mariné, légume croquante.

 Marinated beef salad with beets.  Really nice, small for $14. 

Marinade didn't deliver much flavour.

This was one of their specials, morels, bacon and fiddleheads on toast.

I was so happy to see fiddleheads making an appearance but this was perhaps the 

blandest dish of all, only tasted the bacon really.

Another order from the specials, the crevette po boy style dog.

My favourite dish of the meal, crunchy veggies and a nutty topping.

This was also a special, when it arrived we thought it was soft shell crab.

We were wrong, it was quail.  We hadn't ordered it but ate it anyway.

It was a bit too boney to enjoy this way but the accompanying dip was lovely.

 The fries were actually brilliant, served with aioli and plenty of salt, woo hoo!

Needless to say, I was over excited about this one so was a tad disappointed.  There was a consistent problem with the food, it was all under seasoned.  Which is a real shame because the menu is really exciting, the usual Montreal favourites of tartare (yawn) and oysters (such a huge deal here) are offset by the appearance of dishes like salmon confit brulee and whelks.

It was very early days though, and if this had not been the case, I would have loved the place.  It's open and serving food until 3am Monday-Saturday.  We definitely outstayed our welcome and were rewarded with free shots for our commitment to prosecco.  It's a really fun venue and I'll be back for drinks for sure.

We paid around $90 each, seems a lot but we were there from 6-1 and did drink all the prosecco, mostly from champagne saucers, happy days.  Cocktails were decent too.

Majestique
4105 Boulevard St Laurent
Plateau
6/10

ps. They're not on Urbanspoon yet, I've added them.  And grrr, their website is shit and you'll need to find details on their facebook page, still hating that.

Restaurant Park

Musing one evening about the foods we miss most from our respective homelands, one of my colleagues said he was struggling to find decent sushi in Montreal.  I remembered reading many many glowing reviews of Restaurant Park placing chef Antonio Park at the top of the list when it comes to sushi here.  It's pretty undisputed, he's has a license to import it himself, not sure where from but the sushi here is really very good.

Service was good too, couple of blips, like freaking out because there was a baby with us but mostly really friendly and helpful.  I added 2 to the party at very short notice and they were obliging.  We mostly went for the chef's Omakase menu, a tasting menu which changes daily.  Some of the table opted not to and they were cool with that.  It is by no means a cheap eat, the sushi set menu is $65 per person, plus tax, plus tip, plus drinks you're looking at $100 each.

The tasting menu began with a hot and sour soup which was brilliant.  My pictures on the whole are shocking, my picture of the soup is unusable but trust me it was a great start.  Next up came a little crab tian, with mango and supposed balsamic tomatoes.  There was no hint of balsamic.  Regardless, it was nice and fresh, I even enjoyed the mango, and I'm not a fan generally.

Then onto the nigiri selection, this was for 5 people, there was so much!  Best of all was predictably the fatty tuna, each had a different topping/garnish and the quality of the fish was excellent.  I didn't reach for a piece of ginger once as I wanted to taste each fish. 

Next up was one of these boards each, they were maki and they were huge, filled with salmon and tuna tartare and topped with enoki mushrooms, micro herbs and truffle mayo.  They were quite difficult to eat, I attempted to cut them up with my chopsticks, things got messy and I was getting full.  I left one.

The next course was my favourtite, the sashimi was exquisite.  Seared tuna, tuna, salmon, seabass, red snapper and sea bream, all amazing.  The dashi broth was cold but the actual best thing in the bowl (possible exaggeration) was the unripe truffled peach.  The small green fig looking thing.  It was incredible, a little tart and almost olive like in texture.

I didn't have room for dessert, I gave mine to one of my fellow diners who hadn't ordered the tasting menu.  We drank a lot of red wine and some cocktails, they have a kimchi martini on the menu, which I avoided, opting for the cucumber one instead.  I really liked the place and when I want sushi this is certainly where I'll be heading in future.  They also gave us free shots at the end of the night which is common here, yay, and rarely happens in London.

Restaurant Park
378 Victoria Avenue
Westmount
9/10