Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley.

I probably had built this up too much in my head.
As usual when I do that, I get disappointed. Can't quite put my finger on what was wrong. The table was fine, the staff reasonably interactive, the kitchen was flexible in allowing us to make some substitutions, for they were dealing with four fussy sods all wanting to have their own way but also to do the tasting menu.
Some things seemed odd, like the lack of a wine pairing to go with the tasting menu. In no other one or two starred place has this been the case. Oh hang on, Sat Bains and I remember thinking it odd there too. It didn't bother me, as I only wanted a glass, but HI and John felt the Sommelier could have shown off his skills here. He was very helpful, don't get me wrong, and he picked out random glasses for John to have with certain dishes. I think this aspect lent the meal a feeling of apprehension. This is the place of the ridiculous £12,300 bottle of Petrus, no-less, and although not penurious I was sitting there wondering how much each glass of wine was going to set us back. It's like when you go into a fancy shop which has no prices on any of it's wares, if you have to ask it's too expensive for you.
I don't like this when it comes to my meals. I want to be in control.

But I digress. We are here to talk about the food, not me, so without further ado..

PRESTIGE (Tasting Menu)

Amuse bouche


I think this was a pea and mint shooter, it was fresh and intense.



Foie gras with beetroot powder. Fancy toasties.



Pan fried foie gras,
glazed black figs with Lapsang tea and hazelnuts

As you know I am so over Foie Gras but in some bizzare twist of fate I ended up with it whilst others (HI and Rachel) had the Sweetbreads. How did that happen?



Having said that, it was excellent, as were the sweetbreads.

Scottish scallop,
honeyed pork crisps, parsnip milk powder
Oops no photo.
I suppose I think that scallops are boring, there is only so much you can do with them, as long as they are properly cooked then you are onto a winner..



Roasted and marinated quail,
hispi cabbage, Pommery mustard and baked potato
This was excellent and was better than the quail I had at Maze which says something.



Scottish halibut, charred leeks,
coddled quail’s egg and creamed caviar
I love Halibut and this was perfectly cooked.

I wish I had had the Lamb. I tried a bite of John's and it was beautiful.



I could have stamped my foot in a fit of pique. In fact I did. I had agreed to share the suckling pig with Rachel which was lovely but paled in comparison with the lamb

Best end of lamb,
caramelised shallot and fennel, confit tomato,
saffron and lavender


or



Poached and glazed Anjou pigeon,
Scottish girolles, almonds and amaretti

HI had this but I can barely recall what it tasted like.
~
Cheese from the trolley (£10 supplement)

Two of us opted for the cheese and were slightly disappointed and the lack of interaction from the cheese dude. This is in comparison to Martin Wishart and Glenapp.


The other thing I found disappointing was that there were no British cheeses available. I know it's a French restaurant but some rules were meant to be broken.



Pre dessert


Warm chocolate moelleux, banana jelly, banana ice cream
I had this and it was yum, but couldn't really discern the banana.
or
Lemon crème, brioche crisps, popcorn, milk ice cream

£90.00


I think again that there is nothing wrong with the restaurant other than it felt a bit impersonal. Some of the dishes were amazing. I think it comes back to the good old fine-dining problem I seem to have. I just don't seem to enjoy it, or feel it delivers what I think it ought to for the price. Maybe no where can.

Cocktails at the Dorchester.

As you know HI is partial to a well made Martini, so, after reading this article about London's 'martini time' we thought we would head to the Dorchester. It's quite a posh place and I think I upset one of it's patrons by assuming he worked there and asking him the way to the bar. Well, that's what you get for standing about at the entrance looking gormless wearing a suit. I am not suggesting that door men are gormless, just this man.
Once in the bar it was interesting to note that the much acclaimed martini flight was not on the menu and so we ordered off menu, which lead to the head bar man coming and having an interesting cocktail oriented chat with us.


The flight


My 'tea-time' martini which was poured from a very kitsch, cute teapot.

As you can see quite a lot of alcohol was imbibed leaving us to friscillate off into the glow of the afternoon.

Hache, hurray.

On Saturday we met up with Will in Camden at Hache. I was determine to give this place another go and I am glad I did because I ended up with very fine burger.

I think the trick is to be specific.
I opted for the Canadian (cheddar and bacon) medium-rare with no salad, sauce or mayo. It worked! It came exactly as ordered and was very tasty. HI enjoyed the Blue cheese version.


and

Will, the Catalan.


Unlike other diners who have written about the place I didn't notice anything amiss about the service. Maybe they knew who they were dealing with!

Wish we had a place like this in Glasgow. Actually, no I don't as then I would be a fat Heifer.

Maze, London.

Friday lunch, Grosvenor square. I wanted to eat here after seeing Jason Atherton on the Great British Menu. He seemed a thoughtful chap who had some pretty interesting dishes up his sleeves. The idea of small plates is a good one and seems to be my favourite way of eating these days. Given the success of L'atelier de Joel Roubuchon it would seem that I am not the only one who thinks so, and I wonder if Jason is creating his own particular vision at Maze. Certainly his time at El Bulli shows.. I know he is keen for Maze to get its second star so I reckon it's one worth watching.

The meal almost didn't happen, but thanks to Tina at reservations it did.
As you know the trip had been planned for months and our table was originally booked for 2.30pm. My sister though, asked me to pick my niece up from school, and feeling the absent aunt I wanted to oblige, but this would mean cutting the lunch short or missing it altogether. I phoned up to see if I could get an earlier table to be told the restaurant was full. Of course it is, silly me. Dejected I hung up. Then I thought no, there must be a way, so I phoned up and explained my plight to Tina. I don't know if she is always this nice but she took pity on me and said she would over-book me and put me in for 12pm, which, given that they are not meant to open till half past, seemed very accommodating of her.

We got there at quarter to and there were already people sitting about. For a moment I thought I saw Nick Munier, the maitre' d from Marco Pierre White's programme but then what would he be doing in a GRH place? Doh. Then I saw a sprightly chap who looked like a younger Jason Atherton, his younger brother maybe? No, the man himself! Feeling cheered by the notion that the chef was actually in the kitchen I relaxed considerably.

As all the comfy seats were taken, we perched at the bar and started with some cocktails. When a cocktail meets with my approval it is usually heralded with an exclamation 'It tastes like juice'. This tasted like juice but paced a punch like a donkey.



Mine was a raspberry sunrise with a jalapeno kick and HI was very impressed with his chocolate sazerac.

We were shown to our seats and happily were seated at right angles, without even having to ask! I was immediately taken with this nifty cutlery holder.


Then there was the warm bread with soft butter, points on!



We decided to order from the 'tasting menu' as opposed to the larger plates from the a la carte. What follows is some exceptional food.


Assiette of sandwiches, ‘BLT’ and croque monsieur 9.00
As seen of TGBM, it was very tasty and light. I thought it better than my choice which was the..


Pressed marinated foie gras, Lincolnshire smoked eel, baked potato foam and dill 10.50
I had thougtht I would be clever and order this so I could compare it to the original L'anguille at L'atelier in NY when we go in November. However, I really need to remember you can have too much Foie Gras, and I am at that point. I love butter but I don't eat huge chunks of it (unless on a toasted bagel with jam on..) And I had hoped the eel would have cut through the richness of it but I could not tell it was there.


Two texture white asparagus, ‘two hour egg’, smoked mussels and brown bread velouté 9.00
Beautiful, light. An excellent choice. HI's of course.


Slow cooked quail, marinated foie gras, peach purée and ale vinegar reduction 10.00
The best quail I have ever had. Usually it comes a bit rubbery or tough. This was pefect, but oh no! Foie Gras again!! I had to leave it. Or else my liver was going to go all fatty and someone was going tp turn me into human foie gras. Yeuch!


Rare breed Sussex pork ‘head to toe’, apple purée and spiced lentils 12.00
Pig. I love it.


The toe part- pig's trotter. The first time I have actually eaten this and if it tastes like this, would gladly eat again.


Roasted rack of lamb, hispi cabbage, red cabbage purée and ‘lamb navarin’ 12.50
Perfectly cooked, intense flavour and the peas were soo fresh


The Navarin


Beef ‘tongue ‘n’ cheek’, caper raisin and ginger carrots 11.50
This was intensely savoury. It was moist tender and delicious. Unfortunately as it was my last dish I couldn't do it justice. Very good.


Braised shin of veal, pumpkin risotto and veal kidney powder 9.50 (vegetarian option available)
This was amazing. I have come to realise two things. HI always orders better than me and if there is slow roasted/braised veal on the menu, then order it.


Peanut butter and cherry jam sandwich with salted nuts and cherry sorbet 6.50
I looved this, a peanut parfait with cherry jammy stuff. Probably the only thing David Beckham and I have in common..


Madagascan vanilla rice pudding, raspberry and lemon thyme jam, mascarpone and
pecan ice cream 6.00
An adult version of the classic school pudding, very tasty and not too heavy


Lovely petit four

What made this meal even better was that, as we were leaving, Jason was at the door and spoke to us! How sad am I to get excited?
He didn't have to, but he chatted to us about our meal, what we were up to in London, the TGBM and the fact he is hosting the next series to welcome the troops home. He even helped HI on with his jacket! He came across, as he did on telly, as a really approachable,level-headed interested guy.

Even without meeting the chef I would have to say this was an excellent meal. I like the vibe of the place: modern, formal but without being stuffy or snotty, and I like the concept of ordering lots of tasty food!

This is the future of modern British cooking, in my humble opinion. The formal French fine dining that seem to dominate the scene has had it's day. This is a place I would gladly go back to. Go Jason!

Hakkasan.

Dark. Sexy. Busy. Noisy. Expensive. Tastier than expected. No photos either.

That about sums it up.
With no photos to tell the story I will give you a quick run down of what we had.

Thai style quail: quite tasty and cut into cubes which is not what I was expecting, I thought we would have to grapple with the little birds and their bones. Served with some rather bitter endive leaves which I don't know was by accident or design.

Soft shell crabs: very tasty not too oily, but a small portion methunk.

Salt and pepper squid: tasty, not rubbery would have eaten more

Duck and mango: the weakest of the four, however, still tasty, duck very tender.

All of this was washed down with a couple of their cocktails from what is quite an extensive list.

For mains we shared:

Braised Duke of Berkshire pork belly claypot: this was yummy. The meat and fat became whole and formed some very tasty morsels.

Stir-fry black-pepper rib-eye beef: this was also good

Sanpei corn-fed poussin claypot: I had high hopes for this, and although it was tasty it was the weakest of the mains

Stir-fry Mongolian style Vension: also very tasty.

We also had an order of snow-pea shoots with garlic which were yummy and the stir-fry morning glory which was also very good.

As you can see we were quite meat heavy due to my sister's cry of 'Meat!" but on hindsight some of the dishes were a bit samey and we ought to have had some seafood. The menu is here.
All in all, although I enjoyed the food I didn't enjoy the experience. Hakkasan does not make for relaxing or convivial eating. It's too noisy, too dark and you spend your time trying to catch the eye of the harried wait-staff who to their credit seemed to be making a good job of a bad situation. I am pretty sure there are other places in London that produce food of this quality in a more pleasant environment which is a little less heavy on the wallet!! Just need to find them now..

Chinaski's.

We have never eaten dinner here before and I don't know why.
The food is pretty good.

We popped down for a quick bite to eat. It was pretty busy, dark and cosy. We shared a burger which fell apart but was tasty and, although to my mind does not beat the Stravaigin burger is a close contender. Pictured above is the big bowl of chorizo, chickpea and spinach stew which was lovely. You could taste the spinach, and the liquor was light and tasty. The serving was large and enough for two.
Perfect for a cold wet Glasgow night.

A couple of days later we went back and I had the stew again into which I dropped handfuls of some excellent skinny fries
and



HI had the deconstructed steak pie.


I will be eating at Chinaksi's again.

I'm back.

Phew. Finally, I feel myself again. I have shaken off not one but two bugs only to be bitten by a third- the blogging bug!!
Joking aside it's just as well. I have a lot to catch up on, there's the London trip and our jaunt up North. So without further ado...