Food What's your current favourite London restaurant?

I was musing about that when we were discussing SOLA and Ikoyi... seems hard to believe that between around 2000-2012 (after which there were grandchildren to get in the way) my parents - both public sector workers - were able to take their two children plus respective partners for tasting menus at The Ledbury, Maze, The Square, Ducasse, The Greenhouse, Tom Aikens, The Capital, The Landmark, Murano, Club Gascon, Galvin at Windows, Zuma, Orrery, Pollen St Social, A Wong and probably others I can't remember. We used to do it twice a year. That would be around £2-3000 a time now :eek:
I should have been in the public sector.
 
Do report back, Ian, grim or grand.
Overall a thumbs up. The chef is part Scottish and part St-Vincentian and the cuisine is international, eclectic and experimental. We did the five course menu. There is an eight course option too. His signature dish, an addition to the five course menu, is his spicey fried chicken, more than posh kfc, but his onion dish was the lowest ebb.

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A long and narrow space full of young hip people so the place had good vibrations.

The glassware is good and versatile. Medium sized universal shaped glasses.

Corkage is only £15 and waived on Tuesday. I say what’s not to like?

The high table was not ideal for me because I am not long torsoed or tall, despite the high chairs. The waitress, who was petite, had to reach up to put the dishes on the table. My dining companion who is long torsoed and six foot four - and happens to be named ‘Guy’ - did not have a problem with it.

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The Barbaresco purchased from the Sampler a few months ago was excellent and out classed the 2018 Sorpasso, which was nevertheless also enjoyable.

I am going back with six or seven of my American friends the week after next and if that works out I will organise an off line there.

It is a 45 second walk from my drum.
 
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Bouchon Racine is rather good…
It’s rather good. You have to climb up one of the great London pub staircases to get to it, equalled only by the Seven Stars in Holborn. I had the feeling of being in a sort of luxury treehouse while eating plate after plate after absolutely perfectly executed cuisine bourgeoise. Tripes à la mode de Caen in particular having a perfume of ruminant digestion and cider which can best be described as life-affirming.

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It’s rather good. You have to climb up one of the great London pub staircases to get to it, equalled only by the Seven Stars in Holborn. I had the feeling of being in a sort of luxury treehouse while eating plate after plate after absolutely perfectly executed cuisine bourgeoise. Tripes à la mode de Caen in particular having a perfume of ruminant digestion and cider which can best be described as life-affirming.

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Tripe. Don't think I could stomach it.
 
It’s rather good. You have to climb up one of the great London pub staircases to get to it, equalled only by the Seven Stars in Holborn. I had the feeling of being in a sort of luxury treehouse while eating plate after plate after absolutely perfectly executed cuisine bourgeoise. Tripes à la mode de Caen in particular having a perfume of ruminant digestion and cider which can best be described as life-affirming.

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Did it have a proper squid-like slight resistance? nearly all UK tripe is grossly overbleached and softened, except that prepared for the Chinese market by Quick products of Wigan.
 
Did it have a proper squid-like slight resistance? nearly all UK tripe is grossly overbleached and softened, except that prepared for the Chinese market by Quick products of Wigan.
I didn’t enquire as to the sourcing and pre-preparation of the tripe, though I’m sure our extremely knowledgeable server would have been able to provide chapter and verse. The texture and aroma were just right for me; my previous London restaurant benchmark was Anthony Demetre’s reinterpretation of pieds et paquets at Arbutus.
 
Just to report back on a few places. I've posted about Cornerstone elsewhere as well but to me this wasn't really at 1* level. The best thing on the menu was the pickled oyster, which was superb. Well balanced, good purity of flavours and the oyster shone through. Sadly the rest of the menu was a muddle. Too many flavours obscuring the main ingredient. Too much soy on the sea bream tartare, you couldn't taste the gurnard at all on that dish, the crab bun could have been anything the other flavours were so strong, and the kiev sauce was simply over-powering.

We also went to Restaurant St Barts last night. Fun space. Skandi minimalism meets 80s sheep throws. And a lovely view of St Bartholomew and its courtyard from the main restaurant. We started off in the bar with some 'curated' snacks. Which were ok though the cheese tart with walnut oil was superb. After thirty minutes we were shown into the main dining room where the meal proper began. Langoustine tartare was quite nice, the green pepper sauce worked well, but the langoustine themselves had been shredded in a strange way had turned a little to mush. This was followed by cuttlefish noodle soup. The cuttlefish apparently cut to be like noodles. But they just looked like a blob of shredded cuttlefish. Again very little finesse. It should have been easy to cut the main body into thin strips that resembled noodles but no they didn't. The sauce also overpowered the delicacy of the fish.

The next dish was cheese and onion. Which was just odd and not very nice. You couldn't taste the cheese and the onion was again fairly poorly chopped so you had big lumps with small amounts which texturally was just off. They had covered everything in a lot of fresh chives and some kind of crumb, neither of which made for a happy marriage of flavours.

The crab and ginger dish was very nice. The crab flakes were large and really delicious, the ginger quite subtle, it had something of a Thai soup about it. Very nice.

The turbot dish was ok. At least simply presented. The head had been made into a smoked terrine and was really delicious. The slice of fillet had been cooked sous vide which didn't make it taste or look that attractive. It looked as though it was from a small fish and when I asked they said they get fish in each day that weigh between 700-900 grams. I suspect they are farmed. Assuming each portion weighs about 100 grams they easily serve enough to get in a single bigger fish weighing 4-5kg which would taste far superior. Turbot this small really is a bit pointless you may as well go for another fish. John Dory for example would work much better.

The best dish of the evening was the duck and berries. Cooked overnight and basted every few hours it was really superb. The rendered down skin was crispy and delicious, the meat inside beautifully pink and full of flavour. Yum. I could have eaten this all night.

I was looking forward to the chinese water deer but sadly it wasn't the best piece of meat. Too many fatty parts though it was flavoursome and well cooked. Just some attention lacking in trimming it.

The two desserts were really not great. The yogurt and rhubarb was ok, the yogurt being the nicest part as it really refreshed the palate. The rhubarb was a bit anonymous. The apple & grains was poor. The apple tart wasn't quite right and had a slightly burnt caramel taste though the grain ice-cream was very nice.

When the bill came I was a bit annoyed to see that service had been added to the full amount given I'd paid the £240 for the food some months prior. This seems poorly judged. Add the service charge on when you pay not as an extra once you've already paid.

The wine list is ok. We paid £30 corkage which was a fair price. We shared glasses of Charles Heidseick 2012 which was nice but I'm not convinced it is better than their NV with 5-6 years bottle age.

Overall it was a bit of a disappointment. Too many dishes badly executed and overwhelmed with out of balance flavours. Also some poor execution in the kitchen. Though the pastry chef did a fantastic job throughout as the breads that accompanied some dishes were always superb.

Oh well. Not one to go back to. So that's three new restaurants tried and no real winners. We are off to La Dame du Pic in a few weeks for lunch as they have a special anniversary menu for £100 and its free corkage. Perhaps that will be better.
 
price. We shared glasses of Charles Heidseick 2012 which was nice but I'm not convinced it is better than their NV with 5-6 years bottle age.
I have recently been of the view that vintage Piper is way better VFM than Charles.
As you say the CH Brut with age is good, but all these wines are under Mytik so need opening early to have any chance.
 
I'm afraid that i find the focus/obsession with corkage rather distasteful. On the one hand we want a good winelist with reasonable markups. We need to support those restaurants that are seeking to achieve that rather than to insist on corkage.

It's entirely different at the un-liscenced premises and places such as Ariana and in the old days Alounak,or in Australia, where there is a tradition of BYOB and certain very good places expect you to bring a bottle form the bottle shop next door.

If you are a regular and a good customer then by all means ask for corkage but otherwise don't insult the establishment by rejecting its wine offering.

When I was a student I went to the Quatres Saisons and Tante Claire, ordered the set lunch and drank tap water. No one commented and on several occasions the Sommelier gave me a glass of wine.
 
When I was a student I went to the Quatres Saisons and Tante Claire, ordered the set lunch and drank tap water. No one commented and on several occasions the Sommelier gave me a glass of wine.
If you'd have taken your own wine and paid corkage the restaurant would have made a better profit and been more sustainable. The worst of all things is to go and drink tap water! It completely contracits your earlier point!
I'm afraid that i find the focus/obsession with corkage rather distasteful. On the one hand we want a good winelist with reasonable markups. We need to support those restaurants that are seeking to achieve that rather than to insist on corkage.
Who exactly is obsessing over or insisting on corkage? I don't know of anyone on the forum who does or has posted that they do? I think you're misreading things. Perhaps have a read of the recent thread on corkage. At an estimate four out of five places we eat out at regularly we don't do corkage. I find your comments distasteful and inaccurate.
 
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