‘Home’ for a week in London for the first time properly in a few years.
First stop:
Restaurant Gordon Ramsay
Our first trip here in over ten years (we have a ten year old) but around the tenth or so in total. First thought was the room has shrunk. Actually there are way more people packed into the same sized room, decor changed a bit too.
The maitre d Jean Claude is quite a personality, of course he miraculously remembered us when we said we had been before and without thinking said we haven’t aged a day.
We drank a glass of Ayala from magnum, and asked the very good English sommelier to suggest two wines to pair with our starters (a GV and a Niellon Truffiere) and a 2011 Cecile Tremblay MSD (beautiful, light, bright and clear) for the mains. His suggestions were sound and I think he was glad to chat. Only around 25% of tables seemed to have wine. Interestingly of the fifteen or so tables only 2-3 had Brits on them. Not that it matters but it was noticeable. As was the fact that 12 of 15 tables had at least one phone on them at one point. Multiple photo shoots occurring, often by staff of customers.
Bread was disappointing, the bacon brioche better than the poor sourdough. Canapés were solid but not amazing. Starters of the signature ravioli of lobster was better than the scallops with walnut and apples. The scallops were rather small.
My turbot main with Morteau sausage and cockle chowder was very good, but the fillets (there were two) were quite small, give me one larger one every time.
My wife’s Halibut with king crab and ras al hanout was very good but a rose water element a little too fragrant.
Deserts of apricot soufflé with an excellent toasted almond ice cream were decent overall, we paired with a lovely cognac.
Ice creams have always been excellent. A brief tour of the kitchen showed that the head chef of many years seemed to have already moved on.
Overall, well a slight disappointment, I’d rather they charged more for slightly better core ingredients, or rather more generous ones. A large turbot trumps two small ones every time.
A much more relaxed and cooler room. A glass of Bereche to begin with canapés of the highest quality.
The four course menu offered a lot of interesting dishes though my wife and I overlapped on the lobster dish which was the best we sampled. A really excellent innovative and delicious plate.
The pork dish was very good but not of the same level, I rarely eat meat these days but this was worth breaking the rule for. The jowl more interesting than the medium rare back portion.
We drank a 2010 Keller GG and then an Auslese both were fairly priced and served very well by the young female German speaking Italian sommelier.
Deserts a little mixed, the best probably a freebie of passion fruit ice cream and juice. The ice cream was sublime, which was odd as a Honey ice cream was only average, but a stem ginger served with a brown sugar tart was back to standard. The strawberries on my tart were just good.
Petit fours were excellent.
So overall a very good meal, I’d rate it slightly above Gordon Ramsay. This was about my twentieth visit here, the first was a month after opening and it has been great following the progress over that time and I think the cooking has matured into consistently the highest level in London, some of the earlier experimentation and more complex plates of food have been refined and simplified. The wine list offers very fair value.
Hedone on Thursday.
Too bad about GR. We had probably our best meal of 2015 there with the best wine pairings we’ve ever had. The Somm asked me about the wine pairing, I very nicely explained that it didn’t thrill me, so he asked what I would like in a pairing and how much I wanted to spend and absolutely nailed the pairings for the rest of the meal.
I can’t remember! I only saw the bottle for a second. kirchspiel (sp?) I think. It was very good. Sema wanted burgundy but the German suited the dishes better.
The former Sommelier at The Ledbury, Anja Breit, is from Germany and built the German selections on the list during her tenure. In the fall of 2012, she told me the following story: Keller was invited to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, where his wines were poured, and during his visit ate dinner at The Ledbury. While perusing the wine list, he asked Anja why there were none of his wines on the list and she replied that she had difficulty buying them in sufficient quantity to put on the list. Keller personally remedied that. I have drunk Keller GG at The Ledbury since and will do so again when we return in September. Goes great with the cooking.
I guess Anja’s successor (Seamus something?) isn’t as keen about German wines, which is too bad. I hope you have a good meal at Hedone, as I’ve booked for Sept due in large part to your and Sarah K’s enthusiasm for it.
Hope you enjoy Hedone, Mark. The chef is opinionated to the point of abrasiveness, but his cooking is excellent. He also has a lot of influence over the wine list, which has some reasonable choices in an off-beat kind of way.
The room is a little stark, no tablecloths, this isn’t about chasing stars. We had a great view of the silently diligent kitchen.
A glass of Drappier rose, with the excellent ‘fish and chip’ canapé, monkfish inside a potato flavour starch shell, with the purest sweetest pea purée.
A bottle of Dauvissat Forets 2011 was a bit too oily and rich but steeled up in the glass, a follow up bottle of Dujac MSD 2012 was the essence of simple transparent beauty.
The food was even better than last time, standouts were a crab dish of startling freshness, just cooked, with a hazelnut infused liquor. After ordering the Dujac our first meat dish was rapidly changed for a pigeon with cherries. Lamb with aubergine and a beautiful little herb salad was divine.
Turbot was pearlescent, a Thai langoustine was of the highest possible quality.
If I had to criticise the desert wasn’t as fine or technically interesting as last time.
Discussions with the chef patron were intense. Hugely driven guy, well and necessarily balanced by his partner. Though increasingly warmed as we discussed mutual friends.
Hedone is the real deal. I went there expecting and even wanting to hate it. Couldn’t help but be genuinely impressed. One of the best meals I’ve had and really enjoyed myself!
Martin Wishart in Edinburgh last night. Overall pleasantly surprised and it held its own. A bottle of Jacquesson Rully 1er then a Huber Spatburgunder Alte Reben both of which were delightful and well priced on what’s frankly a pretty average list with little inclination to trade up with fixed 3x markups.
Canapés weren’t great, a beetroot macaroon was technically sound but too sweet when served with another sweet/fishy tube.
Three, six course tasting menus were offered, one being fish/shellfish and one vegetarian. Easy to swap between them, as we did with the desert.
Highlights were excellent scallop dishes, raw and cooked, and a very precise veal cheek with runner beans, excellent technique displayed throughout but vegetables were sometimes not of the same quality as the seafood. A sweet corn and polenta dish was a bit odd and out of place.
Petit fours were ok but no more.
The mostly French team in the room were good if not as slick as the best. The young sommelier was engaging and delighted with my choice of the Spatburgunder, his last bottle.
