Solstice (Newcastle)

Solstice opened in 2021, rebranded from its former incarnation of being ‘Kenny’s cafe’ on the decision of Kenny Atkinson to make it a continuum and next chapter of House of Tides. By all accounts this was a serious menu and the details of my menu experienced are as follows:  

SMOKED EEL – this was a brandade, with crème fraiche, smoked eel, compressed granny apple and N25 hybrid caviar, served chicken skin crackers. This had a beautiful balance of the salt from the eel and caviar combined with the softening creme fraiche and acidity of the gel.   

BEETROOT – a crusade with chewy beetroot cooked in salt crust for 4-5 hours and seasoned with diced, dehydrated beetroot (having cooked in beef fat), cumin, elderberry pickled from last year, horseradish creme fraiche, carroway, and lightly pickled beetroot. This was good, with a chewy, salty texture and lovely crunch of the crustade. 

DUCK – chicken liver parfait with Pedro Ximanez sherry, pain d’epiese, fermented plum, dill and fresh flowers served in a spring roll pastry, parcel.  This was frankly outstanding – the perfect texture of the parfait also had real liver depth and was balanced with the supporting plum and dill gave the sweet and lightness it needed, all combined in the beautifully brittle pastry for texture – wonderfully enjoyable.

PORK – this course consisted of two elements, a dumpling and a broth.  The dumpling, pork shoulder, was made with dashi, cooked in pork fat, black bean paste, ginger,  pickled daicon, yuzu ponzu and trout roe – a lot of elements and a nice result with a very light batter and softened pork flavour.  The broth of pork collar was made with shiitake mushrooms, ceps, ginger seasoned with ponzu and miso oil. This was a very dark broth and quite salty.

LOBSTER – cooked in its own oil and served with sancho pepper, fresh red currents, yuzu gel, yuzu caramel, yuzu butter cream sauce and lobster head oil on top. Although the lobster piece was only just warm, the small piece had good sweetness and texture and overall lovely combinations of cream and citrus combined.

SASHIMI – a ‘palate cleanser’ which came with sea bass, cured in sake brine, rolled in black radish, blanched, finger lime, dill and ponzu, aged mirin, infused with shiitake and kombu, seasoned with bergamot, zest and toasted sesame oil.  This was aromatic to the last, complex and light. All the aramats worked well together and was good to have some vegetables in the mix for the meal.  

PARMESAN – a cheese mousse from 35 day macadamia nuts, glazed with Lea & Perrin sauce, gold dust, truffle, Parmesan sauce and South of France truffles from truffle company Wiltshire truffles.  This was absolutely delightful. I was grinning as a genuine dopamine moment from the first moment of this course.  Overall it had the perfect seasoning in amongst the aerated cheese with the truffle and  – beautifully done, showing real skill.

CATCH OF THE DAY – Monkfish from Hodgson Fish of Cornwall was dry-aged for texture, served with melody blossom, apple marigold and a smoked creamed sauce using Craster kippers. This was probably one of the best Monkfish I have ever had (they can so often be too chewy, but this was perfectly supple and smokey in flavour with amazing sauces, all washed down with a wonderful Riesling whilst listening to Simply Red For your Babies playing as the restaurant music in the background – I was utterly happy in this moment with everything.

SQUAB PIGEON – from Anjou, near Lyon.  The pigeon breast was served with a cherry glaze, cherry juice, miso, sake, sugar, seasoned with pink peppercorn, salt baked celeriac, topped with puree of celeriac, yeast, black garlic, cherry gel, butterfly sorrel and parsley.  The sauce was made using the carcasses of the pigeon wings and chicken with Madeira wine, chopped truffle, Parker house brioche brushed with chicken fat.  The pigeon was absolutely spot on with a lovely, deep sauce that had a delightful hint of aniseed touch in the sauce.  Beautifully made milk bread was provided to soak up all of the sauce possible and this was used to the maximum level possible. 

PEAR – a picturesque pre-dessert of goats yoghurt and goats milk crémeux came with horseradish jam, mashed pears, pear sorbet and a tuille (from pear pulp) with a final drizzle of pear and sage juice with sage oil. This was refreshing and lovely. Done. 

HONEY – the main dessert was a celebration of honey from the Northumberland Honey Company made from heather honey, parfait bergamot, fresh bee pollen, ice cream from grain.  The honey parfait was delicious with good texture and the ice cream with a pleasantly contrasting (nutty) toasted cereal flavour.  It was in effect an absolute showcase of honey as a dessert and one of the best honey desserts I’ve ever had. 

An array of petit fours was presented with coffee.  A cranberry tart crémeux with cinnamon, orange, cranberry gel, mascarpone; Granny Smith Apple financier creme patissiere  (lovely apple crumble feel to it); Manjeri chocolate with 64% cacao (not overly bitter, and nicely smoked sea salt complement); blood orange pate de fruit (fruit paste), infused blood orange, cardamon, Madagascan pepper (very good mix of spice and sweetness) and finally a tonca bean petit four of single origin Manjari 70% Valrhona chocolate, filled with tamarind gel and chilli ganache with chilli coconut – once again, very good handling of spice, heat and sweetness.

This was a very impressive menu and the consistency I enjoyed that pretty much every single course had a degree of freshness in amongst the sometimes complex mix of elements without confusing the overall result.  The atmosphere of the restaurant was charming with the lovely touch of the kitchen team bringing out and explaining the dishes themselves.  There is real care and pride in the work here and rightly so.  I thought this was Kenny Atkinson at his absolute best and certainly the most intricate and impressive menu I have enjoyed of his yet. I will wager that Solstice is very much the flagship beacon of the brand now, even if it is a more recent addition.

I have yet to have a bad meal in any way on any of my visits to Kenny Atkinson’s venues – they have strong consistency and based on this meal, Solstice is highly recommended as a result.

Food Grade: 87%