First things first, you must accept various things regarding a visit to Ynyshir Restaurant & Rooms:  1) The rooms are available for one night only to serve as a resting place for diners rather than a hotel for random hikers; 2) Do not get off at Dovey Junction if you are going by train even though is closer to Ynyshir as this involves a 20 min walk to get to the main road – Machynlleth is your baby(!) and 3) Prepare yourself during the day that this will not be a short dinner (or lunch).  For that reason I have to say the value for money is still exceedingly good here.  The 20+ courses for dinner with wines we had and the stay came to £225 per head with an additional £125 for the matching wines and additions totalling just over £350 for the marathon meal, stay and breakfast.  This is tremendous value comparative to the rest of the country’s high end notable eateries as a huge bonus (and comparative to other establishments across the world cooking at this level).

And so, on to the good stuff.  The meal began with something I had had before entitled ‘Not Onion Soup’ which is a small soup made with miso onion, tofu, sea vegetables, onion oil, dashi and croutons.  I actually forgot how insanely good this was and made no bones about this in the summary of my first trip last year and is one of the stronger openings to any meal I have on record it is that good and worth the attention here.  Leg of Aylesbury duck with black bean glaze with spring onion & toasted sesame came next which, in spite of being a fraction dry had a wonderful crunch and glaze of the orient.  

It’s always lovely to have wonderful dips and for the bread course here, you are in for a treat.  Although this particular sour dough is not my absolute favourite in being a tad bitter, it is carefully made and proved over 7 days and the wagyu fat and miso butter are things of beauty to dunk this in to.  The miso butter in particular, which is in fact pure gold in the butter world.  Another previously enjoyed dish of mackerel, dried in kombu and brushed with miso butter with Yorkshire rhubarb ketchup, soy and back fat was very good, with all accompanying oils and fats working well with each other and the mackerel which was prepared very well.  

Crab claw with soy sauce with curry ketchup, coriander and puffed rice was sheer knock out, plain and simple.  The crab worked excellently with the fresh curry and I honestly haven’t had a creative curry dish like that since the pork and banana curry at 3 Michelin starred Alinea and this frankly at a similar quality line.  The pork belly char su was marinated for 4 days and barbecued, proving to be very succulent and with pleasing flavour.  The breast of duck with hoi sin, pickled cucumber had perfect breast meat with wonderfully subtle hoi sin but also had just the right ‘hit’ of how sin at the same time, perfectly balanced with the pickled cucumber; a great dish. 

Duck liver was next with spelt crisp, grated smoked eel and birch syrup grade creating a smokey, silky liver mousse collection.  This really was destroyed in a matter or seconds it was that good having such a smooth texture and decent flavour.  Yellow & red tomatos came next in  dehydrated form and also pickled with back fat, sour dough and smoked cream cheese.  All these components went well together and really nothing to not like on this.  

Garlic prawn from Isle of Skye (wild garlic in the UK becomes abundant between Apr-May) was served with oil made with garlic and also frozen with stems pickled and vacuum packed.  The sweetness of the langoustine was lovely and the garlic oil with pickled wild garlic stems on top was a cracking combination.  St George mushroom with mushroom cream was a luscious mini-celebration of mushroom, the flavour being enjoyable.  Asparagus was the next dish with garlic,  miso butter and mussels with fermented grains.  This was quite vinegary as the main element and it seemed the asparagus’ main job was providing the necessary texture. 

 On to the meats! The short rib wagyu was 72-hour slow cooked at 60 degrees producing all fat to be rendered down nicely.  It was then barbecued and served with pickled lettuce, puffed rice with shiitake ketchup and soy which was joy in the mouth altogether.  The same can be said of the Wagyu ‘burger’ with fermented lettuce sour dough mayo, charred gherkin pickled shallot sesame seeds – a superb biteful collection.  Then finally was the prize of upgraded Wagyu which was aged 250 days encased in wagyu fat (to stop the air drying it out too much) then given a dose of ultra violet light at 2 degrees Celsius for final entrapment of flavour.  The fermented lettuce with Hampshire-grown wasabi came with beef dressing.  Initially I thought there was a danger of too much fat, but it’s job was to kill the harshness of the wasabi which it did brilliantly and the overall effect was a deep and flavoursome umami sensation and a lovely addition.  

Sour dough pieces with wagyu fat and onion came as almost a miniature soup and texturally was a nice change and the onions gave the fat the slight relief it needed.  Next came the sour dough crumpet with Tunworth (and camambert from Hampshire), ‘minus 8’ vinegar (grapes picked at 8 degrees and turned in to iced wine and then in to vinegar) with maple syrup blended with Italian biancito truffles which was just heavenly.  Yes, this was as good as it sounds and another great dish from a genuine composer.  

The Yuzu shlush was a lovely mouthwash to have in the crossover to sweet dishes (I happen to adore the freshness of yuzu as a citrus fruit), followed by white chocolate and tofu mousse black bean syrup black bean biscuit.  The latter I have had before and was very pleased to show to my associate at the table who concurred that it was as quality as I had recalled it to be.  Next came a lovely little compote of Yorkshire rhubarb with raw slices on top.  The custard here was made the old fashioned way: cornflower, eggs, milk and sugar and was utterly first rate custard, there is no question here.  I was especially pleased how well the raw rhubarb had been toned down as was not the acidic slaughter house it often can be and was balanced really well.   

Sticky toffee pudding had dates with no stones, vanilla ice creamed with Tahitian vanilla and a lovely, sticky toffee sauce.  No issues with this at all and another pleasing dish to add to the proceedings.  Nettle granita with nettle oil and nettle biscuit, goats curd pannacota granola and fresh lemon had a visual and lovely scent across the whole table and I was pleasantly surprised at this dish as well – I have had some poor experiences of nettle being attempted but this was actually quite refreshing.  Finally, the old favourite of tiramasui coffee and cake purée, vanilla mayonnaise, sweet masala wine gel, frozen madcapane and masala wine sprayed on top with 100% Madagascan chocolate grated on top.  There is not much that can be faulted on this except if you have a problem with deconstructed dishes – which I don’t in anyway if it produces the flavour goods and this most certainly does.  It was a wonderful finish to the meal, with all parts of this dish coming together well and in a fun and innovative way.  

To sum up, there were very few moments of this meal that didn’t strike a memorable chord and the bottom line here is that right now, I simply can’t see any other appropriate tier for this restaurant to sit in other than 2 Michelin star level based on the handling of the ingredients, creative combinations and balance.  Price is also an interesting factor which, is interesting to see – this was an absolute steal for this level of quality when comparing to the $1,200 price tag I had for just one dinner (for 2) with very modest wine at The French Laundry…and the £350 here will give an abundance of good wines on top of the tasting menu and a lovely room at Ynyshir as well!  Powys is a little easier to get to than you might think – if you’re coming from London, a quick change in Birmingham, a bottle of fizz and a laptop or tablet with a film loaded on and you are there, so this was actually better than driving as I did last time.  

I was fairly sure this was a great venue within the UK when I visited last year; I’m now convinced and know it is above that from this second visit and rarely does a menu with so many courses have so many genuinely decent moments – very difficult to pull this off which proved to be possible here.  A lovely food & weekend escape in all ways – thank you, Ynyshir for another belter! 

As a welcome to the table, a Birch tree had been ‘tapped’, enabling sap to pour out and be collected.  This was allowed to ferment slightly, kicked off by adding a dash of sugar and then with rasins added resulting in a refreshing and sweet, fractionally carbonated welcome drink – a very nice touch an opener.

Miso onion and dashi with local sea vegetables from the beach two miles away were then brought in a bowl and I had an automatic love with the buttery feel of the dish (pretty impressive when no butter was used) and refreshing fragrances of the sea but without being too pungent.  I seriously wanted more and more of this dish.  The sour dough was made over 7 days of proving to increase the sour flavour, with fermented grains was deliberately charred on the crust but carefully made not to taste burnt.  This had a lovely texture but in retrospect I personally would have opted for a crust that stretches more as opposed to being brittle, but the effort was plain to see.  The cultured miso butter (made by adding yoghurt and putting in water bath for 4 days) then churning (beating to separate fats to gain consistency) was more the pleasure as was the wagyu dripping butter; the miso butter was itself on way to being cheese and had a complimentary sourness to the bread – overall a clever and a good combination.

The mackerel turned out to be wrapped in seaweed for 24 hours with rhubarb ketchup and pork fat shavings.  This had sweetness from the ketchup with richness of fat and the crunch of the slices and was a very good dish.  It was fresh, fatty and tangy all at the same time – utterly well done, with all components serving their function absolutely.  Then came the duck liver with apple syrup and woodsorrell with spelt biscuit and smoked eel shavings on top – this was beautifully smooth, had the earthy overtone of woodsorrell, glorious crunch from the spelt and v good combo of the eel and liver.

Then came the Lamb rib: treated and rested for four days in total with shizo onion in vinegar with soy glaze and mint.  This was undeniably a lovely play of sweet and acid with the most tender of lamb had in a LONG time.  I could have have practically eaten the fat on its own and this was perhaps the nicest piece of lamb I think I have ever had, it was that good.  Next time I come here I am going to simply destroy this rib in about 6 seconds.

Then another absolute belter of a lamb dish came(!) – mint kombucha (Asian tea left for a month which turns in to a vinegar) with roasted lamb and soy sauce.  The lamb itself, prior to cooking, had been brushed with lamb fat for 2 days in order to lock in the moisture and the combination of the soy and the mint was frankly an outstanding combination.  This was also a perfect example of using good fat and moisture with Asian influences without the need for dairy / butter.

The truffle and cultured butter tunworth cheese with maple and sour crumpet made me instantly happy.  I usually find cheese on its own on a board with grapes or chutney a little boring frankly, so having a cheese course like this I thought put this in the same league as The Square when I visited there a few years ago – cheese to be made ultra interesting and wonderful to the taste as well.  This was another corker – light vinegar was sprayed on for the final effect producing an absolutely instantaneous, lovely squidgy, rich, smokey combination.  I literally couldn’t have been happier.

Beer was poured over lime gel with grated lime on top for the next course.  The lime gel I found quite sour and with a hard crunch; it was nice to have balanced with yoghurt at the bottom but overall I found this a little too sour for my palate.  Next up, white chocolate with black bean which was beautifully sweet, rich and with a savoury blend.  Too much of any one of the components of this dish would have been a train wreck but together and in the portions they were, this was absolute harmony.

The nitro rhubarb with rhubarb gel was wonderfully sweet with a sharp twist and an enjoyable, light crunch in the mix as well.  This was followed by a deconstructed tiramisu which was very nicely balanced, with good textures but the only aspect being a bit of a shock for the roof of ther mouth being so many nitro-frozen elements dominating the sesnations in the mouth.  Flavour wise this was very nicely balanced for the coffee as well.  Finally, a Fat Duck style nitro-poached white chocolate mousse with injected fennel emulsion was provided in the kitchen for a lovely finish.

This really was a superb meal and I instantly regretted having to do lunch as opposed to dinner (my other restaurant that day did not do lunch and meant having to do it this way round).  As this ‘glimpse’ of a lunch was so impresssive in its own right, in my mind this is one of the discoveries of the past 12 months for me and of all the Michelin starred retaurants (1-3) in the UK, I haven’t been this keener to get back to one so much, since the likes of doing Midsummer House for the first time.  This is an incredibly strong 1 Michelin starred restaurant which, based on the flavours alone, I would go back to before I would to at least eight of the 2 Michelin starred restaurants in the UK.  I honestly cannot wait to get back here for the full, nine yards; it was a great meal and living proof why this is so enjyoyable to do.  Thank you, the team at Ynyshir for making this what it was.

Our visit found the restaurant surrounded in scaffolding owing to the face lift it is about to endure.  This is probably no bad thing and I think that also signals the heyday of Arzak is in need of revitalising, which is good to see after looking exactly as it has been for the last 4 decades.   A tour of the wine cellar, kitchen and laboratory was given at the start and the meal broke down to choices of a la carte with an average price of €150 for three courses of the tasting menu of roughly 9 courses for €210.  My dining companion had not eaten in a current 3 Michelin starred restaurant before so we opted for the tasting menu for maximum designs.

An array of nibbles were produced including Cecina ham with olives and grapefruit, a black pudding ‘rod’, prawn gyoza and banana and squid snacks.  Whilst nicely designed I was pretty astounded how the coil on the plate of the latter turned out not to be an intricately designed edible rack but made of metal and therefore put on for visual effect which seemed quite a bit of a short cut for a 3 Michelin starred restaurant.  Not the end of the world, but a definite, minor shock and the snacks themselves being pleasant enough.

The opening fish of the day which turned out to be mackerel marinated with Patxaran (a Basque sloe-liquor) and sprinkled with purple corn dust was a superb dish with the mackerel showing superior quality and flavour with its supporting sauce, although I could not taste the purple corn dust at all.  Squid with peach and assorted nuts was very fresh but no huge celebrations caused at this dish.  The poached egg with tomato candy was however, another belter of a dish – delicately handled and with an interesting level of sweetness from the tomato candy which married together very well.

Based on my first visit, I could not resist the opportunity to see how the roasted foie gras (from duck) was so I ordered this as an additional course.  No figs this time but a very nicely done vegetable ‘green’ sauce and with a berry coulis providing the sweetness that it needed.  Obviously not as biblical as my first eye-opener and I have had many versions since 2007 and this fared in the pleasurable bracket.

Next up were the mains and both the lamb and pigeon were of very good quality and judgement, but it was the stock jus for both of them stealing the entire show with the pigeon jus being among the deepest and very best I have ever had.  This was clearly wonderful quality, and the supporting mandarin and fruits with onion for the pigeon was an interesting mix.  The lamb itself showing very good flavour and as a bonus, a small portion of the beef was provided which was equally nice to have but did not compete overall with the former two (probably the reason they were selected for the tasting menu).

A ‘frosted’ pre-dessert of green tea granita, mint, raspberry and tomato sorbet with Brazilian citrus certainly did its job of cleansing the palate.   The chocolate cube with liquid mint, kiwi and neroli (oil from a bitter orange tree) was luxurious as a dessert and I opted for a different dessert to see another.  I was intrigued by the skate dessert, which turned out to be Vietnamese chocolate with liquorice ‘nuts and bolts’, literally on a piece of a skateboard.  No doubt #wewantplates will delight in adding this to their arsenal, but I honestly don’t have an issue with this – what’s reigns as the most important factor is the flavour!  Visually, it is always interesting to have something different but it won’t affect the success of the dish when dining and my senses enjoyed the soft handling of the liquorice and chocolate on this dish but the mango caramel puree was a touch too sweet to enjoy, whether on a skate or not, but the gooseberry ice cream (from India) was very good.

At the finish of the meal were perhaps the most pretty and delicious chocolate petits fours I have ever had.  Both at the table did not take long to know this after shoving one the little frogs in the mouth and I have somewhat gone off milk chocolate in recent times (in favour of dark) but these were outstanding.  The icing on the cake was talking to Juan Mari Arzak afterwards and learning how his respect for ingredients was still very much at the heart of what he has and still enjoys.

I walked away from Arzak for the second time pleased as punch to have come back and objectively, it was never going to be the same experience as my first, but comparing it with the other twenty two 3 Michelin starred restaurants that I have now been to in the world, it was fair priced experience with some great moments but not as strong as numerous other 3 Michelin starred restaurants out there today.

Food Grade:  84%

Breads came with a mix of Comte cheese, olives and oat.  The amuse Bouches included squid ink parcel gazpacho chorizo, quail egg tartlet with asparagus, pepper and creme fraiche, smoked salmon and sorrel bites, gazpacho with strawberry with pepper and cucumber and finally a Cornish crab salad sturgeon mouse crab jelly with Almas caviar and Venus sturgeon.  This was serious business and these canapes themselves are not just little nibbles to pass the time in my book, they are hardcore efforts and some of the best openers to a meal I have come across and are frankly brushing close to some three Michelin starred canapes in Germany and that is the highest they get.   

Starters included Isle of Wight tomato, Goat’s curd, Greek basil, wild strawberry, pickled radish with dashi which utterly fresh and so welcome for the summer.  Duck foie gras done well is never going to be a bad thing and this was delivered beautifully, marinated with Cévennes onion, lemongrass, champignon de Paris and lemon thyme.

Œuf noir is an egg dish with truffle (a blissful combination) whereby the eggs are cooked at exactly 35 degrees for 50 minutes to give their malleable and firmer texture.  They are coated in a truffle jelly and served with pain au lait (sweet, buttery bun) and with truffle shavings from Australia all over them.  A decadent dish with subtle truffle and all done very well.  “Lapin à la moutarde” (rabbit) came with smoked Alsace bacon, wild mustard leaf and confit rabbit leg inside a parcel.  Poached cod with English pea, smoked mussels and gem lettuce completed a successful round of mains on all levels.  

Desserts of yellow bourbon coffee, almond, mascarpone – apricot, elderflower and prosecco and a pea sorbet with strawberry cremauex were all light and quality to eat.  Coffee was nespresso (for consistency or so the usual reason is given) and petit fours included madeleines with lemon and sage, chocolate truffles and macarons with smoked vanilla – ALL of which were stunning as petit fours.  

This really was a class act from start to finish and if there was ever a contender to inch towards three Michelin stars, it is this venue, sooner I might add, than the recently anointed Sketch.  As this is a new chef, the overall food-grade changes to the average of this new chef – as this is the first visit under this new regime and the opening is a very strong 90%, this, therefore, is the new ‘average’ grade until the next visits (under the same chef) which are then averaged again.

Nibbles were brought to the pristine table in the form of an Iberica ham panna cotta with melon gel on thin crisp and prawn cocktail encased in soft rice paper along with a mini, crunchy cigar of mushroom paste with ginger all of which were of a good standard but the latter, with its pleasant kick being the more notable.  The bread selection was good and even though these were not made on site, the feuilleté bread was absolutely superb; the pastry on this was entirely brittle with a very soft inside and far more interesting than most breads had recently.  Seaweed butter isn’t normally my favourite, but this was balanced very well.

Then came the amuse bouche which is one of the restaurant’s proud, signature dishes which the chef (Arnaud Bignon) had created at his previous 2 Michelin starred restaurant in Greece.  This was white crab, slightly curried, with a ginger cauliflower puree, mint gel apple foam, curry oil and diced apple on top.  You would think that those components would destroy the crab, but somehow the crab was able to be noticed enough and it was a very light and carefully balanced dish.

The starter of girolle mushrooms with cobnut, amontillado (a form of fortified wine) and spinach was an unsubstantial dish and a little small as a starter and simple, but the sherry of amontillado worked well with the mushrooms and one cannot expect lobster laced with caviar on a set lunch menu at the same time.  The Jacobs Ladder (flank steak) with celeriac and bone marrow purée, plums and soy was elegantly prepared and again, very much a set menu dish.  The very lightly pickled plums worked well and the celeriac and marrow puree was probably the most enjoyable aspect along with the superb bavette of bone marrow, flank and the same puree as a side serving.

Dessert was Equatorial chocolate with tarragon mousse, tarragon sorbet and gel with chocolate biscuit base and chocolate ganache which had an utterly light base and the combination with the tarragon was a great.  Petit fours came in the shape of crunchy peanut butter, yuzu and coconut, and mint meringue and apple gel, all of which registered well.

Overall this was a confident meal with a very well presented polish, clearly in keeping with how a set menu can be done.  It was also a pleasant uplift when comparing with some 1 Michelin star set menu lunches of late that have exposed a price tag of being slightly lower (in £35-40) but significantly lower in effort and execution in comparison to this meal.  Service was sincere and focussed throughout and the only things that let this meal down slightly were an audible reprimand of a staff member which is not what the customer wants to hear and the fact that when I opted for no coffee, this was still charged with an over-confident chuckle in that, this should have been obvious as it was the all in price.  I disagree – this may be the case, but it would have been better for the paying customer to be alerted that the option of not going for coffee would still be charged for it.  Not the end of the world, but it signalled a tinge of arrogance from the staff to do so.  Ultimately, this was good value for money and I would rather have this at the slightly higher premium as a set menu for the skill and pleasantness that came with it, than a slightly lower price and badly done dishes.  A very good set menu lunch and good to be back.

It has since this review gained its second Michelin star and as a result they have, unfortunately sent the price tag of their menu rocketing upwards because they will obviously be able to get away with it and on my second visit with a second star I saw absolutely no mirrored increase in the dishes (sadly photos missing from this second visit).  It has made me actually wish to avoid here now as it is good cooking and it was definitely in the upper echelons of 1 stars when I went to it on the first outing but simply feels like an expensive let down with its second star and the prices given suggest it takes itself far too seriously.  More concentration should be given on producing frankly better tasting dishes.

Nibbles came in the form of crisps of potato, squid ink and parmesan, cod skin and Skyer yoghurt with parsley and chives & star anise as a novel and pleasing way to start (particularly the cod skin).  Spanish oils from the North and South of Spain with the scorching climate of the south of Spain producing an oil lighter in colour and perhaps a little softer in flavour.

The amuse bouche of tomato gazpacho with tomato snow was virtually identical from 7 years ago and still as refreshing with its basil and lemon grass and this time served in a shellfish.  For starters I opted for salmon with mustard skyr, cumin powder, sorrel snow, sorrel, pickled cucumber and rye bread.  The semi-wild salmon (caught from Scottish lochs and placed straight in to ice containers and moved by train immediately to London) was beautifully soft and not too oily.  The salmon itself was cooked only slightly (to retain moisture and to not lose too much protein that will escape as a result) and the blow-torched to help tighten and pull together.  For all the effort however, it definitely needed the other elements to bring it more to life in flavour; the  mustard skyr with dill was lovely and thank god for the pickled cucumber which gave it the general lift it needed.

The Elwy valley Welsh lamb shoulder, was served with spring onions, and heritage carrots – this was a visually pleasing show, with the saddle parts of the lamb being smoked at the table utterly succulent tender saddle lamb.  However, for all the visuals, the lamb saddles were not as smokey as the picture suggested at all, but they were utterly tender to the bite.  The shoulder of lamb was far more successful in flavour return.

Pre-dessert was a clove and ginger sabayon with sorrel granita and this was actually a very good combination.  The sabayon made with yolks, wine and sugar gave a rich and sweet quality to the earthy and icy granita and was an original and fresh transition.  The main dessert was not the house speciality of skyr but the set menu lunch version with sweetened skyr yoghurt, granola, melon and meadow sweet.  The  granita was again a mix of earthy, creaminess compared to most desserts and the yoghurt worked in a rich way that seemed somehow healthy at the same time.  A take-away bag of petit four completed an impressive set menu lunch with some definitely good hits on return.

I would say that this is still a text book example of how Michelin starred dining can be enjoyed with not too much to fear in a stylish but relaxed environment where the staff were accommodating, not too formal and with an extremely reasonable £38.81 final price tag all in including service for 8 courses.  It isn’t at the top of the 1 Michelin starred family as lunch menus go for overall impact, but you cannot argue with the value for money and the food was certainly not offensive at the same time.  Recommended for anyone that wishes to have a peek at modern and fine dining without breaking the bank.

We were placed in the conservatory part of the restaurant and whilst this feels a little cramped in comparison to Le Manoir, it was still visually pleasing.  Snacks took the form of a thin pastry cigar with the garden herbs with a lovage emulsion and a mini cone with horseradish ice cream.  I thought both of these were utterly light and lovely, epsecially the perfectly balanced horseradish ice cream and the refined nature of the cigar.  I believe Esperanto in Stockholm uses exactly the same formula for their dried celeriac cigar with herbs inside so it is difficult to say who inspired who, but the result was a delicate and lovely way to begin this visit, the opening nibbles being one of the highlights of the meal on reflection.

Breads took the form of south rough, black treacle and bread crisps with cultured butter.  The light, bread-crisps were a particular highlight here with butter that was pleasing but just a little (and I very rarely say this) over salty for me.

The raw scallop was even more of a treat than the cooked and with the strawberries gave a genuinely pleasing sensation.  We were both a little less keen on the dry-iced chicken with chicken skin.  Normally, the latter makes virtually anything explode for me, but on this occasion I couldn’t see how freezing the chicken gave anything more than an original way to serve; it seemed to lack flavour and as the iced chicken thawed in the mouth, it with was almost unpleasant.  The semi-crushed potato with cream and caviar however, restored a sense of relief and was a simple and very pleasing dish.

The beef tartare unfortunatley felt somewhat gloopy with the use of so many mushrooms and the thickness of the slices and I prefered the restrained and finer use of mushrooms in steak tartares at Adams in Birmingham and Isle of Eriska.  The pestle and mortar used at the table for all the garden herbs with olive oil was a nice piece of theatre and was powerful in flavour to go with the ‘tagliatelle’ that was actually long shavings of kohlrabi.  The only draw back of this dish was that it was so lifelike to tagliatelle that we both forgot what it was and the crunch of the kohlrabi was initially a negative surprise(!).  Once adjusted, the combination of the cheese and the garden pesto was clear as a bell and full marks on originality for this dish.

The turbot was a success, plain and simple and with the shallot puree, was another highlight of the meal.  The cheese within sweet pastry and apple sticks was new but a little too busy for the cheese return; if there was one dish that the phrase less is more was applicable to, it was this one.  The cross over of savoury fudge was clever and as a literal nibble, was over in a couple of seconds.  I don’t think any pre-dessert can easily beat Daniel Clifford’s pousse café at Midsummer House but it was a fun change.

The opening chocolate dessert was a pleasant level of decadence but the real stars emerged in the form of the clever milk cracker dessert (genuinely the flavour of milk in the form of a cracker crisp) and the Thai curry ice cream.  This latter was marvellous.  Hiding inside the candy floss as an impressive treat, the gentle heat from the chilli in the ice cream was tempered superbly by its wonderful, creaminess and textural smoothness.  Although I have had Thai green curry in dessert at one other place before (Paris House), this was a highly original and absolutely A-grade dessert.

Petit fours were very much the same style as had 5 years ago (thin, wafer shards of chocolate with stomach-calming ingredients, embeded in a log).  Flavours on this visit included green tea, caramel with pepper, rosehip fennel and chai spices, all of which proving a light and better way to finish a long meal.

In summary, the meticulous nature of the dishes here is evident.  Whilst we left with what felt to be an anti-climax, overall there is no question of the levels of skill which were good to see.  I sense the evident popularity of the restaurant will be keeping the turnovers healthy, but I feel my two visits have now gained the majority of what can be gained from the venue and the current rate of visiting once every 5 years does not need to be exceeded.