Not all was bad in the lounge though I should mention, the hospitality was very good and I was delighted to see BA bring in the professional consultancy of Diego, formerly of the Waterside Inn who is guiding the staff with his professional oversight.  The photos of food on the flights from London to Shanghai and back again are outlined in the photos.

Champagne served in the lounge and on the flights I took were Laurent-Perrier Grand Siecle (Grand Century), multiple vintages using chardonnay and pinot noir grapes.  One of the meals consisted of pleasing canapes of Chinese style lightly salted fish, foie gras praline and camembert with truffled apricot glaze.  These were the most impressive canapes I have seen on an air flight in a while.

On the way out a fillet of beef with red wine jus and dauphinoise potatoes made a decent main in theory although the beef was grey all the way through.  A vegetarian curry and naan bread was also had by my fellow traveller.  On another flight leg, the king prawns with celeriac puree, papaya, courgette and basil oil was a good enough starter, a mini burger was opted for instead as a snack which was on the freedom menu (cheddar cheese, smoked chilli maple bacon, pickled horseradish and ketchup).  One chosen main consisted of mushroom tortellini with black truffle, porcini mushroom cream sauce and vegetable garnish.  The other main was wok-fried chicken, black bean sauce, jasmine and black rice, asparagus and black mushroom.  Both were decent and pleasant to enjoy.

Desserts included passion fruit and vanilla praline and chocolate cheesecake.  Cheeses were presented with pear slices, walnut and balsamic and hand made chocolate truffles from Stephen and Sun Trigg were very well chosen and pleasant to have onboard (beautifully smooth centres).

All in all, these were decent offerings onboard an airplane and was a step up in comparison to the lounge experience which was frankly disappointing and in need of advisory help.

Hedone has gone through some fragile times internally in the last two years so I gather, with its future direction uncertain.  That said, it was good to get back and see what the menu was looking like in 2019.  The meal started with a foie gras parfait canapé with delicate red pepper coating and fino sherry gel on the top which was of a superb standard of parfait, the lightest of crisp coatings and the tart of the gel working beautifully together.  Next up was the amuse bouche of savoury custard made with shiro dashi (a soup base made from bonito / kombu dashi and white soy sauce), with a pea puree and with fresh green peas.  This really was first class – the dashi custard perfectly warm and smooth, complimenting the flavour of the pea puree well and with the superb peas bursting in the mouth with their freshness and providing a great texture as well.

Hand dived scallops from the Isle of Man came in a broth made from coconut and lemongrass with herb oil and courgette pieces for crunch.  The scallops themselves were perfectly cooked and were of excellent quality, but the overall flavour of the broth was a little bland and not one of the best courses.  White asparagus came next with Romaine lettuce purée, hollandaise foam with smoked paprika powder.  As much as I was really looking forward to this, it didn’t provide the punch the table was hoping for.  White asparagus has to be peeled like a potato as the outside skin is extremely course and gets its colour from being grown in the dark, having being denied the opportunity to photosynthesize, hence its colour and the flavour of these white asparagus was delicate but the overall texture not hugely enjoyable (overall flabby with all components).

A slice of the fillet of sea bass was next which was a delightful piece of cooking.  The quality of this fish was superb (so succulent and packed with flavour) with a beautifully crispy skin.  Seabass has a notoriously short cooking window to be perfect, so this was very well cooked and the base sauce using taggiasca olives (named after the village of its origin in NW Italy near the border with France and famed for being smaller, with low acidity, greater sweetness and never bitter) was a perfect accompaniment.  A simple and great dish.

Lamb from central France was the main and only meat dish and was served with fennel salad, an artichoke slice and raisins.  The lamb itself was cooked as well as it could have been but I was immediately reminded of far superior lamb at other 1 Michelin starred and Michelin recommended restaurants (Ynyshir Restaurant, Sosban at The Old Butchers and Kutir to name a few).  However, the raisins mixed with harissa (a North African chilli paste made with peppers) was an absolute masterstroke and the dish was considerably boosted and almost saved with this addition – a winning level of tang and moisture assisting the naughty levels of lamb fat on the dish, supported and balanced by the crunch and moist fennel salad.

The pre-dessert was French meringue with strawberries and cream.    French style meringue is often softer on the outside than Swiss meringue (and so I, personally, find it more enjoyable as a result).  The strawberry espuma was as light and sweet as could be hoped for and overall the dish was a melt in the mouth and a wonderfully light palate wash.  The only negative here is that a couple of the strawberries on my plate had old skin in parts and is a notch down from what is expected at this level.  The main dessert itself was a coffee mousse in a chocolate glaze on a yuzu biscuit with a white miso ice cream.  The chocolate and mousse were very well done, however, I felt the savoury notes might have actually been better in a pre-dessert as a cross over, opposed to the finishing touch.  An ok end to the meal.

A word on the service and overall experience (which, as a refresh has nothing to do with my overall grade).  I’m fairly sure that a great deal of the time diners cannot fully keep up with waiting staff explanations of what dishes are, but don’t wish to risk delay or cause a scene by asking again and again as waiting staff are busy.  I’m equally sure that this usually results in about 60-70% of the description being understood on average (and sometimes 0%) which is politely followed by a retreating smile and nod.  I mention this as the delivery on this occasion was machine-gun fast in thick accents and it was obvious that the staff, in general, wanted to get away from the table as quickly as possible with any questions to clarify what was said, seeming to be a nuisance.  Now, I can (sort of) understand this if a restaurant is extremely busy, but the restaurant was only half full, if that, with a ratio of one waiting staff to approx. two tables, so there was plenty of time to deal with a few more seconds to be fully understood.

I think it was the fourth course where the waiting staff finally knew that I wasn’t going to shy away from asking about details that were incomprehensible (especially as I need to ask for the purpose of these reviews). And to their credit, they did finally make an effort to slow down explanations, but I suspect only as a result of polite persistence (I would also bet green money that this was reluctant and not the norm).  Whinge over, but it does add to the overall experience which, as a restaurant visit, was not up there with the greats.

As we dined, we saw the executive chef at the bar on his headphones through the afternoon to periodically monitor the kitchen – nothing wrong with this of course, but it added to what I sensed, which was a slightly joyless atmosphere among the team as a whole.  The image of the brilliant Mikael Jonsson at the bar, combined with the functional service gave this impression.  I have complete respect for the Executive Chef’s knowledge, philosophy of cooking and design of the dishes, but the restaurant did feel a little gloomy and borderline dour on occasion.

However, the cooking was excellent, with moments that would not be out of place at 2 Michelin starred level, but overall, it sat appropriately in the 1 star family and is definitely in the strongest quadrant.  Maybe, I have just been unlucky on my visits here and not caught it at its absolute prime…

We started with some homemade breads with the focaccia being done particularly well.  I insisted that the white onion soup with the cheese gougeres was sampled again in case it was fluke on the first round and I can report it is most decidedly not luck – this soup has a beautifully.  Autumnal feel and lovely, deep flavour of onion with quality gougeres.  Chicken liver parfait and foie gras was wonderfully smooth and served with perfectly done brioche.

Starters included a bacon and leek sausage roll with venison loin and Savoy cabbage.  Although the interior sat at the content level I thought the pastry shell was superb.  Bombay, cured cauliflower came with a spiced tomato chutney with coriander, cumin, cardamom, ginger and lime.  This was very pleasant and pretty much an onion bhaji alternative.  Mains included hare loin with game sausage, red cabbage, creamed spelt, raisins, walnut, bacon, red cabbage and walnuts.  Sounds like quite a lot but this worked very well together and the more acidic and pickled elements helped to balance the gamier and richer and larger mouthfuls.

Three desserts were tried.  The first being a soft and warm pear and almond tart that fluffy and with appropriate sweetness.  For someone who loves amaretto and the puffed rice, the tonka bean panna cotta with caramelised white chocolate, amaretto, puffed rice and maple syrup was a fairly wonderful dessert to have.  I loved how the flavours complimented each other and the dish had good texture all round as well a well-judged panna cotta.  Another dessert was offered which was white chocolate vienetta hazelnut praline dessert served with classic creme Anglaise as an experimental dessert.  This was great with a sauce that was not too sickly sweet and was a marriage with the beautifully done chocolate.

Overall, there really is not much to dislike here and this was a far more fulfilling food experience than had on my first visit.  The a la carte is £55 for three courses (incl in the evening) and £35 for a set menu lunch in the afternoon.  Normally I rave about the utility of set menu lunches but I would say this is one of the few places that has an extremely good value menu for the evening as a result for what you are getting and this was a £95 per person lunch on this occasion with everything included that was money certainly well spent.

Snacks arrived at the table in the form of seaweed crisp crackers with nasturtium leaves, taramasalata and dried bottarga (form of roe from grey mullet).  The crisps themselves were quite plain but thankfully the toppings made up for this as was clearly their purpose.  The starter of suckling pig agnolotti, sweetcorn, kohlrabi, pancetta and roasting juices was very good – a deep sense of the pig encased in little parcels of soft agnolotti with a bit of crunch from the kohlrabi and sweetcorn made a very pleasant starter with a supportingly rich sauce.

It was actually the creamed mash that made me opt for the chicken as I am continuing my search for a creamed mash that can rival that of Mr Robuchon’s.  The chicken was gratifying and came close to peak level from the thigh and skin pieces at times.  The herbed stuffing between the two was great to see but needed something perhaps to lift it.  I particularly enjoyed the light and crunchy nature of the Italian yellow beans (that appear light green), similar to that of salty fingers, packed with moisture, but the presence of a hair in the dish was an unfortunate presentation for a venue of this standard.  I had a brief taste of the roasted and braised Berkshire deer with its black lentils, turnips, beetroot and blackberries which had a  fulsome flavour with perhaps an even deeper and more powerful jus to accompany.

I should mention that the half bottle of German Riesling (Mosel) was a very pleasant choice as Riesling is not usually my pick of the bunch (I can find too aggressive), but this variant was refreshingly sweet and light at the same time (10% alcohol) which was just what was needed.  This also went quite well with the moscovado custard tart which was beautifully eggy, wobbly and rich with well portioned crème fraîche and sweet, roasted cherries – a very good combination for the senses.  In contrast, I found the strawberry soufflé far too sweet and the salted caramel petit fours a touch too salty.

Overall this was a pleasing 3 course lunch with various additives, representing good value for the food alone.  I was actually expecting the same a la carte prices for the food as my first visit but was delighted after ordering to see that the set lunch menu was actually far more competitive to its 1 Michelin starred family and therefore have nothing but pleasure in putting this in the value for money category.  Service was conscientious throughout and whilst my first visit had more memorable food moments and there were actually a couple of misses on this occasion (hence the lowered score), this is still a notable neighbourhood restaurant which was good to see again.