Kitchen W8 (Kensington)

The sour dough was made off premises and was fine as a fluffy and light option; thankfully there was additional salt on hand to assist the non-salted butter at the table.  The amuse bouche of duck egg custard with truffle pesto layer and bacon foam was great and the slices of brioche with warmed slivers of ham was gorgeous.  Logistically it was strange however, as the brioche ‘soldiers’ were too big to dunk in the shot glass (and gain a bit of every layer) as the title suggested, so presentationally that was a little bit of a let down and by the time I had scooped parts on to the soldiers I was left with a large amount of nothing but duck egg custard on its own owing to the size and shape of the mini glass cup (and the fact that the bacon foam was quite runny). When all were put together I thought the flavour was absolutely superb.  I simply think the logistics of it were wrong and it would be better with the egg custard, truffle pesto and bacon foam in a flatter ramekin so that the soldiers could be dipped fully.

The macaroni cheese was lovely.  Velvety, hand rolled and fresh macaroni with a lovely cauliflower and Vacherin Mont d’Or cheese foam were supported by the crunch of the cooked cauliflower and the floppy luxury of the thinly sliced white truffle – delicious and a complete winner of a dish.

The beef and dumplings was frankly a triumph.  I loved the suppleness of the beef especially and the truffled mash with the crisp leaf and onion consommé was absolutely lovely.  If I had to be ultra nip-picky, the it (the consommé) was not 100% transparent and had a tiny bit of cloudiness but the overall flavour of this dish was simply knock out.

If anyone who had this menu was getting worried that they weren’t full much, then not to worry the dessert felt like a week’s worth of calories in one dish anyway.  The banana loaf with hot chocolate sauce and glazed bananas and truffle honey ice cream cake together very well although the immediate impression was that the truffle in the honey ice cream was a tad too powerful for me, but with a little less with everything else, it was a lovely combination.

Overall this was an exceedingly lovely menu and I was really pleased.  It was also very nice to see a lighter, breezier and more atmsopheric Kitchen W8 in comparison to my first visit.  The service appeared strained at the peak of service as the opening wait at the table was in danger of being too long, however, I was very well looked after throughout and the bar in both food and experience was a considerable notch up from my first visit.