Row on 5 (Mayfair)

Let me get the bad out of the way first and the one negative which was actually the first thing experienced i.e. the arrival.  We arrived at 6:15pm before our 6:30pm sitting and my guests  were surprised at having a member of staff speaking through a tiny opening of the door, asking to wait outside in the cold as we were fifteen minutes early.  I understand the reasons for this (the restaurant will no doubt just be finishing clearing up a 4-6 hour lunch service and wanting to be as ready as possible) but there is a holding area for just this purpose downstairs as the main restaurant is upstairs (assuming the staff briefs are all done upstairs where the main restaurant is).  After a slightly awkward first impression and exchange, thankfully, one of the staff could see how badly this had gone down ini the foyer with my guests and invited us in to the drinks / pre-dinner lounge to wait (proving that it was, in fact possible).  The moral of the story is my advice to you is do not arrive before 6:30pm if you don’t want to have a potentially awkward moment with your guests or end up waiting outside.

Anyway, this little logistical setback aside as you enter you have the option of something quite unique which is to have your jacket ‘refreshed’.  This is basically a steam that takes around 50 minutes in special steam cupboards they have (a nod to being on Saville Row) which won’t clean, but will should get some creases out and certainly feels nice and warm when you put back on.  A superb, little touch I have not seen in any other restaurant in the world.

All canapés and pre-dinner drinks are served in a beautiful living room area on the ground floor before guests are invited to their tables upstairs.  Virtually all staff I spoke at our holding table were welcoming and very knowledgeable – a great sign for what is to come.  There was some superb offerings within this all enjoyed whilst perusing a gigantic book of a wine list. The opening canapé itself was an explosion of cheese and onion.  50 Month aged Lincolnshire Poacher cheese from Alford, onion jam & preserved Perigord truffle jelly within delectably thin discs.  This one canapé is genuinely a factor in wanting to return to the restaurant and was utterly superb.  Others included an oyster macaroon with oysters from Carlingford Estate in Ireland with oscietra caviar from N25 caviar company (one of the very best producers in caviar).  Avoiding shellfish for the night from bad unlucky experiences, mine was made with white beetroot, steamed with Kombu & Glazed in Burre Blanc. Tomburri & Almond Macaroon. A very fresh and pleasant bite that cleverly looked identical to the others.

A tartlet of tuna was next: dry-aged otorro (belly) for ten days, seasoned with yuzu kosho (a condiment), caramelised ponzu cream & fresh English wasabi. Interestingly this Bluefin tuna was from our very own country’s shores off Cornwall as opposed to Spanish waters as the prime collection these days are.  The latter are caught near Spain, sent to Tokyo for auction and then shipped back out to the world’s highest bidders, many staying in Japan.  However, not necessary for these and I thought they were very good (probably not at the level of that experienced in Japan but not far off at all). Langoustine was next and came in two parts, one in the the living room as the last canapé there and then part two as the opening of the meal when sat down.   Part one was a tartare seasoned with Sudachi (a custard from the roasted langoustine heads), tosazu jelly (a soy and vinegar seasoning) and shiso flowers. This was delightful; a lovely sense of sweet langoustine scooped very quickly.

On to the table dining phase which, for my experience was a very lucky seat at the private dining room which is in a specially cellar-decorated private room on the ground floor.  This is a premium option which must be specifically booked and arranged with a specified minimum spend.  The consistent aspect for all tables in the restaurant is that they all have hand-written names of all diners containing personalised menus (taking in to account any allergies and any variations etc) as another lovely touch.  The first bite whilst sat down was the second instalment of langoustine from Inverness: this was blanched tail (for 6 seconds), brushed with smoked vinegar, Amela tomato jelly, duck egg sabayon with Aji Amerillo (a chilli pepper), curry leaf oil with finger lime, potato crisps and calamansi gel (a very small citrus). This was an absolute bombshell of a course – the main offering was sweet, perfectly set jelly, incredible duck egg sabayon (the likes of which I have not had since dining in 3 Michelin starred Kitcho in Kyoto) and with the popping texture of the finger lime, this combined in to an absolute knock out dish that was as close to perfection as you can get.

Alas I could not have the prized Orkney scallop, but I did see this upstairs and was utterly huge (see picture) and I gather is one of the long-standing dishes of the menu (it is steamed over cedar wood to 38°, seasoned with shiso, vinegar and Myoga (the bud of Japanese ginger) served with fermented citrus sauce, sake and green shiso oil. My alternative was white asparagus, cooked in their own juice, hand cut into noodles and served with fermented citrus sauce, sake and green shiso oil. Following this was the Singapore native lobster which was grilled over the Binchotan (Japanese white coal) and brushed with oil from roasted lobster heads, Sancho pepper & kaffir lime, served with Singapore chilli sauce and white Kyoto miso foam.  On the side was Shokopan bread (airy, white) with salted Bourdier butter and fermented London honey. The lobster was brought alive with the fragrant lime and tingling Sancho pepper (a cousin pepper of Szechuan and causes a tingling sensation on the tounge and lips) and the bread was a joy as was the perfectly soft butter with honey which was genuinely enjoyable.  I am so pleased this was opted for as opposed to seaweed or marmite butter as seems to be the trend with many fine dining places of late and these are simply not as enjoyable.  Another winner of a course.

Next came the John Dory fish course.  This was brined in kombu (Seaweed), steamed gently and brushed with condiments from the roasted bones; it is then salt baked with kohlrabi and served with sauce au Poivre (peppercorn sauce) with Katsuobushi (thin fish flakes like bonito as is the norm in Japanese), Cognac and salted Kammpot pepper (prized pepper from Cambodia) and a sea cabbage foam (mine without the mussels).  It’s an unusual choice to have peppercorn sauce with a white fish but I actually thought this worked well – certainly no complaints and the fish was utterly perfect (melt in the mouth quality and perfectly cooked).

The main meat was lamb from the Pyrenees.  For those that have and enjoy lamb, I thought this was one of the most wonderful lamb dishes I have ever had.  A very small portion for a ‘main’ but the meal was not slight in overall quantity and the lamb itself was cooked perfectly beautifully tender, with the utmost crispy, fatty skin and served with one of the deepest reductions I’ve ever had.  The milk fed lamb itself is dry aged for two days, roasted on the bone, finished on Binchocan (traditional Japanese white charcoal) and brushed with scallion tare (Japanese glaze made from alliums and garlic, mirin, ginger, soy and other traditional ingredients).  Beautiful in-season asparagus pieces from the New Forest were also included giving wonderful crunch and something healthy which was an added relief as well as morel mushrooms. These were stuffed with lamb sweetbreads and garlic.  The dish was finished off with pickled artichokes, ramson capers, shitake mushrooms and mint oil.  So, a multitude of quality ingredients, care and attention gone in to this dish with precise execution; this dish was another reason I would go back for alone.

Nearly there, bear with me: a couple of bites, pre-dessert and dessert then petit fours whilst being presented with a Salamanzar of Chateaux d’yquem (9L) for an optional glass.  I honestly can’t remember what our sommelier said each glass was, but it sounded something like £150 or £200 per glass.  We passed as my guests don’t even like sweet Sauterne.  If I had an unlimited budget I would probably have treated the Salamanzar as an ice luge for a brief spell.  Not sure the restaurant would have been alright with that though, even in the private dining room.  The cheese bite: Colsten Basset stilton tartlet with cheese from Billy Keevan suppliers in Nottingham. The Cheese was baked into a Custard on an oat tartlet, with dots of white chocolate and verjus (grape) gel.  A delicious and clever version of a cheese course.

The sweets were also top notch and inventive in design. Miso and truffle-toasted Marcona almonds (top end Spanish almonds) were atop red miso ice cream sat in a malt and barley foam, finished with almond oil, black truffle in port and Madeira. You have to be careful with salt and umami with sweet and I have had many versions that just don’t work from trying to be too clever using sorrel and herbs or too much olive oil or even caviar with chocolate and they are easy to not like, but this combination was entirely well pitched.  The umami from the miso was feint but there and the use of malt was superbly done in the foam.  The texture of the ice cream was silky smooth and this was another winner.

The crowning glory of a crown melon from Shizuoka was enjoyed as a single piece; this may seem simple but these are among the best melons in the world and are always served at the end of which is always served as the prize at the end of a long sushi menu in Japan at the best restaurants. They are basically treated like jewellery when wrapped and presented in shops in Nihombashi, Tokyo and sell for around £150 each in Japan, £250 if you are getting them from Harrods in London.  A refreshing side of melon Kakigori was also served (traditional Japanese shaved ice cream) made with melon oolong tea and green yuzu liquor jelly, Tahitian vanilla and salted Jersey milk ice cream.  Absolutely perfect as a palate cleanser but with an element of indulgent richness at the same time.

Finally, a course of ‘tea and cake’ came in the form of Piedmont hazelnut and black Okinawa Sugar financiers which could be dipped in an Earl Grey infused lightly whipped cream.  Again, no problems with this whatsoever and the financiers reminded me of (by coming close to) the finest I have had, served in Bjorn Frantzen’s 3 Michelin starred Zen in Singapore and his flagship 3 Michelin starred Frantzen in Stockholm.  A final offering of Oswaldo 71% dark chocolate from Peru, Huayambamba Valley, topped with a touch of smoked olive oil & sea salt. This was all finished off with petit fours which, were all genuinely good.  Virtually every petit fours collection I have has something I don’t like but unusually I liked every single one here.  These were accompanied by coffee from Difference Coffee, which is arguably some of consistently best coffee on the planet and I was lucky to have the absolute pinnacle of Panama Geisha.  By this time we were all very full, contrary to what many may assume does not happen from smaller portioned courses within a tasting menus and these were boxed up for us to take away.

I have to say that this was an unbelievably good show all round.  Aside from the shaky start, the service throughout the whole meal, the interaction of the Executive chef, senior and junior staff were all brilliant – knoweledgable and friendly all the way through, with top notch professionalism of service and all cheerfully hosted throughout by our fantastic sommelier Roxy.  The pairing wine list also deserves a mention: even the very lowest matching wines list at £155 per person was carefully sourced with an opening Riesling from the Sommelier’s native Luxembourg would stand up well to some of the fineries from the Mosel and the other nice touch is that there are upgradable options of pairing wine lists to choose from between £150-£900 per person depending on how deep your appreciation and wallet is on the night.

Two last things I thought were utterly lovely touches if I may: at one stage all staff were busy with other tasks and one of my guests went to the lavatory meaning there was no staff able to fold the napkin whilst away; the Executive chef saw this and came in and folded the napkin himself.  I have never seen this before in any restaurant in the world.  The other aspect I thought was yet another lovely touch was the fact that the metallic chopsticks had our names lasered in to them and they were washed after using them and packed in to boxes for another take away gift.  Small touches like these go a long way and these, along with things like ivory letter openers to break the wax seal of our personalised envelopes and the whole effort placed in to the detail of the night made this a top notch experience in every way.

I’ve been saying throughout this review ‘my guests’, but in fact I was actually the one being treated as they kindly covered the bill so I did not see it.  But let’s just say you are having the £250 menu and opt for the ‘base’ matching wines, with water, coffee and 15% service charge and if you are taking someone on a date here, you are looking at around £1k for covering two people. This is of course, not a cheap night, but you are getting a special experience.  With this in mind, would I like to come back?  In a heartbeat.  As always for me, primarily it is the food (and wine) that is my focus and this was superb throughout and there was not a single item I did not like – the lowest level it went to was moreish.  Whilst expensive, the quality of ingredient sourcing, general experience and overheads of the venue in general I think make it just about value for money.  If expense wasn’t an issue, I would be back in every month or more as the food is genuinely that good – and I want it again.  In general, a superb menu in a lovely environment which I look forward to repeating whenever I can.  My sincerest thanks to ‘my guests’ for such a generous and wonderful treat.

Food Grade: 91%