Newly promoted Michelin starred restaurant (2017) with simple and effective dishes
In the unveiling of restaurants in between lockdowns, it was a pleasure to return to dining and to one of the few Michelin-starred restaurants I have only been to once. I always remembered The Ninth as being reliable from my first visit and this was a long-overdue revisit. Jun Tanaka is very much still the executive chef who has held his Michelin star here since 2017. This meal proved to be a good quality lunch and enjoyable at the same time.
Sourdough bread was provided from flourish bakery and was good quality. The meal started with some of my favourite nibbles of cheese gougeres. What was a treat were the oxtail croquette with horseradish and watercress mayonnaise and these were absolutely delightful with a thin, light batter.
My main was a conchiglie pasta dish with egg yolk and winter truffles from Australia which I have to say was very good. A flame-grilled mackerel with capers and cucumber was enjoyed by my dining companion. Another dish of ravioli of langoustines came with Sicilian tomatoes and was absolutely plump inside with the nicely handled langoustines. This was very good, thin pasta with a lovely sauce was a genuine treat to have with a crunch of the broad bean and I was very impressed with this dish. In fact, this is worthy of coming back to here again just for this dish. A dessert of pain perdu was very nice to have and was followed by the safe bet option of Nespresso coffee at £3.50.
There is a lot to like about this restaurant – reliability, competency and enjoyable flavours. What would be even better is if the canapes were not charged and provided with the chefs compliments as many, many other establishments do and to include petit four to upscale the very normal coffee. However, it is a very good choice of a restaurant and I was pleased to see it still in good form.
Food Grade: 80%
This was a very flavoursome lunch indeed. The set menu was superb value at £23 for 3 courses and more importantly, each dish was just simple and effective. Overall this was a great lunch with some lovely, simple dishes at a very reasonable price in a trendy part of town, let down by its comparatively low hospitality.
The pita bread was a pleasure to rip up and share together, the mackerel was utterly fresh, the lamb salad was a bowl of lovely ingredients with sardines in tempura batter that worked really well with the pickled carrots. The highlight for me was probably the aromatic sauce at the bottom of the bowl of the duck, foie gras and water chestnuts and pretty amazing that was on the set menu as well. The sorbets (particularly the coconut) were pleasant but seemed too sweet unfortunately.
Sadly, the negative of this trip was the initial welcome / entry as my party and another guest were not even acknowledged waiting with the front door half open by the front of house on the phone. Of course one can’t do two things at the same time but sometimes just a glimpse or signal that you are at least acknowledged and not having to stand outside for 60 seconds is all that it takes. On entering, we were left alone for another short while and the lady on the ground floor on the other phone saw us and walked away.
Although this is not the end of the world, they are easily done in a better way and this is the difference I think between a 1 Michelin starred venue and, in the main, those that have 2 or 3. Not doing it well simply sticks in the mind more than the better things. Service upstairs where we ate was better but not as easy and in control as the more assured starred venues that exist.
Food Grade: 79%
My hobby-turned-passion began to evolve during my assignments to London where I was fortunate enough to be able to explore all the Michelin starred restaurants in my spare time and as a result, I gradually built up a catalogue of all these venues.
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