Return to Midsummer House

During July we treated my mum and my stepdad to a lunch at Midsummer House, and I feel I've neglected my duty to report back on such a memorable meal.

We went for the  seven course menu, with a vegetarian version for my wife, and gluten free for my mum. We started with a fabulous range of canapes out in the garden, and on an absolute scorcher of a day. In particular I remember a truffle eclair which just has to grace my list of favourite things ever, simply awesome.

The barbecued beetroot this time included nitrogen frozen goats cheese, hard, angular looking bricks that melted in your mouth, a wonderful technical element that didn't take anything away from the excellent cheese. A stunning quail dish included hay smoked crispy quails eggs and a finger of toast, puree and grapes, with special gluten free bread for my mum. I was also delighted to try a scallop and apple dish I've seen in other reviews, and it was beyond my expectations, a perfect dish.

My wifes vegetarian menu included some memorable dishes, a crispy coated poached egg on a bed of brilliant green pea puree, peas, and girolles, and a dish of smoked roscoff onion filled with a grain risotto that arrived under a dome of smoke.

The meal ended with similar desserts to our previous visit, with the strawberry dish being accompanied by a strawberry soup concentrated by running it through a centrifuge. We finished with a generous range of chocolates, as well as maraschino cherries for my mum, and those gorgeous bottereaux for the rest of us, hollow diamond shaped pastries dipped in calvados cream and apple puree the thought of which still puts a smile on my face today. Oh, and I mustn't forget the visit from Clifford the English Bulldog, a fine chap indeed.

This was a very special day, indeed my mum saying was the best she has ever had. From the first to last bite, everything was nearly perfect.


The house.

Tomato sorbet.

Liver parfait cigar, tartare of fish on fish skin crisp.

See that eclair in the middle? One of the nicest things you'll ever eat.

Crab amuse. My wife had a tomato gazpacho instead.

Beetroot, goats cheese.

Quail, grapes, shallot puree

Hay smoked crispy quails eggs.

Toast.

Crispy hens egg, peas, girolles. Vegetarian food doesn't come much better than this.

These came first.

And were grated on the scallop and apple dish.

The smoked roscoff onion arrived under a dome filled with smoke.

Lamb, tomato, old Yorke cheese.

On a hot day, the nitrogen frozen shards of blueberry in this lemon posset were just what I needed.

Strawberry dessert.

The ladies also received a box of chocolates to take home. The chocolate on the far right was filled with pistachio puree and the best of them all. Easily the match of any of the famous chocolatiers.

I could murder a plate of these right now.

Midsummer House

Return to The Ledbury

My brother was over for his annual trade expo in London, but as I had plenty of notice I managed to get a table at The Ledbury on a Friday night, no small feat. On Friday and Saturday you have a choice of 2 tasting menu's, and we opted for the  one with an extra course with a few substitutions.

We spent some time choosing a bottle of white, and the sommelier had it spot on with his selection,  a demi-sec perfectly sweet enough for my taste, a Vouvray Le Mont, Domaine Huët from 2009.

There was a good selection of bread, with a small seeded loaf placed on the table and a choice of breads from a basket, including their excellent bacon and onion brioche.

Our first course was an artichoke and grape salad, with desiccated foie gras, a nice fresh start to the meal, with particulary nice Sauternes grapes.  Next up, a really fine dish of baked crapaudine beetroot, beetroot crisp, black olives with a slither of smoked eel. Crapaudine are particularly fragrant beetroots with a delicate flavour, and were fantastic combined with the smokey rich eel.

Following this was one of The Ledbury classics, flame torched mackerel with shiso, celtic mustard and cucumber. I love this dish, and was just as good as previously. We followed this with another classic, the buffalo curd and onion broth with the awesome bechamel and truffle cheese on toast. This is so good I really wanted my brother to try it and they were more than willing to substitute a quail egg and truffle dish for this so we could. The cheese on toast was fabulous, i could eat a whole plate of it alone, it's as perfect as anything could be.

We followed this with a fantastic scallop dish, the scallop served with seaweed slices, cauliflower and a beautiful buttery foam. Soon after we were presented with the whole pork jowl, slow cooked for hour and finished with a selection of spices. When plated, the crackling was turned into a crumb and sprinkled on top of the pork and served with slices of apple and hazelnuts. The crackling and pork were a fabulous combination, soft, rich and unctuous.

The best was saved until last, a fillet of beef, served with smoked bone marrow, crispy potato and salt baked ash covered celeriac. This was seriously good, every element in harmony and packed with flavour. My brother finished his off in seconds, and spent the rest of the time jealously eyeing up my plate, drooling and trying to persuade me to share the rest. Not a chance.

Pre-dessert was a blood orange granita and clove yoghurt, with the balance of clove just right as its an ingredient that can overpower so easily. Dessert itself was a replacement for the chocolate and banana tart, as my brother is avoiding gluten (yeah, yeah, yeah I know). A citrus brulee was topped with a quenelle of apple and a lovage puree, a deceptively simple dish that worked really well, especially the citrus flavours in the brulee, which managed to be flavourful without being acidic. I'm a big fan of lovage too, an aromatic kick that blended with the sugary crisp and brulee so well.

We finished with coffees and petit fours and left with the knowledge that this time, we certainly made the right choice on choosing the some of best food London has to offer. A perfect meal.

Salad of Violet and Chinese Artichokes with Hazelnuts, Grapes and Grated Foie Gras.

Crapaudine Beetroot Baked in Clay with Smoked Eel and Dried Olives.

Flame Grilled Mackerel with Pickled Cucumber, Celtic Mustard and Shiso.

Hampshire Buffalo Milk Curd with Aged Comte, Truffle Toast and a Broth of Grilled Onions.

Scallop with Seaweed and Cauliflower.

Jowl of Pork with Apple, Hazelnuts.

Fillet of Belted Galloway Beef with Celeriac Baked in Juniper, Bone Marrow and Crisp Potato

Clove Yoghurt with Blood Orange Granita.

Citrus Brulee with Apple and Lovage.

The Ledbury

Midsummer House

Midsummer House, set on the picturesque Midsummer Green on the edge of the River Cam in Cambridge, is the 2 star restaurant of the very talented Daniel Clifford. We had to park on the other side of the river and cross a footbridge to get to the restaurant and ended up parking just near the house my mother was brought up in. The main room is the conservatory of Midsummer House, with a walled garden surrounding it, a light and airy environment. There is a choice of lunch, a 7 course Taste of Market menu and an 8 course Taste of Summer House menu, we went for the vegetarian and standard versions of the Taste of Summer menu.

Canapes were brought out whilst deciding on the menu's, a puree of tomato and vodka, essentially a slightly thicker bloody mary, fresh and flavourful, some fabulous cheese gougeres and an incredible pomme souffle filled with sour cream. I immediately knew we were in for a good meal, these were canapes of the highest order.

The amuse bouche was a light mousse of peas, with tomato underneath, and for me, prawns too. The mousse was incredibly light, more or less a foam, with an exceptionally deep pea flavour, with some tomato and some really excellent prawns.

The next course started table side, with the waiter spooning dried mushrooms and herbs into a cafetiere and adding mushroom stock, this was left to infuse on the table. The dishes arrived a few minutes later, for my wife some plump mushroom tortellini accompanied by girolles and herbs, the consomme from the cafetiere was then poured on. The tortellini and consomme were really good, with a huge depth of flavour, about as good a pasta as to be found anywhere. For me, a bowl with Cornish crab, mayonnaise and a sweet corn ice cream.  The crab was really nice, fresh and flavoursome and I absolutely adored the sweet corn ice cream, a flavour I'm used to from my days in the Far East, but here refined and perfected like no other I'd had before.

The next course involved a little bit of theatre, a table inset with one of those Green Big Eggs, a fancy ceramic barbecue, was wheeled over, and 2 plates set, one of the chefs then came out and removed a whole roasted beetroot, and explained a little of the concept of the dish and how it was roasted for over 2 hours that morning in one of the Green Eggs. The beetroot were sliced in half and a semi-sphere scooped out and added to the plate, which also included sheeps curd, horseradish, beetroot puree and hazelnuts. The beetroot was superb, wonderfully flavoured, the curd, horseradish and other accompaniments partnered it perfectly.

The fish course was roasted stone bass, with razor clams, cucumber, wasabi and sorrel, with a  grating of lime zest at the table.  The cooking of the fish was spot on, with a gorgeous crisp skin, and I also loved the razor clams, cucumber and wasabi an excellent match for this fish. What stood out was the scents and flavour added by the grating of the lime at the table, elevating the entire dish to stratospheric heights. My wife's dish was a confit stuffed tomato. with courgettes and subtly spiced vegetables in a crispy sandwich.

Our main courses were again of very high quality, for me duck, cherries, sweet potato puree, hazelnuts and a tamarind gravy, with 2 crispy green leaves and a side dish of croustillant of confit duck on a bed of hazelnuts. The duck was superb and the gravy a shiny, unctuous, lip-smacking delight of a sauce, absolutely world class. I never found out what the leaves, were, but can confirm they were delicious. The croustillant contained a hidden surprise, a whole cherry! The juicy cherry and rich confit duck was a match made in heaven, top stuff.  My wife's main was a pithivier of vegetables, with a side of vegetables, puree and sauce soubise. This was excellent pastry work, and essentially as perfect a pasty as you will get.

Pre-dessert was a lemon posset, with blueberries and lemon espuma. Lovely flavours here, and the blueberries were really something, I believe they had been frozen in liquid nitrogen then smashed, and were a lovely delight hidden within the excellently flavoured posset and foam, both sweet and tart. Dessert itself was a wonderful dish of strawberries, creme fraiche ice cream, an elderflower mousse in a cannelloni of strawberry, little cubes of shortbread, jellies and strawberry juices poured at the table.  Every element was executed perfectly, and as good as summer treat as can be. A lovely finish to the meal.

We took coffee upstairs in a small lounge area with an external balcony, although a tad warm, I'm not sure why the radiators were on in the middle of a long August heatwave. The petit fours were different, warm sweet pastries laid out on a tray with 2 dips, one caramel and one of Calvados cream.  The pastries were again top quality, incredibly light and crisp, and perfect for the dips, my favourite being the Calvados cream, awesome flavours there. Finally, a large wooden box loaded with chocolates was brought up and we chose 5 each. As with the rest of the meal, these were delicious, especially the lovage and bay leaf chocolates, 2 flavours I've not had the pleasure of trying before.

The bill came to about 230, and included 2 glasses of champagne, soft drinks for me and 2 glasses of white for my wife.

We loved Midsummer House, with its gorgeous riverside setting, world class service and as good as food as we've had anywhere. Every aspect, from the ingredients to the execution was of the highest order, and there were some real stand out dishes. I can't wait to return.

Canapes.

English peas, tomato and prawns.

Mushroom Tortellini.

Cornish crab, brown crab mayonnaise, sweet corn.

Beetroot cooked on open coals, sheep's curd and horseradish.

Roast wild stone bass, razor clams, cucumber, wasabi, sorrel.

Stuffed confit tomato, courgette and basil.

Slow roast duck, English cherries, sweet potato and tamarind, hazelnuts.

Pithivier, seasonal vegetables, sauce soubise.

Lemon posset, blueberries, lemon espuma.

Cambridgeshire strawberries, elderflower, creme fraiche, Scottish shortbread.

Pastries, dips.

Chocolates.

You can spot that from the strawberries onwards I realised the filters on camera were wrong.

Midsummer House

The Ledbury

Considered one of the best restaurants in London by many of my peers, and by some notable awards as one of the best in the world, The Ledbury is a Notting Hill based restaurant of some repute. Located near the lower end of Portobello Road market it's a decent sized open room, with large windows by Ledbury Road and mirrored wall at the back. We were seated, chose a glass of rose champagne and offered canapes, curd for my wife and foie gras and orange for myself as browsed the choice of set lunch, a la carte or tasting menus. The vegetarian menu could be chosen as courses, or taken in its entirety as a tasting menu. I was keen to sample as much of Brett Graham's cooking as possible so we went for the vegetarian and standard tasting menus.

Bread is made in house, my first choice a bacon and onion brioche of extremely high quality, as good as anything I've had. We also tried some great sourdough and a tiny malt crystal loaf baked in what looked like a tiny flowerpot.

The amuse bouche was a generous plate of English spring asparagus and wild asparagus with truffle and a warm quails egg. I've not tried wild asparagus before, slender stems with a more subtle taste than the cultivated variety but equally delicious, all partnered well with the warm quail yolk. First course was a ceviche of scallops overlaid with a wafer thin turnip disc, seaweed oil with a frozen English wasabi snow dusting the dish. These were lovely fresh scallops and the English wasabi snow providing a lovely kick and intense flavour, similar but far more refined than the green artificial wasabi found elsewhere. My wifes were similar, but shaving of radish were used instead of scallop, with the addition of some celtic mustard.

Second course was a signature dish, a fabulous flame grilled piece of mackerel, pickled cucumber and shiso. The mackerel was outstanding, and the accompaniments perfectly matched with the fish. My wifes second course was an excellent risotto of celeriac, creamy and rich with mushrooms , celeriac shavings and a flavourful parsley emulsion.  We both had a similar course next, and one I was looking forward to. A bowl of Hampshire Buffalo Milk Curd with a small piece of leek and mushrooms was set before us, and into this was poured a consomme of grilled shallots for myself, and grilled ceps for my wife. In addition to this, on a piece of bark were 2 slices of toast topped with melted Saint Nectaire, truffle mayonnaise and truffle gratings. This dish was amazing, the curd and mushroom pieces were delicious, but the consomme was unbelievably good, intense with a grilled shallot flavour. The toast was absolutely divine, flawless bread, perfectly melted silky cheese with the heady earthy truffle.  The curd and consomme on its own this was would have been a fantastic dish, but the cheese on toast accompanying it escalated it the dish to stratospheric heights. No visitor to The Ledbury should miss this.

A turbot dish followed, this was a perfectly cooked piece of turbot, topped with black quinoa, cooked so it had a crunchy bite to it. Accompanying this was a wonderfully soft and well flavoured broccoli stem with crab, and a butter with Indian spices. My wifes dish was similar, foucsing on the stems paired with a natural yoghurt with the quinoa and some crisps providing texture. This was a delicious course, the Indian spices and butter adding tons of flavour without overpowering the excellent key ingredients.

The next course was a picturesque baked Crapaudine Beetroot dish for my wife, this is variety of beetroot with an unusual aromatic flavour. This was accompanied by red leaves, pumpernickel and a cherry blossom, winter and spring on a plate. My dish was first presented by the waitress, a hunk of pork jowl cooked sous vide with star anise and other spices. This was taken away to be plated. It returned with parsnip and pear and walnuts. This was incredibly tender, and intense with the spices, it went perfectly with the fresh bites of pear and sweet parsnip.

The final main course was a venison dish,  Muntjac with Red vegetables and leaves, bone marrow and cherry blossom. The venison came in a few forms, the loin, a finger of fillet and a sausage of venison. This was a truly exception dish, fantastic venison seasoned to perfection and matched with sweet and tart vegetables. The venison was one of the best i've had, tender and well flavoured. My wife had a dish of white asparagus with morels. cooked in Earl Grey tea, the tea and bergamot flavours were subtle and did not overpower some excellent asparagus, the morels were really good too.

Having had some good sized portions, we skipped the cheese course.  Pre-dessert was a small bowl of honey and thyme cream with some exquisite little wild strawberries, this came with an olive oil and sweet cicely granita. Dessert itself was a slice of brown sugar tart, with poached grapes and stem ginger ice cream. Top quality pastry work here, the brown sugar tart creamy and with a burnt caramelised note and worked really well with the grapes providing a burst of flavour and the ginger ice cream having an intense flavour. I loved this, although not a visually complicated creation found in starred patisserie focused on exceptional taste which it provided in bucketfuls. I was tempted to order seconds.

Coffee came with some petit fours, a ganache, passion fruit jelly and a lovely delicate little biscuit that was as light as a feather. The bill came to £320 and included 2 glasses of white, a Grüner Veltliner, and 2 reds, Le Soula Rouge, recommended by the Scottish sommelier. Service was excellent, warm and personal and note remotely stiff or over-formal.

The Ledbury is not somewhere you will easily get a booking at short notice, full for months ahead and for good reason too, it's a restaurant whose global reputation is well justified, we had a fabulous long lunch and some truly outstanding food. Open up your calendars, flick forward a few months and pencil in a day, you won't be disappointed.

Canape's.

Amuse Bouche of Asparagus.

Shaved Radishes with Seaweed Oil, Celtic Mustard and Frozen Horseradish.

Ceviche of Hand Dived Scallops with Turnip, Seaweed Oil and Frozen English Wasabi.

"Risotto" of Celeriac with Spring Truffle and Parsley.

Flame Grilled Mackerel with Pickled Cucumber, Celtic Mustard and Shiso.

Hampshire Buffalo Milk Curd with Saint Nectaire, Truffle Toast and Broth of Grilled Shallots.

Broccoli Stem with Natural Yoghurt and Indian Spices in Brown Butter.

Cornish Turbot with Broccoli Stem, Crab and Black Quinoa.

Baked Crapaudine Beetroot with Red Leaves, Pumpernickel and Cherry Blossom.

Jowl of Pork with Parsnip, Pear and Walnuts.

White Asparagus with Morels Cooked in Earl Grey Tea and Parmesan.

Loin of Muntjac with Red Vegetables and Leaves, Bone Marrow and Cherry Blossom.

Olive Oil, Honey and Thyme Cream with Wild Strawberries and Sweet Cicely.

Brown Sugar Tart with Poached Grapes and Stem Ginger Ice Cream.

Petit Fours.

The Ledbury