Galvin La Chapelle III

We returned to Galvin La Chapelle for Sunday lunch, which rolls in at a rather tasty £29.99 for 3 courses, excellent value considering it has a star, top end service and a gorgeous dining room.

The meal was as good as ever, with a fantastic summer truffle bouillon to go with my guinea fowl and vegetables being the highlight of my meal. Another dish of note was my wifes cucumber soup with horseradish cream, a perfect summer starter.

The bread has really improved too, the crust on my white sourdough kept me returning for more.

Mackerel, pink grapefruit, fennel

Cucumber soup, horseradish cream

Guinea fowl, vegetables, gnocchi, summer truffle bouillon

Risotto, girolles, sage

Tarte tatin

Return to Viajante

Viajante is now closed.

We returned to Viajante for a long anniversary lunch a few Sundays ago. Although Nuno Mendes was not present, the quality and consistency of the dishes were very high. We were sat next to the kitchen and pass and we were able to watch the team in action. Excellent amuse bouches to be had, a mouthful of warm clam soup based on a Portuguese dish called Ameijoa builhao pato, amaranth popcorn, a salmon crisp, a lovely yeast potato and Iberico ham morsel, the olive soup as good as ever. Bread was as good as our previous visit, I have to say the crisp pointed ends of the potato bread baguette combined with their whipped butter make for the most perfect mouthful of bread I've had anywhere.

The meal provided some quality dishes, including a fermented scallop dish was unusual, a meaty texture unlike any scallop I've had before. A lovely crab in milk skin followed,  with my wife having the leek and milk skin variation from before. An excellent carrot dish followed for my wife, with  a sea bream with fermented carrot and gooseberries and a tart gel of sorts for me. There was also a fantastic flavour packed potato and onion concoction topped with a lush nugget of cod cheek and a stunning cod skin wrap, with daikon replacing the cod for my wife, a real stand out dish. The celeriac, truffle and potato sauce dish was similar to the salsify dish previously. The main courses were variation of iberico, a gorgeous hunk of presa with a vegetable crepinette to start for me with a lovely fresh pea, asparagus and custard dish for my wife, and a knockout square of pork belly with the almond, parsley and garlic picada and some fabulous baby beetroot, which my wife had as the main ingredient.

The cucumber and milk ice cream dish followed, this is one of my favourite desserts, and was just as good as I remembered. Strawberries came with an unusual buckwheat thing, which resembled liquid gel but could be picked up with a fork, delicious though. The milk dessert finished the meal, and was as good as before. Certainly a dessert that can be loved by those who don't have a sweet tooth too. Accompanying coffee were mushroom chocolates and those liquid nitrogen olive and basil gummys, a delicious and certainly one of the more unusual petit fours we've had on our travels.

Again another really excellent meal was had at Viajante, I love the blend of innovative and experimental dishes to be had and the menu format, with every course both a surprise and in some cases, sampling methods, tastes and ingredients I've not had before. The bill came to 270 or so, with non alcoholic lychee cocktails to start, a glass of Sadi-Malot Rose champagne, Monte Cruz Antao Vaz 2011 with the meal, and a really fine Meulenhof Spatlese Riseling 2010 to accompany dessert. We'll go back in the autumn.

Ameijoa bulhao pato.

Enoki mushrooms with green tea and dill.

Salmon with green tea and dill.

Yeast, potato and Iberico ham.

Yeast and potato.

Gordal Olive Soup.

Bread.

Scallop with parsnips and watercress.

Parsnips and watercress.

Crab with milk skin and peas.

Charred leek with milk skin.

Sea bream, sea purslane, fermented carrot and gooseberries.

Carrots and horseradish.

Cod cheek with potato and onion.

Potato, Onion and Daikon.

Celeriac with roasted potato and mushrooms.

Iberico presa with vegetable crepinette

Green peas, asparagus and custard.

Baby beets, sorrel and picada.

Iberico belly with baby beets and picada.

Cucumber and reduced milk.

Strawberrys, buckwheat and melliot.

Milk.

Petit Fours.

Viajante

Return to Tom Aikens Restaurant

Tom Aikens Restaurant is now closed.

We returned to Tom Aikens Restaurant, this time sampling the tasting menu.

The Amuse Bouche was interesting, a lettuce from their rooftop garden, with a truffle Caesar dressing and some extra truffle grated on top. The lettuce was literally minutes from soil to plate and quite lovely, something a little different. Bread was just as good as before, and that cep butter is still unbeatable.

First course was an excellent smoked eel dish, with some variations of cucumber, sea veg and a watercress soup, light and refreshing. My wife had the celeriac dish from the previous visit, although a somewhat lighter balance of ingredients, reflecting the season.

My next course was an ingredient you'd think would be too much on a hot day, foie gras. There was a small line of foie gras mousse, some freeze dried foie, white asparagus, nasturtium, white asparagus ice cream, and at the table, a white asparagus veloute was poured and then the dish topped off with some grated frozen foie gras at the table. This was cool and refreshing yet the frozen foie, mousse and dried granules melted in your mouth and add a deep rich flavour. The white asparagus ice cream and veloute was fantastic, the sweetness balancing perfectly with the richness of the foie. This has to be my favourite ever dish featuring this ingredient, everything worked so well together and was so delicious as a whole. My wife's dish was the white asparagus elements, salad leaves and flowers. 

Following this a baked scallop presented in a bowl of pebbles. The scallop was a huge, an excellent example of its kind, and this was different from other scallop dishes I've had by the addition of yeast potatoes, a piece of osso bucco and some toasted bread soup, which made the dish quite savoury and meaty, an excellent dish. I do like the marmite potato too. My wife had something similar to my first course, with various types of cucumber, pickled and salted, with some goats curd mousse, all lovely fresh flavours.

We both had the same next dish, home made ricotta, this was sandwiched between what might have been milk skin, and came with some honey jelly, a ice cream and granita, olive juice, pine buts and basil. I was surprised how salty and strong ricotta can be, almost like feta this was lovely. The honey jelly was particularly  good too. Following this my wife had a dish similar to the egg dish I had last time, a large fried ducks eggs, crispy breadcrumbs, but this time with onions too. The caramelised onion bits were really great. I had an unusual dish, monkfish tail, pork belly and squid, the unusual bit being the sliced white strawberries and small cubes of what might have been a citrus fruit or white strawberries again, adding a sweet and sour element to the dish. The fish, pork and squid were generous portions, with that rainbow sheen on the monkfish showing just how fresh it was with some perfectly timed cooking. The squid was lovely, soft and flavourful, the pork belly piece small enough to make me want to try the pork dish next time i return. The sweet and sour elements from the fruit just about worked for me, but strawberries and fish might not be for everyone. 

The final main course was the onion dish for my wife, there are some fabulous flavours here and excellent roscoff onions. I really like the sweet onion jam and burnt onion flavours in the piece I tried.  Lamb for me, a lovely pink well flavoured piece of fillet, with Mediterranean flavours from the olives, courgettes and artichoke accompanying it. The courgette and olive tempura thing was really good too. However, this and the fish course were almost full sized portions, as were the egg and onion dishes my wife had, we were struggling a bit by the end of the dish, nearing my limits for savoury food. 

Having said that, a short while later saw us clearing the plate of the strawberry dessert my wife had last time. It's just as well we have an additional pudding stomach. This is a fantastic dessert, lots of elements, all really great on their own or heaped on the spoon. I loved the strawberry caviar and incredibly light melt in the mouth meringue piece. Petit four were as before, but with an extra truffle of caramac and coconut caramel, as good as it sounds. This is definitely one of the best petit four selections about, a huge selection to be had. However, as we didn't check or weren't told if the jellies were gelatine free I had to eat them all myself. I'd recommend vegetarians check first, and to be honest the other pieces on offer are so good, extra instead of the jellies wouldn't be a loss.

I really enjoyed the meal, and was full to bursting, one wafer thin mint short of a Mr Creosote impression when we left, modern fine dining is not always so generous as this tasting menu. There were some really good dishes to be had, and that foie gras dish as good as anything I've had this year. The bill came to roughly £260.

Bread

Smoked Eel

Celeriac

Foie Gras

White Asparagus

Baked Scallop

Goats Curd Mousse

Homemade Ricotta

Monkfish

Ducks Egg

Lamb

Onion

Strawberry

Petit Fours

Tom Aikens Restaurant

Tom Aikens Restaurant is now closed.

Having enjoyed the look and sound of Tom's food in the last few seasons of Great British Menu I was glad to be able to combine an afternoon visit to the V&A Museum with lunch at Tom Aikens Restaurant, his eponymous restaurant based in Chelsea.

The room is spacious and smart, kitted out in wood and dark walls and large tables. Menus come in envelopes and rolled into scrolls, with a wine menu being pasted into an old French book about wine, a very cool touch. A lunch set menu, vegetarian and standard tasting and a la carte menus are available.

An amuse bouche was offered when we were browsing menus, for me a bowl with smoked salmon, cucumber, a tiny quenelle of cream cheese, dill and miniature quarters of a smoked new potato. The salmon and cucumbers were excellent, but the cheese and smoked potato were the stand out elements, delicious. My wife's featured dried tomatoes, black olive, pine nuts, nasturtium, and some powder, which may have been tomato, olives and maltodextrin, which forms a melt in the mouth texture like sherbet or cornflour.

Bread was excellent, a very generous bowl of rolls and a separate plate with a huge bacon and onion brioche, with a slate with quenelles of bacon and onion butter, cep butter and plain butter.  It must be noted the excellent attention to detail with regards to vegetarians, the butter selection with the bacon butter and the bacon brioche were provided on separate plates. The brioche was as good as the one at Ramsay a few days earlier, incredibly light and fluffy, but raised to new heights with the utterly fantastic cep butter, one of the best butters I've had a long time, with a deep cep flavour.

My first course was Eggs and Bacon. This was typical of Tom's complex dishes, featuring many elements and included 2 fried pheasant eggs and a poached egg, wild garlic, chervil, dandelion, and other foraged leaves I couldn't identify, nettle sauce, bacon and brioche crumbs. The eggs, bacon and greens were excellent, and there was a lovely fennel set puree of sorts under the eggs adding a buttery aniseed note which was really good. My wife had a glass bowl with cones of char grilled and baked celeriac with grapes inside, with some truffled creme fraiche and an apple and celeriac consomme poured at the table. I tried some celeriac and consomme, and had some lovely fragrant flavours and a fresh crunch.

My main was cod, this came with 2 large mussels in shell with some sauce, covered by 2 huge clouds of foam. These were set within some endive and number of different seaweeds, and a confit orange sauce. The cod was of excellent quality and cooked perfectly, the mussels large and juicy, and both worked really well with the orange sauce. The seaweeds were really nice too, I enjoyed one in particular, crunchy long green strands like thick spaghetti which I think I've seen in the wild, but never knew was edible. My wife had an excellent onion dish, with baked onions, an onion half filled with gruyere custard, onion puree and an onion boullion. There were some good flavours here with superb caramelised onions, rich, creamy Gruyere and sweet puree.

Desserts were really special, my dish of coconut and mango featuring a whole plate of delicious  things, coconut ravioli, parfait, mousses, gels, powder and sorbets, a large piece of absolutely top notch mango, mango gel strings stuffed with tapioca, white chocolate filled with mango ice cream, and other bits. I loved this dish, every single part was delicious, and no flavours lost in the complexity and presentation. My wife's strawberry dish was stunning, and again featured a complex mix of fresh wild and dried strawberrys, jellies, mousse, sorbet and ice cream and some candied flowers. Both were exceptional desserts, both in technical ability and taste.

A huge selection of petit fours accompanied coffee, a jar containing whisky and lemon and basil jellies, a selection of red fruit meringues, peppermint meringues, miniature cheesecakes, lemon and basil macarons. There was also a wooden bowl with some chocolate and nut caramel tuiles and ganache. Again some really top quality work from the pastry section, other than the whisky jellies which aren't my thing, all were polished off in short order.

The bill, hidden within an interesting old cookery book from the fifties, came to £218, including 2 glasses of rose champagne to start, and a glass of white and red with the main course. I really like Tom Aikens food, his style highly technical, innovative and complex but with plenty of excellent flavour combinations that result in some excellent dishes. Clever, complex and unusual vegetarian options are available,  I am keen to return to sample more.

Amuse Bouche.

Bread.

Eggs and Bacon.

Char grilled and baked celeriac.

Cod.

Baked Onion.

Coconut and Mango.

Wild Strawberries.

Petit Fours.

Tom Aikens Restaurant