The Ledbury (28th March 2010)

Notting hill gate is not quite the area one would usually associate with haute cuisine. The first thing that comes to mind is probably the annual carnival in the summer – party atmosphere, piri-piri chicken and Jamaican beer. Given the area does boast the famous Portobello market and some upper-end boutique shops (still a fairly posh area after all), I thought it might bear its own gem in haute cuisine as well.

Being the sister restaurant to the well-established 2 Michelin starred restaurant – the Square, Ledbury itself was recently promoted to become a 2 star Michelin restaurant and has received praises from various reviews. It was my brother’s birthday and he has never had a meal in a Michelin starred restaurant. To be honest, he is not really into the fancy cooking and thinks it’s all a little pretentious. Anyway, I decided that it is about time he tries it out and I was eager to change his opinion on what he calls “pretentious cuisine”.

The restaurant itself is situated in a very quiet residential area, much like Gordon Ramsay’s Royal hospital road restaurant. The dining room itself is not grand but feels very comfortable. The décor is contemporary but not radical; I would say it’s tidy and neat. As for the menu, since it was a birthday meal, of course we went for the tasting menu is actually surprisingly affordable for a 2 starred restaurant.

We started off with some amuse bouche (2 of them), the first was composed of tiny cubes of raw tuna and caviar-shaped ingredient along with some crispy flakes ingredient on top of a light sour cream (not at all a professional description here I’m afraid, I could hardly understand a word the waiter was saying :p) (6/10) - light on the pallet, and a nice little start to the evening. The second amuse bouche was thin strips of foie gras pate on a crispy pastry (8/10). The foie gras was rich and palatable, and the combination with the crispy pastry was fabulous. Before we move onto the rest of the meal, I have to mention their homemade braed – they are simply fantastic! I had the bacon and onion brioche, and it was probably one of the tastiest brioches I’ve ever had. Not sure if it was because I was hungry or what, I ended up having 3 of them! The chestnut brioche was also good as well.

Moving onto the starters. First was the “flame grilled mackerel with cucumber, Celtic mustard and shiso” (8/10). The mackerel was grilled to perfection - the skin was crisp while the meat was tender and juicy. Interesting that they used shiso as an ingredient, giving the course a little Japanese fusion feel.

Next up was a lovely risotto. “Risotto of squid with pine nuts, sherry and cauliflower” (9/10). The contrast between the rice and squid gives the course a very interesting texture, and the foam and sauce of cauliflower was just delicious along with pine nuts. The sweetness of the sherry sauce was lovely and had me guessing for a while until I looked at the menu to see what it was. The only downside in preventing the course getting a 10/10 is probably the slight bitterness of the cauliflower slices on the side.

For the next few courses, I had asked the restaurant to make some adjustments from the original tasting menu where my brother will resume with the original and they will replace mine with something else, just to sample a wider variety of their food.

So the next course for my brother was the “celeriac baked in ash with hazelnuts and a kromeski of wild boar” (7/10) and I had the “Ravioli of potato and egg yolk with Bianchetti Truffle, Onions cooked in White Beer and Grated vacherin” (9/10). The celeriac was interestingly cooked or shall I say, baked inside some bread. The waiter explained that in doing so, it locks in the moisture of the celeriac. Anyway, the celeriac tasted ok (maybe I don’t know how to appreciate it) but the kromeski of wild boar was very tasty. On the other hand, my ravioli was gorgeous. I didn’t really know what was in the ravioii since it wasn’t on the menu, and it made me think “wow” when I tasted it. The yolk sprouted out from the pastry blending with the smooth potato mash and the subtle truffle flavour. If anything I would criticize about this course is probably the presentation. It really did taste much more special than it looked.

Next up is “roast cod with grilled leeks, hand rolled macaroni and truffle puree” for my brother (8/10) and I had the John Dory with blood orange sauce (8/10). Both courses were brilliantly cooked and the presentation was top-notch.

This was followed by “loin of Sika deer with beetroot, bone marrow and malt” (8/10). The venison was very tender and not too gamey, probably one of the better venison I have tasted. The downside of the course is the beetroot, which I somehow felt it had a slight bitter taste.

The final mains course we had was an extra that the chef had prepared for us - breast of pigeon, a skewer of pigeon visceral, a puff pastry and cube of pan fried foie gras (9/10). The pigeon breast was rare and tender, and the skewer was, er… let say, interesting.

To finish off the meal, we had a pre-dessert which was “mixed berries with berry sorbet on panna cotta” (7/10), followed by the main dessert “chocolate cremeux with walnut ice cream and warm chocolate madeleines” (9/10). The desserts were tasty yet not overpowering in the sense that it’s not too rich which makes you feel totally stuffed at the end of the meal. Also, I want to mention the presentation of the dessert was fantastic – it was so visually tempting as if I was picking fruits off a dessert tree (see pic to see what I mean)

As we were running a bit short of time (after 3 hrs), we decided to skip tea and asked for the bill. However, there were more sweeties to come – they presented us some choices of nibbles - macaroons, white chocolate truffle etc. The meal as a whole was better than I had expected. For a newly promoted 2 star restaurant, I had some doubt in whether it was going to be another 1 Michelin star disappointment like many others I have tasted. The cooking throughout the night was tasty and imaginative and no rollercoaster ride in terms of quality. One thing that really stood out for me was the presentation of the food (except the yolk ravioli one I suppose) – it was neat and you can really tell that some efforts ad design had gone into making the food not only delicious, but also fulfil the visual part of the meal. It was a shame that I was off alcohol on the night, else I would be able to give a better review on the restaurant. Ledbury in my opinion, totally deserves its second Michelin star and it is bold for me to say that with good work and consistent high standards, may be has the 3rd star in sight. I am definitely coming back some time in the future and look forward to the next treat!

1st post! Le Gavroche (5th Mar 2010)

I have had the idea of writing on my dining experiences for a long time and being a bit of a foodie and haute cuisine hunter, many of my friends have questioned why I have not done so. Finally I have the willingness in starting this blog and I hope to share my gastronomic experiences in the future and also write about my previous experiences.

Enough of the boring intro. My 1st post is on the famous "Le Gavroche" tucked away in the quiet lanes of Mayfair. Being the 1st restaurant in the UK to be awarded the prestigious Michelin 3 star accolade (though it is now a 2 star), I have come across the Gavroche name many many times. Since it was my girlfriend and my 2nd year anniversary + valentines, we decided to check out this renowned place.

Having found the restaurant, my first impression is that the placeis that it is rather low profiled from the outside (forgot to take a photo of it). We were welcomed by the staff into the restaurant where on the ground floor, there was the lounge area where diners catch a few glasses of wine before their meal. The actual dinning area was in the basement, and by entering the dinning area , I immediately felt the Frenchness in the place - the carpet, settings, surroundings, as if I was instantly teleported to Paris.

We decided to go for the menu exceptionnel (my girlfriend had the additional flight of wine for each course) , which is surprisingly not very overpriced in comparison to other celebrity restaurants. To start off the evening, we were presented with some amuse-bouche - as far as I remember , one was beef tar-tar and the other was some smoked white fish on a crispy pastry.

The first start from the menu was "kingfish sashimi, black sesame, citrus palm heart salad & crab claw fritter" (5/10) . The accompanied wine was a Zen sake Daiginjo (6/10). I have to say that I was a bit confused by the 1st course - "wait a minute, am I eating a Japanese restaurant in Paris?" and the sake, "big ZEN" written on the bottle? "is that to impress the Westerners who are into martial arts? I could be biased against this 1st course but seriosuly, I didn't pay this amount of money for something I think could easily be found in Asia. Having said that, there was no complaint on the actual food itself. It was nicely prepared with fresh ingredients.
Second up was a "lobster salad marie-rose flavoured with brandy and black truffles" (10/10). This was perhaps the highlight of the meal - the ingredients cannot be much fresher, the lobster had the perfect springy texture as if the little buggers were still alive in my mouth; and the subtle scent of the truffle perfused through each mouthful of the salad.

Third up was the "cheese souffle"(6/10). I only found out later that this was a signature dish at the restaurant. However, from my personal view, this course was a little bit too rich and maybe the portion was too big. It would have been better if it was only half the size. The next dish was a finely pan fried "John Dory with pickled radish and soured grape juice". (9/10) The fish was very well balanced by the jus and the pickles.

As the meal progressed towards the red-meats. we were presented with "langoustine and snails glazed in Hollandaise sauce" (7/10). The langoustine and the snails were good individually, but I was not convinced by the combination. Towards the end of the meal, we had the "roast lamb" (9/10). The lamb was very tender and was served up in front of us. The vegs to go with the lamb was also good. This was an amazingly simple dish and was served very traditionally in the French way. By the end of this course, our gastro-volume was approaching our limit, but dessert? - of course there is always room for dessert!

Instead of the cheese dish (which they have a very nice and wide selection of), we opted to exchange for a surprise dessert - "Passion fruit souffle with white chocolate ice cream" (7/10). I am a big fan of souffle and it was very nicely baked though a bit too sweet for my taste. The addition of the sweet white chocolate ice didn't really help. Maybe if they had made the souffle more sour, then there might be a better balance. Finally, we had a tray of little nibbles of sweets and dessert (6/10) and the last dessert was "chocolate truffle, puffed rice, praline biscuit,rum jelly and bitter chocolate sorbet" (7/10) along with some darjeeling to end our sumptuous feast.

You may notice that I have given a score to each of the dishes. These are my objective view towards the dishes, and personally, I am quite a picky person when it comes to food. I have also left out the wines that we had throughout that night, but the general impression was that the wine we had was OK but not great (though it wasn't expensive for a restaurant of this league). Overall, I would say that Le Gavroche was a decent 2 star Michelin restaurant providing solid and fine cooking though could do with a tad more creativity. The service was pretty good, though my impression was that they maybe have too many waiters/waitress, making the place a little too crowded and loses the private setting that some diners may want. Another thing that I came across is that I felt the place is perhaps more suited for a business meal rather than somewhere romantic for couples. But again, that's purely objective.