Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester (London): finesse

(Visited January 2013)

Here, finesse is as abundant as the stars,  finesse in conception and execution, though if one observed that these dishes are sometimes unspectacular, one would be capturing another truth. Nobody can accuse Ducasse of ever taking you by storm. At least in the savoury department, sweets tell a different story.

The nibbles (excellent gougeres), the amuse bouche and the starters were the savories that made an impression.

In the amuse, a royale of foie gras went very well with raisins and cauliflower, all exactly balanced. A starter of crab in two ways (cold/warm) was complex and refined, while a purely vegetarian, maybe even vegan, dish of vegetables in various cookings was pretty to see, meticulously prepared and delightful to eat, only held down by the quality of vegetables that was good, for sure, let’s say even very good, but not as spectacular as one would probably find at Ducasse’s places on the Continent.

The mains, a wild sea bass and a halibut, consisted of small pieces of the fish fillet with one vegetable and excellent jus (chicken for the seabass, meaty for the halibut), simply and precisely presented.

Fundamentally, there weren’t great motives of interest in these dishes, textural or otherwise except a pang of pepper, nor great complexity. In this type of relatively plain dish excellence depends on standout produce but this, while good, wasn’t near the best fish we’ve tried and it didn’t sing. For our taste, it was also a little overcooked.

What was truly spectacular was the patisserie. In the petit fours, the macaroons and pralines were masterful and the baba’ au rum was perhaps the best we’ve ever tried, also in virtue of the theatre of letting you choose among six rums, but especially because of its unreal lightness.

And a pear with chestnuts repeated the theme of extreme lightness married to great concentration of flavour. Structurally, it was a bit like a deconstructed Mont Blanc. Quite phenomenal.

Shock news: espresso was also very good: what a rarity.

The front room can be ugly or beautiful for the beholder. For us it is pleasant, tables are amply spaced, light is abundant, at least in the sector we were in. Service is incredibly unstuffy for a classical French place and extremely attentive, a real asset of this restaurant.

Prices are high of course but very much in line considering where you are, the three stars, the brand name, and what you eat (£5 for coffee seems too much though).

We put three pics just to show that it wasn’t a dream. We’re too lazy right now to put them all up, yet unwilling to delay this post any further.

Stay tuned…

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Kai of Mayfair

(Visited: December 2012)

Kai is as soulless as they come. You are not unlikely to be sitting near members of the money elite from this or that part of the world. Not a crime being filthy rich, of course, more annoying though is being loud and boorish. But the draw to this place (see our previous visit here) are the lightness and clarity of flavours that are the hallmark of their cuisine. And that the lunchtime deal, unlike the a la carte, is oh so light also on the pocket.

Beautiful this steamed sea bass (farmed for sure, but of good quality) in an aromatic  broth that left breathing space for the fish to express its delicate flavour (how many chefs kill steamed fish with too heavy accompaniments!)

Sea bass

But this time it wasn’t always perfect.

The fried dumpling was indeed a gooey, undercooked mess with in addition another meaningless mess of eight (the point being?) vegetables inside:

Fried dumpling

This is the only duff dish we’ve had at Kai so far and so they are forgiven. Pretty though.

Instead the dessert, a pannacotta with all kinds of exotic fruits, was perfect -the texture that wobbly creaminess that is the whole point of mild-tasting pannacotta, and again so light- to finish.

Dessert

Oh no: THIS is perfect to finish:

Petit fours

very well made: thank you very much!

All this for £27. In the midst of the most expensive real estate in the world, it’s amazing: you can gladly cope with a service that does go through the motions more than correctly but all too obviously doesn’t give a damn. Nor do we, till prices and flavours continue to impress.

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Kai of Mayfair (London)

(Visited: April 2012)

(Note: a more recent visit is described here)

Venturing in money-oozing Mayfair, here are some quick comments from memory about a recent lunch at one of the local institutions, the upscale Chinese Kai. 

This an expensive restaurant for dinner, and we are not sure whether the experience justifies the prices, but the lunch option is very approachable and very good value at £27 for three courses (£39 with matching wines).

For some reason (perhaps some negative review read and forgotten but lingering in the subconscious) we didn’t have high  expectations, but we were positively surprised by the quality of the produce and of the cuisine.

Slow cooked pork belly in particular was impressive for the elegant presentation, apt cooking and deep flavour lightened and lifted up by the condiment (ginger, cinnamon, soy…) by someone who clearly knows how to treat pork, oh yes he/she does, look at that sticky glistening dark colour:

Perhaps even more impressive was a ‘spice route’ lobster (£12 supplement, deserved), the spices a a complex affair that yet respected, and indeed formed an elegant flavour robe for, the good produce:

Whoever the chef is, he/she can strike several chords, not only powerful grand flavours: a starter of Loh Bak Goh Turnip cake was ever so airily crispy and fresh and cleanly presented, a delight to eat.

So was the other starter, a crispy duck that is definitely not your local Chinese version (well, unless you live in Mayfair, that is):

Desserts were quite good too, with an intriguing 6 textures of chocolate and peanuts

 

and a not earth-shattering, but pleasant and waistline-friendly almond curd with fresh fruit:

Service varied from charming to uninterested to poor. Houston, you’ve got a serious problem in this department. The wine waitress (an Italian) was particularly incompetent. She didn’t know, or didn’t want to tell us, the optional matching wines. She only assured us that she would tell us at some point before serving. This was already quite incredible and bad enough, but after a few minutes she was trying to fill Man’s glass, without showing the wine bottle, and with no word of explanation. We’ll spare you the tense exchange that ensued… the conclusion is that no blood was spilled but we had tea, which  was excellent. 

And aside from the matching wines, the prices of wine on the list really go too far in their aiming at the superwealthy Mayfairites:  tea looks like a better option.

Well, no single dud dish today, and a couple of impressive ones. And at £27 in Mayfair! We were satisfied with the food at Kai. Compared with Yauatcha, for example, this is a more stayed, less hip but also more elegant experience. Mayfair vs Soho, you understand. So satisfied were we in fact that we left with the intention of trying, at some point, the more wallet-busting, but also even more ambitious, dinner menu.

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The Greenhouse (London): an enticing trial lunch

On arrival, despite visiting on a budget offer, we are given all the customary extras – very elegant, very pleasant, very welcoming.


When we ask whether they mind if we take photos of the food, the maitre d’ almost laughs: why should I mind? We’d like to send the tape of this scene, occurred in what is otherwise a pretty formal setting, to the many stuck-up venues that consider themselves and their food so sacred that its images cannot be handled by mere mortals.

So let’s take a photo of the bread

 

It has a ‘professional boulangerie feel’, very standard but perfect looking, and it’s undoubtedly very well-made (we didn’t ask whether it was bought in).


We decided to have a “trial lunch” at this illustrious and historical Mayfair venue that has seen several chefs at the helm – they must have a Michelin star or two, they really must, but we can’t be arsed to check – show us the food first 🙂 – based on an amazing offer with this site, that afforded a three course meal and a coffee for less than what a single main costs in most fine dining places in London (the regular lunch menu, anyway, is also good value at £29 for three courses). Of course at this price we expect the selection to be limited and the dishes to be simpler, and that’s why we prefer to consider this visit as a mere trial, to get an indication of the style of Chef Antonin Bonnet’s cuisine. There is, anyway, an art in designing a budget fine-dining menu.

 

A tiny matter. A wine waiter or junior sommelier attempts to persuade us to buy a bottle of Barbera that is almost 50% more expensive than the more moderately priced (£36) Loire we had selected. Now, apart from the fact that a sommelier should be able to spot two cheap bastards like us, who would never upgrade so much on their stated request unless already fully drunk, we also consider it slightly bad form to attempt this upselling feat and jarring with the previous impression of hospitality.

 

After this, however, everything was smooth, including the impeccable topping up of the wine by the aforementioned waiter.

 

Very soft, enveloping textures in the first dish, Spaghetti squash and hen egg, hazelnuts, bristly ox tongue, apple balsamic vinegar (nothing else) with pleasant contrasts and balance between acidity and sweetness.

 

The strongly flavored sardines, glazed with birch syrup, do give pleasure, matched by an equally decisive jus (chicken?), accompanied by an aubergine caviar and girolles mushrooms;  a good ensemble although the aubergine caviar was overdelivering on labour and underdelivering on flavour.

 

More delicate but with neat flavours, and simply beautiful, was a dish of grey mullet with artichoke puree and dolce-forte sauce which once again created that acidic counterpoint:

A rich, sumptuous featherblade was enhanced by a shiny and powerful Guinness sauce and accompanied by smoked new potatoes, buttery and soft. This would have been a fantastic dish had it been completed by some other vegetable element; as it was, it was pleasant and powerful but slightly one-dimensional both texturally and taste-wise, and tending to become monotonous – more a dish to gobble up rather than one to slowly enjoy

A Guanaja chocolate dessert came as a ganache, it was light and delicious, with crunchy chocolate “medals” and a very very intense blackcurrant coulis that really shone through.

The cheeses featured a Morbier and three others that we have in the meanwhile forgotten in the orgy of intervening restaurant outings… Perhaps you can recognise them from the photo. They were excellent if, according to us, served at a very slightly sub-optimal temperature. A suggestion that seemd to greatly demoralise the maitre d’ who clearly cared, and made Man feel guilty for having made it. Let’s say that our mouths were too warm.


All in all an impressive display of precise cooking and creative, sometimes subtle combinations within a tight budget. While, for all the politeness and attentiveness, the whole atmosphere felt somehow a little cold for our liking (they certainly tend to cater for a clientele that is very different from low class us, as the mind-boggling wine list attests, and these are impalpable feelings anyway), we are very enticed to go back for the whole hog. That, however, will imply a serious dent in the wallet, even compared with restaurants of similar level of cuisine.The petit fours, pure class, certainly do invite you to return,  

and ever more so does an excellent espresso, served with a spark of originality – had it been slightly ‘shorter’ (less diluted) it would have competed for one of the best espressos of the year, and we don’t take such issues lightly…

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