Clocking Inn

Saturday, May 19th , 2018

The Clock House is in Ripley in Surrey, in the premises that used to be Drakes. The restaurant regained its Michelin star in the 2018 guide, with the kitchen now run by Fred Clapperton. We had a very pleasant evening there, with some unusually good nibbles and a series of capable savoury courses, though things slid down a notch or two at the dessert stage. The staff were nice and the bill was not excessive, at least by London standards. 

Dip in Brilliant is a casual sister restaurant of the long established Brilliant in Southall. The new place is almost next to the Chelsea football ground, and is run by the daughter (Dipna Anand) of the owner of the Brilliant. We had a pleasant enough meal when we visited, though not all the dishes were quite to the standard of the original Southall mother ship. Prices were also quite high, but rents in Fulham are clearly much higher than in Southall.

We had another excellent meal at Noize, which along with Core is my pick for the best London restaurant opening of 2017. The menu of fairly classical French dishes is appealing, and there are nice touches such as the kitchen making old fashioned sauce reductions. Service is charming and the wine list is unusually good, alongside a fairly modest corkage charge.

I can’t seem to stay away from The Ritz, and had another excellent meal there. There was a particularly good dish of Provence asparagus with gull egg and truffle sauce, and a lovely Ballotine of Dover sole with leek terrine. As usual, the desserts here were top notch, with an especially elaborate and pretty chocolate concoction.