Antidote

This meal began with an amuse-bouche of buttermilk with pickled cucumber and cucumber sorbet was pleasant and refreshing, if not exciting (13/20). Things got more interesting with the starter of quail with girolles, Swiss chard, sweetcorn and mushroom purees. The quail was lovely, the skin crisp, the flavour of the bird excellent, with good quality mushrooms and sauces that went well together (16/20). The bread here is from Hedone and is the best that can be found in London; it is near perfect.

Pollock is a fairly humble fish, and in many London restaurants is disappointing. Here it was a particularly well-chosen specimen, precisely cooked and properly seasoned. Slices of razor clams were also unusually tender, the fish served with spring cabbage and pine berries easily (15/20).

Short rib of 50-day aged beef was cooked slowly, so slowly that the process took three days. This resulted in superbly tender meat with plenty of flavour, served with brassica and sweet red Grelotte onions (16/20). Again, the seasoning was spot on.

Ingredient quality continued to shine trhough in the desserts. Vanilla crème brulee with summer fruits had lovely peaches and strawberries, and nicely made crème brulee (15/20). Even better were superb English raspberries with oatmeal parfait, the fruit having terrific flavour (16/20). Coffee, now from a company called Comptons, was very good, avoiding any bitterness.

Service was capable and friendly. The bill, with plenty of good wine, came to £91 a head. If you shared a bottle of modest wine and had three courses and coffee then a typical lunch bill would have been around £55 a head. This is very fair for the high quality of ingredients and level of cooking demonstrated.

Further reviews: 12th Mar 2014