Cornus

Cornus in Belgravia is the sister of Medlar in Chelsea. A tasting menu was £195, and there was also a full a al carte menu and a three-course lunch menu at £70. On the a la carte, starters were mostly priced at £24 to £32, main courses £36 - £54 I have written previously about the wine list and background of the chef. I actually had two meals here within a week, and unsurprisingly the menus were similar, so I will wrap these two meals into one review.

Bread was a choice of ancient sourdough (from Flourish bakery) with rye, barley and wheat, or in-house baked focaccia. The latter was flavoured with Lyonnaise onion, sage and roasted squash and was honey glazed, and had a lovely, light texture. Butter was Au Bon Beurre made by Oliver Martin in Northern France using cream from three different breeds of cattle (Jersey, Holstein and Normande) and was 3% salted.

Aged Comte gougere was served warm and stuffed with Gruyere fondue, brushed with beurre noisette and coated with shavings of aged gruyere. This was a very good rendition of the classic snack, the choux pastry light and with plenty of cheese flavour, the centre liquid. A further canape was Orkney scallop tartare on crisp potato with N25 oscietra caviar, and excellent dish where the potato was an earthy foil for the naturally sweet scallop, the briny caviar becoming a natural seasoning. There was also a cheese, mushroom and onion tartlet. This was a malt tartlet with chive emulsion, onion ketchup, cheese fondue, deep fried cauliflower mushroom, shavings of aged parmesan. I slightly preferred the version of this canape today to when I last ate it, the onion ketchup nicely enhancing the mushroom. The final canape was squid ink cracker made from prawns, squid ink, tapioca flour and prawn consommé. The cracker was topped with taramasalata, espelette pepper, lemon zest and langoustine powder. The cracker was light and crisp and the taramasalata flavour came through well. At the second meal we also had crispy pig’s head that used a Spanish pig that had been raised on acorns. This came with pickled walnut, smoked bacon and fennel pollen and worked very well, the walnut contrasting nicely with the richness of the pork (17/20 for these high-class canapes). 

The first formal course was handpicked large Devon crab from supplier Kevin Bartlett (of Top Catch). The crab had been slowly cooked at 75 degrees (half roasted and half % steamed) until it was translucent. The crab was then chilled, the white meat carefully picked over and mixed with wasabi mayonnaise, spring onion, nashi pear, chives, lime juice and zest. This was topped with Hass avocado puree, quenelle of green apple sorbet and a disk of green apple jelly, finished with dots of Avocado puree, finger lime, coriander shoots and shiso flower. This is a glorious dish, and the wasabi flavour came through well today, a gentle but noticeable kick of spicy warmth to lift the delicate flavour of the sweet crab (18/20).

At the first of the two meals this week we had an extra dish of ravioli of winter mushrooms, Valencia squash, ricotta and winter truffle. Here a mix of sauteed winter mushrooms including girolles, chestnuts and chanterelles, was combined with sauteed shallots and blended with ricotta, lemon zest and tarragon, all stuffed into in hand-made ravioli. The pasta was accompanied by some Valencian squash puree, chanterelle mushrooms and truffles from the Pyrenees. This was another good dish, the pasta delicate and the mushroom flavour a natural complement to the earthy truffles. The lemon zest added just enough freshness to balance the richness of the ricotta (17/20). At the second meal of the week we had hand-rolled spaghetti was cooked in Parmesan stock with the fat removed as well as and grated truffle (from the Pyrenees), finished with shavings of truffle. The pasta had good texture though the sauce was quite buttery (16/20).  Tagliatelle would also work well with this dish.   

A dish that dates from Phil Howard’s time at The Square was an extra-large Scottish langoustine tail, the shellfish being caught in Orkney using baited creel traps and supplied by Keltic Seafare. The langoustine was gently sauteed and served on caramelised parmesan gnocchi, a potato and truffle emulsion, along with shavings of black winter truffle. A streak of black truffle puree made with field mushroom, truffle and squid ink completed the dish (17/20). The dish can be a little salty, which doesn’t trouble me, but might seem too salty for some. 

We then had a pithivier of mallard, the duck from the Duke of Argyll Estate in the West Highland of Scotland. Inside the pastry a mallard mousse was made with the mallard’s breast and legs and wrapped in savoy cabbage. This was served with beetroot puree and a mallard sauce made with red wine, red wine vinegar, cardamom, cinnamon and mallard stock made from the duck bones. This was a lovely dish, the pastry being exceptionally good, the duck flavour nicely complemented by the beetroot (18/20). 

The final savoury course was Pyrenean lamb. This used Auxuria Lamb from the Basque Valley in the Pyrenees, which is milk-fed between November and June for a maximum of 45 days. The animal was fully utilised, with the dish having the rack, saddle and rump of lamb. On the top of the rump there was roasted salsify with grated Ossau-Iraty cheese. There was a cauliflower cheese croquette (Ossau-Iraty again), lamb kofte, Pyrenean black truffle and lamb jus made with white wine vinegar, veal and chicken stock, rosemary, mushroom, garlic, bay leaf and thyme. On the side were little offal skewers of the heart, liver and kidneys, brushed with balsamic vinegar and finished with fennel pollen. The lamb itself had excellent flavour and was carefully cooked, and it was nice to see so many elements of the animal appear. This was an involved dish showing a lot of skill (18/20).

At the second meal my main course was pigeon from a supplier called Jean Jacques Boga, whose farm is in the Armorique Regional National Park in Brittany, started in 1988.  The birds are outside their whole lives, fed on corn and wheat that is made available to them at all times. Unusually, the birds are fed by their parents, a more natural process that contributes to a gentler fattening process. The meat was served with chutney of mushrooms, apricot, chestnuts, onion and garlic, pigeon sauce, apricot puree, choux farci (confit pigeon legs, Lyonnaise onion, pigeon offal and chestnuts), and final a rich pigeon jus. This was a lovely dish, the pigeon carefully cooked and having excellent flavour (18/20).

Cheese was supplied by Buchanans Cheesemonger in Marble Arch, and comprised 36 month aged Comte, 48 month aged Gouda, Selles-sur-Cher (a goat cheese from Loire), the aromatic Langres from Champagne and Vacherin Mont d’Or, the soft cheese from Jura, wrapped in spruce bark. These were all in very good condition. 

Tarte tatin was unusual in that it used red flesh apples (the Kissabel variety from France) and was served with crème d’Isigny from Normandy. The tatin was excellent, the pastry high quality and the apples nicely caramelised (16/20). This was followed by a Christmas pudding souffle. This used a rice pudding base with Christmas pudding blended through it, served with vanilla ice cream and brandy custard. This was a classy souffle, evenly cooked and well risen, the flavour of the Christmas pudding coming through well. I liked the idea of presenting the rich flavour of Christmas pudding through the light medium of a souffle (18/20).

Petit fours were Grand Marnier caramels, clotted cream fudge, nougat and little mince pies with brandy butter. Coffee was the excellent Jamaican Blue Mountain from Difference Coffee. Service was lovely, and the bill for the first meal came to £351 per person, which was the tasting menu, a supplement for the black truffle dish and corkage, mineral water and coffee, along with a bottle of the excellent Egon Muller Riesling Scharzhof 2020 at £135 (v £43 retail). The bill for the second meal was £304 per person for the tasting menu and with plenty of nice wine from the kindly priced list. If you opted for the lunch menu at £70 and shared a modest bottle of wine then an all-in cost per person might be around £120 or so. These were my third and fourth meals at Cornus, which offers some of the highest quality cooking in the capital right now, utilising lovely ingredients. The fairly priced wine list is a real bonus.

Further reviews: 08th Nov 2024 | 16th Aug 2024