Lunch at Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's - 11/01/12

I have decided I don’t go to London enough. I NEED to go more! There is so much of London that I’m yet to experience. I never used to like it very much. However, living in Newcastle has changed my view on city life. I’ve recently become quite fond of the idea of living the ‘London life’.

The main purpose of my visit to London with my Godmother on this occasion was to spend a Tiffany’s voucher she had brought me for my 21^st birthday. We were contemplating going to see a matinee performance of Wicked but decided we wouldn’t have enough time. Instead, I was given the job of deciding on somewhere nice to go for lunch. I discovered Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s do a three course set lunch menu for £30 per person. Sorted!

You walk through the front entrance of Claridge’s hotel and are over-whelmed. The front hall is beautiful. The restaurant itself is spacious and very art deco. I loved the fact that the chairs were purple. Our plan to eat off of the three course set lunch menu went out of the window. Excitement overcame us and we decided to go for the five course tasting menu with matching wines which was £55 per person.

To start with we were offered a selection of freshly baked breads. I chose olive bread and onion bread. The olive bread was my favourite of the two.  Our first starter was celeriac soup with apple and walnuts. It came served in the cutest little bowl. The soup was deliciously rich and creamy. Tiny pieces of apple and walnut ran through it which added a lovely texture and gave little bursts of flavour. The sweetness of the apple contrasted with the slight bitterness of the celeriac and walnut and took away some of the richness. I quite liked finding the hidden pieces of ‘fruit and nut’. A fantastic little soup!

The soup was followed by a tortellini of pheasant and pumpkin with almond veloute and rosemary beurre noisette. This was served with a glass of Chardonnay (Cordillera, Torres, Limari Valley, Chile 2009). The pheasant and pumpkin had been combined with a little mushroom and then stuffed into the tortellini. Beurre noisette simply means ‘brown butter’. It had a lovely nutty flavour, with a hidden tinge of rosemary. The almond veloute was light, nutty and slightly sweet, like marzipan. The sweetness of the veloute and beurre noisette cut through the gamey richness of the delicate pieces of pheasant and complemented the sweetness of the soft pumpkin.

The final starter was citrus marinated king fish with pickled ginger, grapes, carrots and spring onions. This was served with a glass of Fiano (Masseria Bianca, Puglia, Italy 2010). The fish was served raw. The citrus flavour dominated the dish. I couldn’t really taste the ginger, only the spring onion which had been finely shred with the carrot. The grapes added a sweetness that cut through the heavy citrus flavour. This was my least favourite out of the three starters.

For main we had a choice between feather blade of beef braised for 16 hours with pomme mousseline and wild mushroom persillade and pan-fried fillet of sea bream with a clam blanquette, apple salsa verde and baby fennel. We both opted for the sea bream. This was served with a glass of Pinot Noir (Yealands Estate, Marlborough, New Zealand 2010). The sea bream was fresh, delicate and perfectly cooked. It has such a subtle flavour. The clam blanquette created texture within the dish. It was rich and creamy but slightly sweet and therefore, it complemented the sea bream along with the apple salsa verde. The baby fennel gave a slight liquorice taste to the dish. However, it was quite stringy.

For pudding we had salted caramel pannacotta with bread pudding and roasted pineapple. This was the course I had been looking forward to the most and for good reason. The pannacotta itself was just incredible. It was indulgently creamy. I didn’t want it to end. The bread pudding had a lovely cinnamon flavour. Oh and the pineapple! Where do I start? I don’t know what the pineapple had been roasted in but God I wish there had been more than one piece of it. It was deliciously sweet. The three elements worked so well on their own and when combined. This was my favourite course and most definitely the nicest pannacotta I have ever eaten.

Our wonderful lunch was rounded off with some home-made goodies; candied clementine marshmallows and chocolate, hazelnut and caramel truffles. Both were heavenly! I had seen a tweet about the marshmallows the day before so I got overly excited when the waiter brought them to our table. Seconds after telling him I had seen the tweet and had been hoping to taste them more marshmallows appeared. BONUS!

The Nag's Head - Great Missenden - 03/01/12

A short stay at Tegan’s, in High Wycombe, over the New Year period resulted in us having lunch, before I headed home, at The Nag’s Head, a lovely little15th century pub in Great Missenden. We walked through the door to an empty pub, quite unsurprising due to it being everyone’s first day back at work. However, the pub felt very inviting due to the cold and windy weather outside. It was pleasantly cosy and the open fire by the bar created lovely warmth. We decided to tuck ourselves away in a corner in order to avoid that uncomfortable fear that your entire conversation is being overheard.

For starters I had; Mille feuille of roasted beetroot, pumpkin puree and goats cheese with wild rocket and honey drizzle and Tegan had; Foie gras mi cuit shavings on rocket and pan-fried foie gras on milk bread with red onion and pear jam. My mille feuille wasn’t what I expected. The rocket covered the whole mille feuille which I thought looked weak in terms of presentation. There was just too much of it. The colours together on the plate were really bright, the purple of the beetroot and the orange of the pumpkin looked great together. I was expecting the dish to be warm, but it was cold, which I didn’t feel suited it. I felt it dampened the flavours quite significantly. The pastry, especially, tasted strange cold. There wasn’t as much goat’s cheese as I had expected, I had imagined this to be the key ingredient. The flavour of the goat’s cheese hit after that of the beetroot and pumpkin. I couldn’t really taste the honey drizzle. It was a thoughtful vegetarian dish but I felt it would have been better served warm. 'Food envy' came to mind when I saw and tasted Tegan’s starter. The pan-fried foie gras had a gorgeous charcoal texture on the outside whilst remaining perfectly cooked inside. The foie gras mi cuit shavings were rich but lovely, ‘mi cuit’ meaning semi-cooked. The pepperiness of the rocket really complemented them and the crunchiness of the filo basket they were served it contrasted with the soft texture of the foie gras. The milk bread was incredible, as was the red onion and pear jam. The richness of the foie gras was complemented by the sweetness of the jam. A lot of people argue that eating foie gras is wrong but this starter provided an argument for why it’s SO right! Foie gras is just too good not to eat!

For mains I had; 21 Day aged fillet of Bedfordshire beef served with port jus with duck liver and

foie gras mousse and Tegan had; Lamb shank slowly cooked in local ale on a bed of spinach & wild rocket. I rarely order steak in a restaurant but I couldn’t resist this dish, it sounded so good and it didn’t disappoint. I’d asked for it to be cooked medium-rare and it was perfect. It was so flavoursome. The duck liver and foie gras mousse was smooth, rich and creamy and came served on a circle of puff pastry. The port jus was moreish, I wanted to lick it off my plate it was so good. The steak, mousse and jus tasted delicious together. The dish was like a deconstructed beef wellington without the mushroom duxelle. Tegan’s lamb was so tender it just fell off the bone and melted in your mouth. The slow-cooking of it in local ale gave it great flavour. Both dishes were served with a generous helping of dauphinoise potatoes which were gorgeously creamy. We also ordered a side of; Cauliflower béchamel and Camembert cheese which was the best ‘cauliflower cheese’ I have ever tasted. It was very very rich but unbelievably scrumptious.

None of the puddings jumped out at us so Tegan decided to pass. However, I decided to be greedy and order one for the sake of it. I ordered the; Warm apple and rhubarb tart with vanilla ice-cream. As if I hadn’t had enough pastry by this point! It was nice enough, but nothing special. The rhubarb dominated the apple and the pastry was a little too soggy for my liking. 

Food Social - 15/12/11

Tegan and I wanted somewhere nice to go for dinner before we headed home for Christmas. We looked at all the menus of our favourite restaurants online and decided that David Kennedy’s Food Social, next door to the Biscuit Factory, was offering the best Christmas menu.      


We arrived at the restaurant early so decided to start our evening off with a cocktail in the bar. Tegan had an Elder Gin (fresh mint and lemon, Bombay sapphire, sugar, smoked with cherry marnier and chambord) and I had a Fog on the Thyme (Jack Cains gin, fresh lemon and thyme, fentimans lemonade and bitters). I really like the bar at Food Social. It has big brown comfy sofas with lots of cushions. They are especially good for slumping into after dinner when you can hardly move because you’re so full.

After finishing our cocktails, we were shown through to our table which was in front of a gorgeous little fire place, this pleased us both immensely. We ordered a bottle of their Organic Sauvignon Blanc called ‘Panul Estate’ which is from Chile. On the wine list it was described as; fresh lemon, gooseberry, crisp and aromatic with balanced acidity and a slight hint of pear drops. It didn’t disappoint, it was a lovely bottle of wine. To start with we shared two starters; Ken’s pumpkin risotto with roasted king prawns, garlic butter and coriander and Venison and smoked bacon Scotch egg with apple chutney and celeriac mayonnaise. The risotto was incredible! The king prawns were so juicy and flavoursome. I’ve never had prawns paired with pumpkin before but it was a fantastic combination. The sweetness of the pumpkin complemented the richness of the king prawns. The pumpkin wasn’t chunky as I’d expected which allowed the prawns to add texture to the dish. The flavours of the coriander, garlic butter and parmesan worked with both the pumpkin and the king prawns to create a truly delicious starter. The risotto had been perfectly cooked, it had bite and was creamy but not overly rich. The presentation was gorgeous and the portion size was spot on. The Scotch egg didn’t disappoint either. It looked fantastic when it arrived, served on a curvy wooden board. The Scotch egg was a little masterpiece. The venison and smoked bacon worked exquisitely together to give off a delicate smoky flavour. The yolk of the egg was bright yellow and was still slightly soft. Venison is quite a rich meat so therefore, the rich and slightly runny yolk tasted wonderful with the venison. The batter encasing the whole thing together wasn’t greasy. It was perfectly crispy and light and therefore, didn’t overpower the flavour of the egg or meats. The apple chutney was quite rich but very tasty. The celeriac mayonnaise hadn’t been made with too much mayonnaise which I liked and it added a little crunch to the dish. The combination of flavours that hit your mouth when you mixed the Scotch egg with the apple chutney and the celeriac mayonnaise was outstanding, they complemented one another beautifully. 

For mains we both had; Fillet of pork with fruit and sage stuffing, heritage potato puree, roots and thyme. We also ordered a side of; Cinnamon braised red cabbage. The presentation was thoughtful. The pork had been cooked to perfection. It was so tender and succulent. The fillet had been cut into four slices and the fruit stuffing sat in the middle of each slice. The stuffing consisted of sultanas, apples and figs which complemented the flavour of the pork to a tee. Sage is a herb that works really well with pork and also apple. The heritage potato puree was so creamy and smooth and was the perfect potato accompaniment for the pork. Tegan isn’t usually a fan of mashed potato but she loved this. The pork was served with kale, a vegetable I’m particularly fond of, which sat neatly underneath the sliced pork. The red cabbage was especially good, you could really taste the cinnamon.

For pudding I had the: Iced vanilla and chestnut parfait with nutmeg clotted cream and caramelised figs. Tegan had the; Banana and golden syrup bread with crème fraiche and banana ice-cream. My parfait just oozed flavours of winter. I’d had my eye on it after looking at the menu online and it was really something quite special. It wasn’t too cold which iced parfaits can sometimes be. Brain freeze isn’t something I particularly enjoy. The dominant flavour was the vanilla, the chestnut flavour was more subtle but the combination of the two flavours was delicious. The figs had been caramelised and therefore, had a gorgeously sweet sugary crunch to them which added texture to the pudding. Some people would think clotted cream would be an unnecessary accompaniment to an iced parfait but my goodness did the nutmeg clotted cream work when eaten with the parfait. The sweetness of the nutmeg contrasted with the rich, earthy flavour of the chestnut but complemented one another in terms of their nutty flavour. A cinnamon flavoured syrup had been drizzled over the parfait which finished it off perfectly. The combination of nutmeg, vanilla, chestnut and cinnamon was unbelievable. This was a truly magnificent end to my meal. Tegan’s banana and golden syrup bread was also wonderful. It was crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. It wasn’t stodgy at all and you could really taste the banana. The golden syrup gave it a lovely sweet element. The banana ice-cream didn’t take anything away from the flavour of the banana bread itself and didn’t taste artificial, it tasted of real banana. It was incredibly yummy.

To round off our evening we decided to have a glass of champagne in the bar. I went for the straight option. Why ruin a perfectly good glass of champagne? Tegan had an Amaretto Flirt (disaronno, chambord, fresh orange juice, guy de chassey and champagne).

I was SO impressed with the food at Food Social and the service was friendly and efficient. The one thing lacking for me was atmosphere. The location of Food Social isn’t particularly ideal. It’s out of the town centre and away from the quayside. The restaurant was surprisingly quiet that evening considering it was the run up to Christmas. Food Social is what I’d call a hidden gem that far more people need to discover!

Food from other visits to Food Social: