Dinner at Tailors in Warwick - 19/01/12

A friend had recommended I try Tailors in Warwick as he knows a chef who works there. I can’t tell you how pleased I am that he bought this wonderful little restaurant to my attention. Tailors is situated in Warwick’s marketplace. Its name derives from the fact that the building used to be a gentleman’s tailor shop. It’s a tiny restaurant. However, it adds something to the experience. By glancing at the menu you can see how passionate Dan and Mark (the chefs who own Tailors) are about food.  The combinations they use make you stop and think mid-drool. They take traditional dishes to a different dimension. For example their starters include; sliced oak smoked salmon with poached scrambled eggs, pineapple foam and liquorice and cheddar cheese spaghetti with fig and almond bolognese and garlic bread? I love to be intrigued by a menu and the menu at Tailors certainly intrigued me. They offer a choice of menus; a la carte, menu of the week, vegetarian menu and a taster menu. It didn’t take Tegan and I very long to decide what we wanted to eat.

After we had ordered a little amuse bouche appeared alongside a selection of home-made breads. The amuse bouche was a white bean veloute served in an espresso cup. The veloute was gorgeous; warm, rich and creamy, just what we needed to warm us up on a cold and miserable January evening.

Tegan and I both had our eyes on the same starters so we decided to share. We chose pan-roasted King scallops with pears, deep fried sausage roll and home-made brown sauce and confit rabbit and butternut squash cannelloni with date puree, onion foam and garlic crisps. Both dishes looked incredible when they arrived. I love this type of food because you can see the amount of work that’s gone into it. It’s art on a plate. The scallops were big, juicy and perfectly cooked. The deep fried sausage roll was deliciously light and crisp which contrasted to the soft scallops. The sweetness of the pear cut through the slightly salty scallops and the brown sauce was more sweet than vinegary. I would never think to combine scallops with a sausage roll. It sounds quite ludicrous but it was absolutely wonderful both flavour and texture wise. The cannelloni was a clever little dish. The butternut squash formed the cannelloni and created great colour within the dish, something pasta would not have done. There were three pieces of cannelloni and on each piece sat a raw brussel sprout leaf. You had the delicate yet dominant gamey flavour of the rabbit combined with the delightfully sweet date puree. It was delicious.

For main I had breast of Gressingham duck with confit leg croquettes, red cabbage puree, crème fraiche, glazed chestnuts and crushed parsley root. Tegan had braised shoulder of Lighthorne lamb with sweetbreads, cumin cornbread, poached rhubarb, yoghurt and cucumber. The duck was beautifully pink and ‘melt in the mouth’ tender. The crème fraiche took away some of the richness of the duck whilst the chestnuts added a subtle nutty flavour. The croquettes were made purely from confit duck leg, no potato, and complemented the duck breast superbly, alongside the sweet red cabbage puree. Tegan’s shoulder of lamb looked like a piece of artwork. The presentation was just incredible. The lamb was perfectly cooked, it just fell apart. A cucumber type relish sat on top of the lamb whilst pieces of cucumber jelly had been placed on neat little dollops of poached rhubarb. There were also pieces of crispy rhubarb scattered around the plate. Lamb with rhubarb and cucumber? Really? Trust me … it worked! Duck and cucumber works and so does lamb and cucumber. The cucumber added a refreshing element to the dish. The cucumber jelly was like a palette cleanser whilst the rhubarb added sweetness to the dish. The cumin cornbread was delicious and added texture and the sweetbreads were soft and silky. It was a truly stunning dish.

I was bowled over by the food at this point which left me incredibly excited for pudding. I could have eaten every single pudding. I wish they did a tasting plate! We were recommended to order the ‘Black Forest’ which Tegan ordered and I, stupidly, didn’t. I don’t think I have ever experienced such horrendous ‘sweet’ food envy in all my life. The ‘Black Forest’ was a de-constructed Black Forest Gateaux. Oh … my … goodness, it was absolutely unbelievable! Puddings like that just shouldn’t be allowed to come to an end. It was described as ‘Warm 70% dark chocolate, sour cherries with a kirsch and buttermilk ice-cream’. It came in three wonderful elements. You had a hot chocolate fondant, a tube of dark chocolate which had been filled with cold cherry soup and a scoop of buttermilk ice-cream which had been covered in sour cherries. Every element was just mouth wateringly good. The chocolate wasn’t overly rich, the cherry was gorgeously sweet and the buttermilk ice-cream oozed creaminess. Cherry and chocolate is one of Tegan’s favourite combinations and this dish makes you realise why. If you go to Tailors you MUST have the ‘Black Forest’, you’d be an idiot (like me) not to! My pudding was lovely but it just wasn’t a show stopper like the ‘Black Forest’. Mine was called ‘Pecan’. It was a honey and yoghurt parfait with a pecan sponge, roasted rhubarb and oat granola. If you’ve read any of my reviews before you might already know that I’m a big fan of iced parfaits. Honey and pecan are just such a fine combination, the honey being the dominant flavour in this dish. Whole pieces of pecan sat on top of the flavoured sponge and the oat granola sat neatly around the edge, adding a little crunch to the dish. You had the sweet puréed rhubarb, which the sponge sat on, and pieces of crispy rhubarb. The puréed rhubarb had a little bit of orange in it which gave it its peachy colour. As nice as my pudding may have been I wish I had chosen the ‘Black Forest’. I learnt a lesson that evening … always listen to recommendations!

Tailors offers a truly wonderful dining experience. The food is exceptional and the service was fantastic. Every dish was explained to us when it arrived so we knew exactly what we were eating. I really enjoyed having my memory refreshed as when there are so many elements to a dish you sometimes forget what certain things are. How this little restaurant has not been more recognised I do not know. It is of a similar standard to Simpsons in Birmingham and The Hand and Flowers in Marlow, both of which are Michelin starred. Tailors offers two courses for £29.50 and three courses for £34.50. It’s exceptional value for the standard of food you receive. I’ll definitely be returning soon!