Galvin La Chapelle

Today was something special.

A longstanding lunch engagement, had with the company of the charming lady who had previously treated me to two meals recounted on these pages – firstly, the South Devon crustacean at Fishworks, and much more recently a veggie bonanza at Vanilla Black.

I had previously inquired if we could go to one of the Galvin group of restaurants – and as we had recently done some successful business together, it was agreed we would try their ‘La Chapelle’ – in the City, and located handily close to my offices.

The dining room was very classy – clean, bright and classic. The ceiling is 30 ft high and the building is Grade II listed – and it shows. The menus are unashamedly French. The service is very well judged (at least our main waitress – more on that later).

Lasagne of Dorset crab, beurre Nantais & pea shoots

I, as ever, was drawn to the crab. Dorset crab, served in a lasagne with buerre Nantais and pea shoots. This looked superb and tasted ok – I’ve no idea if Dorset crab and Devon crab are any different, so closely located as they are, but maybe in a psychological reaction every time I’ve had Dorset on a menu it has slightly underwhelmed. Such are the travails of those who overthink their food. This dish – a restaurant signature I was informed – had finish but for me came up slightly short in taste.

Superb duck main course at Galvin La Chapelle

The main was a different story altogether. I was very indecisive in the choosing (nothing unusual here) and was recommended the Magret of Goosnargh duck served with a tarte fine of endive, beetroot (in pureed, almost gel form) & violet artichokes. Bloody hell, as Sir Alex Ferguson might say. The duck was fantastic – genuinely crispy skin, and rich, fatty, ruby red meat underneath, served in wonderful three bite portions. The central pasty and endive construction and the various artichoke segs and blobs of beet combined to make harmony on the tongue. Cracking.

Macerated gariguette strawberries with shortbread and lemon verbena ice cream

Last up was again a tough choice – light fruit or rich chocolate? A Tuesday, and a desire to go as light as possible in what is a bumper week of food meant I opted for the Stawberry dish. Specifically macerated gariguette strawbs with shortbread, lemon verbena ice cream and baby basil. There were also marshmallow like cubes, which I think were rose scented. Anyway – a strong finish to a lovely meal. The thin slices of shortbread in particular were light but had enough about them to offer a bit of crunch.

Liz chose a wine I’d previously picked at Vanilla Black, a picpoul from Languedoc. We also had sparkling water – that a seemingly unaware waiter insisted on filling with still when in my glass, despite my protestations. The bread was of note too – I had a single slice of the brown and it was befitting a restaurant of this calibre. A final grudge though, further to the sparkling water fiasco, was that my colleague requested his candied walnuts be removed from his starter. The restaurant complied, but I asked if they could be bought along in a side pot (I mean candied walnuts – sounds banging, non?) but of them, there was no sign.

These are minor gripes and this is a restaurant well deserving of it’s Michelin star. Modern French cooking, skillfully executed. A lovely way to spend Tuesday lunch.

HungryHungryHumpo

 

Perfection at Purnell’s

There are some restaurants you want to go to for ages. Elusive places, you build them up in your head but due to a combination of business, coordination or their own popularity, you never manage to go. For many years Purnell’s in my hometown of Birmingham was one such place.

Inspired by the proprietors amusing turns on the Great British Menu some years ago, this place seemed too good to be true – an oasis of prime cuisine in the largely barren West Midlands restaurant scene (the unrivalled Balti triangle notwithstanding). My Mum and I had endlessly discussed eating here but never managed to agree a time or bother to book it. 

Well now we had. I was nervous, actually. I convinced myself that as there wasn’t really any culinary competition nearby Purnell’s would be knocking out fare that was regionally sound but hardly up to the much more competitive eating surrounds of London. A London centric viewpoint that is sadly something I find myself more and more frequently espousing.

After a glass of Champagne to begin, we were taken through to the dining room by the sauve restaurant manager Jean-Benoit. He is a come-dine-with-me winning, part time male model and all round housewives favourite – and he was for a while also a part of my family. He treated us superbly throughout – exquisitely classy service. The dining room was fairly classy too, fancy without pretention.

We’d agreed we’d tackle the 8 course ‘Purnell’s Tour’ before we went out. At £80 a head pre-grog and having to be taken by the entire table, perhaps fuelling my quality control fears mentioned above.

Warm potato soup – types of onions – crispy barley – creme fraiche

A little English soup starter came first, with the soup poured around the barley pieces and creme fraiche. A deep flavour but generally unremarkable, it was a bit like a ‘here you, get your tummy ready for a feed’ sort of dish – completely unobjectionable but lent an element of theatre with the soup pouring.

Poached egg yolk – smoked haddock milk foam – cornflakes – curry oil

A dish inspired by the chef’s mother with a nod to the curry heritage of Birmingham. My sister chose to switch this dish for an alternative from the Autumn menu (not being a fan of egg) and I would say this is potentially the biggest mistake she has ever made. This dish was ridiculously good. Amazing runny yolk, smoky fish flakes and foam, crispy cornflake (!) pieces. The very light but unmistakable curry oil flavour drizzled on the top completed a dish I immediately remarked might just be my all time favourite starter. Looking back three weeks later, my affections for it have not diminished. Divine.

Emotions of cheese & pineapple on sticks “Soixante-dix”

Goats cheeses, crystallised pineapple, cheese lollipops. A bit of a laugh at your dinner party canapés of years gone by (or maybe of the current depending on how far north you venture). Perhaps the bright light of the egg course before meant this couldn’t shine but it’s never going to match the brilliance of it’s predecessor. Good cheesy flavours – and multiple textures, but the little pokey sticks were a bit odd.

Devonshire crab – apple & celeriac purée – smoked paprika honeycomb

Everyone knows how much Humpo loves crab. Devonshire crab – the world’s best, even better. Goes bloody well with apple too, so very happy with this number. Light white meat, the only drawback being there wasn’t more of it. Crab crab crab crab crab. I love crab.

Carpaccio of beef – red wine octopus – home corned beef – salt beef – sour cream – sweet &
amp; sour onions

The last of the ‘starters’, the beef in this dish was superb. The Carpaccio was the obvious feature (along with the octopus), whereas the ‘salt beef’ and corned beef were a touch harder to pick out. The sweet and sour onions were almost a marmalade. The sour cream was very chivey, giving this plate a touch of the crisp dip vibe which surprisingly was a bonus rather than a drawback.

Monkfish Masala – Indian red lentils – pickled carrots – coconut – coriander

Great British Menu winning dish no. 1 – a superbly meaty piece of monkfish with a curry rub on a bed of lentils. Curry done posh but without sacrificing any of the flavours and richness. I’d have preferred mine hotter but that’s purely a taste thing, and you can’t really knock the taste of this. The use of fish meant that despite a generous plateful it didn’t overfill – useful in an 8 course epic.

Balmoral venison rolled in liquorice charcoal – pear – fennel – roasted confit parsnip

I’d thought about switching this course but was advised against it. We were also treated to a very aromatic gewürztraminer when the dishes were bought out – a turkish delighty, sweet smelling, dry tasting wine that JB said paired superbly with the dish. He was right. An excellent part of the meal – at least one of my companions favourite courses – this was excellent meat with a tangy, interesting ash layer around it. Unsurprisingly it complemented the previous curry dish superbly and it was at this stage I was developing a real appreciation for the consideration of dishes in this gastronomic tour – constructed most thoughtfully.

“Chocolate”

Haha. Very rich mousse, with a quenelle of mango sorbet sitting in it, and chocolate lollipops on the side. The sorbet was the ingredient that sent this above your average choc mousse (not one of my favourite desserts) – a light fruit able to cut through the rich choc. Crumbed brownie was a useful texture differentiator. 

Burnt English custard egg surprise – English blackberries – blackberry sorbet – crystalised tarragon  

The final dish. Very sad as it all comes to a close, and you’re totally full but wish you could eat more & more & more. This was also a Great British Menu winner, and made the meal full circle as the first course proper was also an egg one. This, like that, was bloody fantastic. The fruit was superb – so rich in flavour (though in summer, when served with strawberries it is meant to be even better). The crystallised tarragon was the nicest sweet you can imagine. Natural bright green and herby, I want it by the bagful. The egg, sat upon on it’s circular pillar, was filled with a quite excellent brulee. Why can’t I eat this every day.

What a meal. Some courses of the very highest calibre. Even those that weren’t the best were beyond complaint. As good as anywhere I’ve been, maybe. Easily all time top 5 – and I’ve saved this review for a few weeks because I’m lazy to make sure it wasn’t a knee jerk reaction.

A tasting of three whisky’s – JB’s recommendation after I picked out a Coopers Choice – petit fours and a chat with our superb host completed a fine meal that will forever be in my affections. Seahorse, Gauthier, watch out. You have a worthy rival for my favourite place to eat.

HungryHungryHumpo

Shrimpy’s

What a little curio.

In the Filling Station at Kings Cross, a building marked for demolition in a couple of years time, lies a quirky little restaurant. Gaudy art drawn on the walls, tables packed in tight enough to bang elbows and a long bar with iPads serving as waiter’s notebooks.

It’s very ‘now’. It smacks of the current vogue for ‘diners’. Is it any good? 

Much has been written about it – Lunch Club favourite Coren penned a fairly favourable review. The first morsels are the equally in vogue warmed corn kernels – popular in the spate of Peruvian eateries recently arrived in London. These were actually lovely, and replenished each time we finished a small plateful. Their saltiness was well acompanied by a bottle of San Francisco beer, Anchor Steam. This was very good, and I believe my first tasting of this century old brew.

We were in a midweek hurry, so had a couple of plates of starters with the instruction to our dreadlocked waiter to bring everything sharpish. The first of these were salt cod croquettes. Very crispy, and the filling not quite up to the Rock Fish baccala I’d eaten last week. The other starter was a plate of calamari with black olive jus.

What a succesful pairing. The olives and the calamari went together brilliantly – obviously helped by the competently cooked squid. Very refreshing little combo this, one to try at home.

My main course was what has become the divisive signature dish of this place, the soft shell crab burger. Served with avocado (guacamole really), I was repeatedly forewarned by one of my dining partners to swerve it. I’m glad I didn’t. Some mouthfuls were incredibly intense crab-innardy but for the most part it was sweet white flesh in batter between a good bun. Fries were excellent. The guac did soggify some bites too but it was a non-issue. I enjoyed the eating. Sides of white beans in a pesto style dressing with watercress was perhaps extravagant by this point.

Great hostess in Alice Dudman, intriguing eating at a place that is trying so hard to be ‘now’ it almost comes off as tired. Shrimpy’s – Done.

HungryHungryHumpo

Union Jack’s

An impromtu lunch on Friday, held with my old boss Natasha by her offices at St. Giles. 

I’d wanted to have a go at Jamie Oliver’s English pizza ‘concept’, Union Jack’s, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. 

The setting is good, huge glass windows and a veranda that’s just about far away enough from the road – it was cooler outside, so we sat there.

I kicked off with a morecambe bay shrimp, prawns and Devonshire crab, all potted. Served with crunchy toast, it was a good, standard version of the dish, with little outstanding. 

Being a confirmed pizzaphile, I went for one of their ‘flatbreads’ – but indecisive as ever I chose to have their margherita Juliette, which featured Lincolnshire poacher and Westcombe jacks, ‘pimped’ with oxtail & brisket, roast pork (both slow cooked) and rainbow chillis.

There was an error with my order, as a result I got no pork, and mushrooms. Apparently due to the issues linking the electronic menu scanner thing with the restaurant when outside. I was allowed to keep my pizza, and was also comp’ed a second one, made to my order, by our lovely waitress.

The pizza was again good but nothing spectacular. The meat was a tad too scarce and the pizza itself overall to dry. The chilli’s were very hot and gave a very spicy kick to proceedings, and this will be the first & last time I have pork scratchings on a pizza.

The service was superb, as was the fact Natasha picked up the bill. The food, sadly, was nothing above ordinary, though the pint of IPA that I had with it was very fine. My second pizza made a good lunch the following day – though again, unlike, say, a Venezia was not supreme from the fridge and needed a microwaving to make the dough a bit more flexi.

HungryHungryHumpo

Plus de Prets

Customised half & half.

Crayfish & Super Club – Humpo staples.

Delivered as expected, following a donut double earlier in the day.

I’d actually been on a longish walk during lunch, passing a shop with a sign which always amusues. It sepaks volumes of my current like of Pret that despite passing by such LC staples as Benugo, makeMINE and Benny’s Hat I ended up at the ubiquitous sandwich shop.

HungryHungryHumpo

Orrery

Today, after a week of more or less resplendant sunshine, I was able to pop out for a brief, local media lunch on Marylebone High Street. 

The French restaurant I visited, Orrery, had a lovely covered long terrace, where we took a drink – glass of Chablis, following the lead of one of my hosts, and picked out our choices from the simple and yet surprisingly deep menus. 

We then went downstairs to the equally long, thin dining room, taking a round table with a view over the highstreet. A choice of breads – I went for fig as opposed to my usual wholemeal preference – accompanied by delightful spheres of glistening butter in the middle of the table. 

The place was fancy, eager service done with class, and I wondered if we would see an amuse bouche. Sure enough, a dinky bowl of carrot gazpacho came. Presented in one of those cunning cups with two layers so your hand thermals don’t warm the contents, this was a very refreshing three-sipper to kick things off.

My first choice, as it so often is, was the crab dish. Placed into a cylinder and accompanied by baby beetroot, stalks and all, and artichoke. The artichoke was perhaps too tough, though the dorset crab meat, with a squirt of the dark meat sitting atop the white, was dependably good.  

My main course was stylistically similar, a rolled segment of kentish lamb a la Provencale, served with rosemary jus. On a bed of mash this was a rich, superbly deep dish that was unusually but successfully paired up with halved black olives. Lots of flavours but working well together. 

I had to decline dessert due to aforementioned work issues, turning round a very good lunch in a shade under an hour and a half. The company was great – some deep, life-stage discussions accompanied the usual withering assessments of the media landscape, and this goes down as a very solid if not completely spectacular restaurant. 

Humpo out.

HungryHungryHumpo

Crustacean Bonanza

Sophie’s steakhouse today for a media lunch.

Having not been here since my MindShare days, and holding fond memories of a superlative steak, I was eager to get re-acquainted.

Little has changed – the same decent, thick cut salami appetiser, the steak cuts. A few new items did catch my eye though.  

I began with the trusty favourite of crab. A huge mound of dressed meat, with plenty of brown, sticky meat that had almost been potted either side of a big strip of white meat with plenty of crunchy toast. Standard. 

The aforementioned new item that took my fancy was my main course. I should mention at this point that with Phil Gould’s birthday, and a trip to GAYS meat-fest Red Dog Saloon, scheduled for the evening, I felt I could order something aside from the steak for health reasons. I also, foolishly, thought that the entire lobster club sandwich would not be as filling.

What a monster. Insane. Superb, sweet flavours. Avocado galore. A single claw in the middle – I wasn’t presented with the apparatus to eat it so I requested it, and then got stuck in to that too. A brute of a main course – you should eat this. A huge side bowl of courgette fries completed the main event gluttony.

Inevitably we were not finished there and I had three scoops of ice cream and sorbets. The apple one sticks out though by this point I was so full it was largely a blur. Super feed. 

HungryHungryHumpo

Maze

Arctic crab with mango and pickled mouli

This was a very light first course, which I didn’t really appreciate until the last mouthful, upon which it left a delicious taste of fruity crab, and was much like a super-clean and fresh piece of sushi. The mouli discs were gelatinous circles offering a contast I’m not entirely sure was welcome.

Pollock with mussel beignets and cucumber

Very good, classic styled fish dish with a creamy sauce and to delicious deep fried mussels. The cucumber was in artful little melon-type scoops.

Szechuan-spiced pork belly with pressed apples, kale and onion confit

Expecting a tongue-tingling spice I didn’t receive, these bits of crispy pig were nevertheless marvelously tasty, as pork belly done well always is. The crackling was hard enough to make me wish for a sharper knife but superb in the mouth.

Lamb rump, Slipcote cheese, samphire and pinenuts

An unsual and overpowering taste combination. The very soft, rick Ewe’s milk cheese coupled with a deliciously light medium-rare bit of lamb was a very pleasant surprise, and too the pairing of samphire – a personal favourite of mine but never eaten with anything but fish & seafood previously – made for a great end to a really good meal.

After deliberating over the dessert menu, Craig and I, who had spent much of lunch considering then rejecting healthy options, steered clear of further food. I however took an excellent Macallan 10 year malt that was as smooth as any I’ve drank, whilst he had an amaretto. I then made my way back to the office, well fed. 

HungryHungryHumpo

Murano

Angela Hartnett. I’m not convinced by her TV credentials on The Great British Menu but after a visit to her michelin starred restaurant, Murano, even whilst she was performing at the Taste exhibition, I was very taken with her food.

Breads, two fantastic hams – neither too rich nor too filmy – and huge queen green olives formed the pre-starter. Very good flavours and a taste to come of what lay ahead.

After painstakingly reading through the extensive yet seemingly simple menu, with constant help from numerous excellent staff, I went for the monkfish with crab, asparagus and bitter orange to start. The orange was very strong, and it wasn’t the overall flavour combination I expected. That said, looking back now, two weeks later, I have a much more favourable memory of the dish than my experience at the time. Most curious.

My main course was the envy of all dining with me. Rabbit, loin and belly, with dijon creme fresh. A splendid selection of rabbit cuts arrived on the plate, all tasting divine. A side board, with a pretty, hoop-shaped salad and a finger croque monsieur with pressed rabbit loin inside. I think. I didn’t think. I just ate. This is one of those all time stand-outs, the defining point of this meal. 

The cheese board. This time pictures do paint a thousand words. Taken through from various varieties of goats on the left, via softer cheeses into their harder cousins and finishing with a suite of blues. Two plates almost entirely picked by the staff (obviously Humpo picked out a few divine wodges), and not a bad fromage amongst ’em.

Dessert was a apricot souffle. A rather embarrassing ordering during which yours truly change his order twice after he’d initially said it, alternating between this and a chocolate garnache with passionfruit sorbet. Tough choice, still not sure I made the right one but the souffle was very, very good. 

Coffe and petit fours followed and I’ll leave you to guess as to the quality. A bottle of red and a bottle of sweet wine were taken by our group, and a unanimous verdict on a lovely meal. 

HungryHungryHumpo

Trusty Crab Shell

The last Dartmouth lunch, taken in the car in awful traffic on the way back to Birmingham was the always excellent crab sandwich from the Crab Shell. 

I asked for a little dark meat spread on white bread then the white. I was informed this was the standard but they had no qualms making up fresh ones for fussy customers.

Et voila. A big co-op triple choc cookie was the other food eaten in car.

HungryHungryHumpo