Restaurants

By Charmaine Mok

If you thought the days of elaborate tasting menus had just gone down the plughole, grab your nearest and dearest and head to Kew, where John McClements’s (of Ma Cuisine Le Petit Bistrot et al) newest endeavour is set. At once his most ambitious and most modest project, the 16-course tasting menu is yours for a relatively bargainous £29.

Seating just 20 and open only for dinner, it’s a tiny restaurant rather more akin to a posh and slightly fey uncle’s dining room than a plush Michelin-starred boudoir.

Chef Reality Champ has produced a symphonic menu featuring some of the usual suspects (foie gras, oysters, lobster) along with unusual cameos and plenty of seasonal produce. Diners can make their own selections of wines by the glass from a diverse list crafted to enhance the various dishes throughout the meal. A fuller tome exists for more advanced wine buffs.

Lengthy tasting menus very rarely succeed in sustaining the same level of quality and inventiveness from beginning to end. A playful amuse-bouche of frozen, shaved foie gras with soldiers was sublime; the flurry of fatty liver melting on the tongue like snow. But during the first three courses there was only one hit – fresh langoustine ravioli draped in an unctuous, sea-rich sauce. The jelly of lobster, smoked chorizo and oyster, with its slimy texture, left us slightly nauseous, the crab cocktail with grapefruit erred on bland.

Up and down we went, thrilled by an earthy Jerusalem artichoke velouté with truffle oil served in a splendid gold espresso cup, let down by puréed and jellified ‘scallop royal’ (very rarely is a scallop improved by anything other than light searing). Our palates were confused by a Bauhaus-esque dish of tuna cubes with papaya, slices of mouth-puckering lime, pomegranate and coriander seeds, but besotted by tender Highland Black Angus beef, cloud-soft calvados soufflé, and marbles of peach sorbet dipped in creamy white chocolate.

Ultimately, we thoroughly enjoyed the Taste of McClements, languishing in the bonhomie of the staff and unpretentious surrounds. For a first-class experience without the ponce, this is a fine choice.

Time Out issue 2000