A 7 course wine taster menu with accompanying food. Our first visit. The 7 course taster menu looked good and, more or less, it was. Typically for a taster menu you get 2-3 small starters, a couple of… read moreOur first visit. The 7 course taster menu looked good and, more or less, it was. Typically for a taster menu you get 2-3 small starters, a couple of larger “mains”, maybe some cheese and/or a pudding or two. Well the 2 starters were, as expected, quite small. Beautifully presented but too many elements. So, in what is already a small dish, each element is tiny and barely distinguishable. Among its 6 elements the Mille-Feuille included “Brandy-Glazed Carrots”. My piece (singular) of carrot was a very thin, star shaped slice less than a centimetre across. No taste of carrot, no taste of brandy. The scallops were lovely but sadly overpowered by the “Jalapeno Relish”. Again, too many elements. The red mullet main was a good size portion but again no taste of “Anchovy Emulsion” or “Plankton Oil”. I think the Chef’s Table is trying to be unnecessarily clever with its food. Clearly there is a lot of skill and imagination here, it just needs to be refocussed. So, what else? Its was a hot summer’s evening and no obvious aircon. We were in the smaller of the 2 dining areas, just inside the front door. Here the tables are uncomfortably close together – too easy to overhear your neighbour, often difficult to hear what the waitress is saying. Maybe the larger area near the kitchen is more spacious. Background music, fortunately not too loud but nonetheless unnecessary in such a small restaurant. What was excellent was the wine flight and the sommelier. He was very engaging and knew his stuff (based on our pretty good knowledge of wine). An interesting wine selection and good portions. Many thanks to him. Nice that the chef (or one of them) came out to chat at the end but difficult with all noise from other tables. Overall, a little expensive although we would probably go again. read less
