Dined on January 15, 2025
- Overall 4
- Food 4
- Service 5
- Ambience 2
Frustratingly close to excellent. Some really good food, and I’d say the first 3 or so courses we had we were doing the happy dance in our seats. And then they served us overcooked lobster. Yes, i realise how spoilt that sounds, but they are charging Michelin prices and the fact is that the food was not consistently up to that standard. We ate it, but made clear the lobster dish fell far short of expectations. They listened attentively to the feedback, and presumably passed it on, but made no effort to rectify the situation, e.g. by recooking the dish or providing some kind of drink to recompense. That’s up to them, but offering some glass of whatever is a very easy way to placate a customer when the kitchen has fallen short of the expected standard. The desserts were also merely average in my view but fine. The most damaging course was the slowcooked beef with parsnip purée. One of the earlier courses was pork belly, another slow cooked dish. It was tasty and served with various accompaniments which elevated it to a high level. But the beef just felt lazy, and, in the context of the overcooked lobster, like slowcooked courses were covering for a lack of skill in producing a la minute dishes. Neither of us finished the beef - it just felt very uninspired and unworthy of comparison with the preceding courses. I would personally advise removing it from the menu. The service was exemplary and setting lovely. The restaurant was mostly empty on a Tuesday night which didn’t make for great atmosphere. But you can tell this place has great potential as some of the dishes, like the mole and cauliflower, were truly great, multi Michelin star worthy dishes. Currently there is much room for improvement, but the potential is there.
