Had a wonderful meal here last week and as I found the place through the site thought I'd join in - its my first time posting here after a good deal of browsing... Had the tasting menu, lots of things different from what other people seem to have eaten so I'll try and remember it all, which is a pleasure in itself! Amuses - Strawberry gazpacho. Hmmmmm.... A bit confused by this really. I think in retrospect seeing how sweet and savory flavours and even 'concepts' were combined throughout the meal I can see what this was on about, but I'm just not quite convinced it actually tasted that good... Looked BEAUTIFUL and obviously well made though. Corn croquette things, great fun, gorgeous hot liquid insides, very imaginative, I gather made by gelantinzing corn and cheese, which then melts inside a breadcrumb coat when its deepfried. Apple-wasabi sorbet - i REALLY liked this. A much more succesful version of the kind of combination I guess the soup was on about too. It seemed like the apple and wasabi tastes appeared on differnet parts of the tounge simultaneously but separately. I'll have to smear some wasabi on an apple and see if i get the same effect. I doubt it.... Edith, my partner in culinary crime, had a citrus gelee which was fine but less WOW.... the egg - lots said about thuis already, but I thought it was great, rich, unctuous, loved the mix of slightly cooked and raw bit of yoke. meal proper - foie gras 'creme caramel'. Yum. foie taste very good and lovely super creamy texture. Couldn't taste the cumin apparently with it at all, but there was some lovely fresh balck pepper on top which cut throught the richness fantastically. melon soup with crab - fresh, clean , light, very pleasant. fluke sashmi with geoduck - Excellent, one of my faves of the whole meal. the incredibly sweet, smooth fluke was beautifully offset by the slightly chewy and briny clam without either overwhelming the other. grilled sea bream with polenta and baby fennel - nice thick fillet, beautifully cooked, with amazing skin, polenta perfect, creamy inside, falouvred with something else as well, anchovy maybe? Some of the little stalks coming up from the fennel bulb hjad been crisped on the grill as well, which was a great texture. chicken with petite poi - (incredibly little) sweet potato fries and corn puree. I didn't think chicken could surprise me anymore. this did, just by the quality of the meat itself. rack piece of suckling pig with an apricot, slice of foie gras stuffed trotter, apple jus. Incredibly tender meat, cooked rarer than I've ever eaten pork beofre and a good thing for it. great sweet saucing, beautiful upgrade of english sunday lunch... could probably have eaten two or three of the rack pieces, but that's just me!! I also enjoyed listening to the waitress at the table next door trying to explain pigs totter without using the word 'foot'.... lots of desserts. running out of steam here and not really a dessert person, but they were all very nice. Funny one was a banana milkshake served in a shot glass with a straw. A very good, entirely unscrewed around with, banana milkshake! General impressions - an amazing meal, one of the very best I've had. I especially liked that for all the technique and incredible number of preparations, the core of all the dishes was simply the flavor of their principle ingredient , which almost speaks of a certain simplicity. My own natural taste isn't terribly inclined to sweet flavors, but they were so well handled here that their predominance never bothered me at all. The only thing I felt I really could have done with in this kind of meal is some cheese, which just seems an integral part of eating in this sort of progression to me. in general the food is very light, much more so than I've found in the other places at this level of cooking I've eaten at, and the portions smaller, which was actually a good thing. I have a huge appetite and was still hungry going into the main courses, but that meant that I was even more eager to eat..... I had the wine parings which were all pleasant and excellently matched with the food. Very nice Sauternes with the foie and Madeira at the end, everything else less striking but no complaints. Also a lot of wine - 7 glasses... Being really quite greedy, and not the one driving, tried to order an Armangac at the end and was amazed to discover they have no liquor license! Saw Chef Kinch and a few of the crew having a smoke outside afterwards and they were friendly, interested in what we thought, knew that we'd been eating off the tasting menu which was nice, showed they knew what was going on in the dining room. A wonderful meal, for the two of us cost exactly 1/2 of what I pay for a months rent and worth every penny. Hope I can go again but can only go to this kind of place a couple of times a year so don't tend to repeat. Anyway, a long first attempt at posting here, but a great meal and thought I should return the favor of all you who have written this place up.
