Experienced my first visit to Tom Aikens last night and thought I'd venture into the world of egullet postings for the first time as a result The menu was largely the same as IanT so I won't go throught the details other than where things differed- and I have to say my experience of the meal was also pretty much the same. I was really looking forward to going here and expecting/hoping to love the food - but left slightly underwhelmed. Amuses were as described in Ian's posting and, for me, the highlight of the meal - perhaps the high standards of the amuses made what followed more disappointing. All first three course were as described , with the John Dory being the highlight and the only dish I would choose to eat again. The lamb had lost the pickled onion but gained a (reappearing) pickled raisin and various tomato accompaniments. The size of the lamb was one single - i think 50p sized would be being generous - piece. I have no problem with small servings of ingredients in a dish but here the lamb and the sweetbread were just completely overwhelmed by the tomato, that you really struggled to taste them in the dish at all. The desserts also differed - the first one being a chocolate and grapefruit theme and the final one strawberries in various disguises. I have to confess that as it took a long time to get to the desserts (we had to wait an hour after the cheese for the first one and then another 45 minutes after finishing the first for the second) that the details of them have somewhat left my memory. I do recall that choc/grapefruit had some tiny chocolate beignets stuffed with grapefruit mousse - the beignet was rather doughy in texture, a fanatastic rich chocolate ganache, a thin chocolate tube with grapefruit mousse and jelly, the jelly was served very cold which made a lovely contrast with the texture of the mousse and was very refreshing and an air dried strip of blood grapefruit. The strawberry dessert was quite artificial tasting - and consisted of various mousses and jellies in a strawberry sauce. I think there was a strawberry and vanilla jelly - which was simple and rather lovely. The sauce tended to overpower the rest of the dish. It was so late by the time we'd finished the final dessert that we skipped coffee as everyone was just so exhausted. We arrived at 7.30 and left at 12.45 without the coffee course. The room was also incredibly hot - we were in the middle with one tiny air fan at one bit of the table which was completely inadequate. Unfortunately the heat resulted in everyone being just desperate to leave by the end having drunk gallons of water - not ideal Overall I found that, whilst I could appreciate intellectually the continued use of the jellies and mousses throughout each dish - it seemed to me to create a continuation of the "essence" of flavours - as an actual eating experience it just didn't do it for me. This was for two reasons; firstly the jellies and mousses seemed to constitute the main part of each dish and this (overall) created a very overpowering experience, in some dishes the subtlety of the flavours did come through but overall, for me, it was just too much - by the third/fourth course I was leaving alot of what was on my plate despite still being hungry; secondly I found that the textures were also just too similar for my tastes, by the end I wanted something I could actually bite into as opposed to more jellies and mousses! Also the meal itself (and all of the table of 6 commented on this) when taken as a whole was very acidic and sweet. At the end of the meal I felt quite tired - although I think the heat/length of waiting times didnt help matters. The service was also slightly off - key, maybe the heat was getting to the staff too. In summary I'm glad I went (but wasnt paying ) for the experience as I did enjoy aspects of the meal, and certainly those that didn't at least produced a strong reaction! Infact the most interesting aspect was the way in which the meal did really make everyone (and we were a mixed bunch foodies and non foodies) think about what they are eating/liked in food - I've rarely had a dinner where everyone in such a mixed group discussed their thoughts/reactions to each course in such depth. It was also fascintaing to see that even within our group of 6 people had very different responses to each dish - some loving/others hating - which mirrors much of the discussion on this board. However, for me, the "experience" aspect simply wasn't enough as the food just didn't touch me in the way that other meals have where you get that - without wanting to sound corny - emotional response to the food. Apologies for the rather long length of these ramblings!
