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Sketch London


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We went to Sketch for lunch last week.  Pierre Gagnaire was there recording a TV show.  The service was impeccable, way better than many Michelin 3-star restaurants.

Yeh the Library lunch deal has been a good one for quite a few years now but as, is the way of things, no one really talks about Sketch these days.

Make me think I might go back now you've reminded me.

S

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The food looks like something Salvador Dali would be proud of. Unfortunately, it being food, you are supposed to eat it. I see this type of surreal presentation and preparation everywhere these days and I find the whole thing bizarre. It’s almost like the chefs are competing to see who can come up with the oddest looking dishes. Personally I like my food to look like what it actually is and for it to retain it’s original texture. I don’t mind the odd blob but all these creams, gels, smears, thin viscous lines and the like are at the end of the day just pointless extensions of ego.

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The food looks like something Salvador Dali would be proud of. Unfortunately, it being food, you are supposed to eat it. I see this type of surreal presentation and preparation everywhere these days and I find the whole thing bizarre. It’s almost like the chefs are competing to see who can come up with the oddest looking dishes. Personally I like my food to look like what it actually is and for it to retain it’s original texture. I don’t mind the odd blob but all these creams, gels, smears, thin viscous lines and the like are at the end of the day just pointless extensions of ego.

But if it tastes great who cares... :raz::biggrin:

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The food looks like something Salvador Dali would be proud of. Unfortunately, it being food, you are supposed to eat it. I see this type of surreal presentation and preparation everywhere these days and I find the whole thing bizarre. It’s almost like the chefs are competing to see who can come up with the oddest looking dishes. Personally I like my food to look like what it actually is and for it to retain it’s original texture. I don’t mind the odd blob but all these creams, gels, smears, thin viscous lines and the like are at the end of the day just pointless extensions of ego.

Hear, hear. It's usually a way of 'adding value'-ie economising on the quantity of raw materials. Very dull.

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Do you know how early in advance one needs to reserve to get a seat in the Library/Lecture room for that lunch?

I made my booking the day before. It was for a Wednesday lunch though.

There are a few rooms in this restaurant

Which one is for fine dining and which one is more casual?

Thanks

Lecture Room – formal

Gallery – casual

Fine Dining Explorer

www.finediningexplorer.com

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Lecture Room – formal

Gallery – casual

Gallery also rather trendy and calculatedly odd. An old french tramp, complete with 70s suit and minging trainers, may well guide you to your table. Seats and tables are collated from skips. The staff may or not treat you with utter disdain, depending how you look and how you behave.

Ive always had a good time there, but I have been with known regulars. Caveat emptor.

S

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  • 3 months later...

I went yesterday and had lunch in The Library. I was amazed at how good an experience it was in every way. It was nothing like as cutting edge/tricksy-for-the-sake-of-it as I had feared; just tasty, very well-cooked, and beautifully-presented food.

There was only one 'foam' and that was rather tasty - a bizarre-sounding combination of apricot, chicken foam and fried onion rings, that actually worked really well. All the 4 starters worked, tasted good & looked beautiful (neither tricksy, or silly).

The main of hake in ginger and lemon sauce was fabulous - it looked beautiful, the vegetables were perfectly cooked, and the flavours melded together really well. The lemon flavour came from tiny cubes of intense lemon jelly.

The 3 puddings were - intensely-flavoured summer berries with strawberry sorbet - simple, and classic, with an indefinable herb flavour that enhanced it beautifully; orange sorbet with orange sauce (with a faint flavour of star anise), and a chocolate cake that looked groan-inducingly rich but was actually gloriously light with a flaky wafer keeping it delicate. I had eaten too much of the [excellent] bread, so couldn't do more than nibble the petits fours.

The coffee was one of the best cups of coffee I've ever had - as good at La Tante Claire in 1993... ( and served in tiny, fragile Russian china cups, so it looked wonderful, and was really hot)

I had not been impressed initially, because we could only go to the restaurant if we were escorted by the maitre d' - which struck me as very pretentious. - and we therefore had to wait as well. The website is also a triumph of style over substance, soI had expected the same of the meal. However these are all part of the whole experience - and it was An Experience, the whole thing. I had expected to have an experience - what I had not expected was to relax so much and to enjoy it so much, and for the set menu to be so good. The service was immaculate, and the staff were charming.

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Sketch lecture room and library are probably fine because, as I understand it, they are subsidised by Gallery, which is the only kitchen I've ever walked out of since I first took up the tools of a professional chef. I subsequently described it as a slave galley with an "r" inserted by accident. Eat the food there by all means, but don't assume that the chefs have contributed any love to what they are doing.

Edited by Aidan Brooks (log)
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  • 2 months later...

Darn it, I meant to mention some weeks ago that I went here for an impromptu solo lunch whilst in that there London town.

I'd barely stepped foot in the bar previously but got attention lavished on me by the restaurant manager et al (formally introduced to the COO etc) which is always balm to my fragile ego.

It may have been because I was the only person dining at 12:00, and even by 1:00pm there were only three other tables occupied. This was, I think, a Wednesday and to be honest I was suprised it was so quiet.

The detail of the food defies my memory (though I did keep the menu and will post it up if I track it down) but the quality, presentation and service were absolutely outstanding and the quantity of food for £35 was incredible.

A red mullet dish stands out as a high point for me, and a fruit salad with turnip (really) in it. Weirdly for me the three desserts (no little poncey "trio" of mini dishes, these were just three full-on desserts) were wonderful.

I was in and out in a shade over an hour as I had a meeting downstairs in the bar but without doubt I'll be back to take a little more time over things.

Currently one of London's great lunch deals.

Cheers

Thom

It's all true... I admit to being the MD of Holden Media, organisers of the Northern Restaurant and Bar exhibition, the Northern Hospitality Awards and other Northern based events too numerous to mention.

I don't post here as frequently as I once did, but to hear me regularly rambling on about bollocks - much of it food and restaurant-related - in a bite-size fashion then add me on twitter as "thomhetheringto".

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