La Trompette

[Matthew Grant]

We paid our first visit to La Trompette on Saturday (having cancelled earlier in the year). I enjoyed the décor, softly lit, modern but a little cramped. The menu had a good range of choices and we spent some time quibbling over who was going to have what (we like to try and not double up).

Starters

Rachel had grilled quail with baby leeks, truffled cream potatoes and meat juices. This was a lovely dish, very simple but well balanced. The Quail was cooked to perfection and presented with a fairly gentle sauce made with the roasting juices. The truffled potato was lacking in truffle flavour but this was a minor flaw.

I had great difficulty in choosing my dishes (too much choice) but I eventually chose the caramelised calf’s sweetbreads with pumpkin risotto, Parmesan straws and hazelnuts. This was the first time I had tried sweetbreads and now I’m really regretting not trying them sooner. A relatively small piece of sweetbread sat on top of a pumpkin risotto served in a small pumpkin (squash). The risotto was slightly overcooked but was well seasoned and had a pleasant sweetness. The hazelnuts added a lovely crunch. The Parmesan straw could have done with a touch more Parmesan.

Main

Again, there was excellent choice, we both chose fish.

Rachel had roast halibut with olive oil mash, red peppers, basil and aged balsamic vinegar. – I only had a small taste and for some reason didn’t get to taste the sauce. Rachel thought this was a fantastic dish, halibut is much underrated, she’s a little shy but might embellish a little on this dish later (be nice to her).

I chose grilled seabass with langoustines, shrimps, vanilla and herb vinaigrette. This carried a £5 supplement so I was hoping to see a couple of good size langoustines. Unfortunately the 2 langoustines were out of the shell and not particularly large. The Sea bass was large and serves with the langoustines and shrimp sprinkled haphazardly over the top. The shrimps (proper tiny brown shrimps) seemed to add a nice earthiness to the dish. The vanilla and herb vinaigrette was very good; the vanilla was very delicate and didn’t overpower the dish. Whether it was actually a vinaigrette is open to debate, it was a chicken stock and Noilly Prat base with some garlic, herbs and vanilla. The Noilly Prat combine well with the vanilla but no identifiable herb flavour came through.

Dessert

Rachel chose (I’m almost embarrassed to say it) chocolate profiteroles which I thought were excellent but she thought were a little disappointing

My plum clafoutis with almond ice cream was a fitting end to a good meal. A small disc of very light batter with small pieces of plum throughout accompanied by (yes you guessed it) Almond ice cream.

A minor point regarding service. We were not asked once during our meal, how it was going and we had to ask a couple of times for the bill at the end of the meal.

A very enjoyable meal, I need to return to sample more of the menu!

The full menu is reproduced below

Cream of wild mushroom soup

A plate of home cured meats with artichokes, spiced pears and celeriac

Grilled quail with baby leeks, truffled creamed potatoes and meat juices

Caramelised calf’s sweetbreads with pumpkin risotto, parmesan straws and hazelnuts

Cep, foie gras and duck terrine with green beans, black truffles and brioche (supp. £5.00)

Grilled brochettes of red mullet and sardines with escabèche and tapenade

Persillade of Devon cockles and mussels with shellfish broth and basil

Crab and scallop tortelloni with cauliflower velouté and chives

Cote de boeuf with chips and béarnaise sauce, for two (supp. £5.00 p.p)

Loin and fillet of venison with parsnips, griottine cherries and port sauce

Calf’s liver with raclette Savoyarde, roast endive, truffle cream and sage

Free range chicken breast with trompettes, cocotte potatoes and tarragon

Honey glazed duck confit with lardons, coco beans, roast garlic and lavender

Roast halibut with olive oil mash, red peppers, basil and aged balsamic vinegar

Grilled sea bass with langoustines, shrimps, vanilla and herb vinaigrette (supp. £5.00)

Bouillabaisse with new potatoes, aioli and fennel croutons

Chocolate profiteroles

Assiette of fig desserts

Chocolate and mint délice with chocolate croquettes

Water melon cocktail with Champagne and mint granita

Baked vacherin with garlic, thyme, white wine and country bread

Gâteau Basque with lemon curd ice cream and blueberries

Prune and armagnac ice cream or strawberry sorbet

Plum clafoutis with almond ice cream

Cheese from the board (supp. £5.00)

[Andy Lynes]

I had the profiteroles last time I was there, I thought they were wonderful.

What is the current menu price, has it gone up from £25.00 yet? Do you think they are likely to get a michelin star in January based on this meal?

[Scottf]

When Sam and I went a few months ago it was £27.50. I now believe it's £30 in line with Chez Bruce and The Glasshouse.

[Matthew Grant]

It is now £30 per head. I'm undecided on the second star at the moment.

Silly things lacking such as pre starters/desserts might prevent it (although other posters have indicated that they receievd these).

It was undoubtedly a good meal but with a couple of minor flaws. It left me wanting to go again which is never a bad thing.

[Andy Lynes]

It'll be their first star if they get it.

[Matthew Grant]

Whoops! I thought they already had one! In that case it should definitely be getting its first! Maybe not quite 'Haute' enough at the moment (if you know what I mean ) for two.

I wonder what the first star will do to prices? From £25 to £30 seems like quite a hike in a short period of time.

[Andy Lynes]

I believe they make those sort of decisions as a group of 3 restaurants, so although Trompette appears to have gone up quickly, Glasshouse and Chez Bruce's prices have increased over a much longer period of time. My guess is that £30.00 might be the limit for the moment for the sort of areas the restaurants operate in. I think it's a more realistic price for the sort of food they turn out at all three places, at £25.00 it was a bit of a bargin (compared to the rest of London at least).

[Andy Lynes]

Looking at the AA restaurant guide yesterday and saw that Trompette, along with it's 3 rosettes, has been awarded London restaurant of the year and wine restaurant of the year. Not bad for a relative newcomer.

[Basildog]

out of interest, i actually read the aa guide the other day, and found the stat that 90% of there listed places are 1 or 2 rosette.so this makes La Trompette in the top 10 %...

[clb]

Another first-time visitor to La Trompette. Another good report (this place, The Capital and St John must be about the most frequently written-up restaurants in London).

The menu's not changed much since Matthew's visit three weeks ago. We were a party of four and duplicated several of his choices.

It seemed to me from the starters on that the restaurant was well above the standard I would expect from a London neighbourhood place - partly a question of presentation, mainly one of taste. The pumpkin risotto came inside a tiny pumpkin with the sweetbreads perched on top. I make squash risotto quite often but this dish showed that I've still got a way to go. The persillade of Devon cockles and mussels with shellfish broth and basil, which I was expecting to be in a large bowl, came as a grid of individual cockles and mussels, each covered in a thin, crunchy layer of persillade and accompanied with an espresso cup of broth. Deconstructed fish soup. The truffled creamed potatoes with the grilled quail were particularly appreciated.

But the stand-out dish was definitely the cote de boeuf; something which I would never have ordered without having read reports here. I've never eaten such good steak; I was sort of expecting such a large slab of protein to be boring but each mouthful was different. Perfectly seasoned, too. One thing which interests me: is it served in the classic New York steakhouse manner (as must be obvious, I've never been to a NYC steakhouse)? The waiter presents the massive raw chunk of meat and briefly - and pretty inaudibly: the restaurant's noisy - describes how it will be cooked. The steak then returns,sliced, in a copper dish and is distributed between the two people who've ordered it. With it are tiny, sweet shallots, a small bunch of watercress, some spinach (underneath the meat), a red wine sauce and, separately, a bowl of thin frites and a smaller bowl of bearnaise.

The desserts are definitely inferior to the starters and main courses. We had an assiette of fig desserts (OK; I tried a little of some fairly good fig ice cream and a baked fig which had had a little too much rosewater poured over it), a Gateau Basque with lemon curd ice cream and blueberries (goodish egg and vanilla gateau but too heavy after the preceding courses; not enough tang to the ice or the blueberries to counteract the tendency to stodge), a prune and armagnac ice cream (I wish I'd read the criticisms of that on this thread first) and - the winner by a mile - a white peach sorbet.

The restaurant is, as noted, a bit too noisy and also a bit too hot but these are trivial complaints. The atmosphere is, for me, ideal: good lighting, elegant but not look-at-me design, staff who really know what they're doing.

The £30 set menu still feels like a good deal but, of course, by the time we'd had a half-bottle of Leflaive Montagny and a bottle of Dolcetto, paid a few £5 supplements, bought water, coffee and paid 12.5% service, the total was something over £220.

I'd go again in a flash.

clb

[SamanthaF]

Thanks CLB

A great write up!