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Brawn


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The new baby sister to still hot wine bar and eatery Terriors

This new kid on the block is wowing nearly every one of the London critics and bloggers, so I thought to visit to see what all the fuss was about.

Now I don't know East London very well at all, in fact our only visits have been to various restaurants on about four different occasions. So we set the sat nav and relaxed back. Of some confusion is that the location is (by various people) listed as Bethnal Green, Hackney, or Shoreditch. All, except Bethnal Green, (on a visit to Viajante), are areas unknown to me so I trusted the sat nav to get us there.

It did not,49 got us to an apartment block about a hundred yards from the premises, and only a quick phone call managed to get to it as the frontage is pretty non descript for a restaurant.

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Set over two ground floor rooms, the better one being the kitchen room, its fairly low key and stripped back, but non the less welcoming, a buzzy feel in evidence. Our French waitress was one of a few French wait staff who were pleasant and efficient.

The menu is varied with headings as follows. Taste Tickler (more tea vicar) Pig, Plancha, Raw, Slow Cook, Pudding and Cheese. I am not sure as how to define the restaurant as the eclectic dishes on offer embrace, France, Italy, Spain and good old Blighty.

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I thought the bread to be excellent "Hackney Wild Sourdough" from e5 bakehouse. Water was free and replenished frequently.

Now at this juncture unknown to me I was to eat on my own, as my wife did not feel very well at all. I was forewarned, as she fealt unwell in the car on the way there, but as she has the constitution of an Ox, I mistakenly thought it would pass.

Allowing me to order I erred on the side of caution and tried four dishes first and stuck to a couple of glasses of wine rather than order a bottle, as we normally do.

Pork Rillette (£6) was a very generous serving, easily enough for two. The taste and consistancy instantly reminded me of Rillette de Oie (goose) that we always seek out on our now sadly rare visits to the South of France. No need to butter your bread, this moist melting mixture slips down a treat. I liked this a lot. The sharp, sour, crunchy cornichons a welcome diversion to the squidgy pork.

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Prawns, Chilli, and Gremolata (£8) Were as plump as you could wish for. Perhaps not the best I have tasted but never the less still up there. My wife would normally wolf these down, her favourite seafood eat, shame she was poorly. The chilli was just about noticable, mild gremolata not taking away the delicate sea fresh prawn taste. Fine, really fine.

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A star dish next Spatchcock'd Quail (£8) as good a dish that you will taste in this small tasting plate format. I am biased however, I love Quail, and this rendition was excellent. Easy to overcook, this was totally spot on, moist, melting, "quaily" with its distinct aroma. Visually exciting with the pomeganate and pistachio, I could have eaten two, no problem.

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Pigs Trotters, Sauce Gribiche (£7)

Now I realise you have to be brave or foolish to order pigs trotter. And whilst I was not expecting Koffmannesque quality. I did expect the food to carry on in a similar vein as before.

Wrong. Oh how wrong. As soon as this appeared at the table, my wife upped and left for the loo, the look and smell of this dish tipping her over the edge.

I hated this dish, its taste, its texture. The gelatinous gunge that I thought had some nuggets of meat inside made me feel queasy, and I can eat for England, trust me. Barely three tiny morsels of meat and a mouthfull of sauce and that was that with this horror.

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Guys do yourself a big favour, take this off your menu. This is the worst dish that I have eaten in at least the last decade. Perhaps even ever.

No one asked why a virtually full plate of food was returned to the kitchen. It was not taken off the bill. It should have been, but I could not be bothered to make a fuss, especially as my wife was poorly. More than a shame really.

To a degree I can understand why so many people are enamoured with Brawn. In parts its superb, in small parts its pants. If it were local I would like to give it another go, as the menu reads really well, the staff are nice, and the pricing is accessable. Whats not to like really, except that trotters dish.

The above four dishes and a couple of glasses of house wine about £45.

Go give it a try, just don't try the trotter dish.

"So many places, so little time"

http://londoncalling...blogspot.co.uk/

@d_goodfellow1

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Trotter is not everyone's foot of pig but not liking it is no reason to ask for your money back. I would say it's like andouillete; you need to know what you're getting into before you order it.

My mother has eaten trotter for years and what you got sounds right to me. It is horrible I agree but it was correct.

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Ah, yes, andouillete.

I worked on the basis that I am a man, therefore I like sausages. And these were bang on for "terroir" as I bought them in Cambrai. I think the vilest thing I've ever put in my mouth.

John Hartley

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Agree. At least in the US, not liking a dish is not a reason to be compensated in any way. If a piece of fish is off or if your (reasonably expensive) steak is not cooked properly, you can get the dish refired but not if you didn't like what you ordered.

Its virtually a given in any good restaurant in the UK, or indeed in most parts of the world, and especially in the US, to at least ask "why" a near full plate of food is returned to a kitchen. Indeed any restaurant worth its salt is failing in its duty to do otherwise, for various reasons of course.

This was a very poor show on the restaurants part.

Having eaten Koffmanns famous trotter dish, which I found was sublime, this rendition was a shocker in comparison.

"So many places, so little time"

http://londoncalling...blogspot.co.uk/

@d_goodfellow1

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David I've eaten a similar dish to the one you had here, in a nice Paris restaurant. A sort of fried pattie of picked over trotter stuff, mostly gunky gelatinous skin, bits of tendon and the odd bit of "meat". So to me it looks fairly representative of that French rustic style of cooking and in keeping with the other dishes you were served. It wouldn't be fair to compare it to Koffmans signature trotter dish, which I have to admit I've never tried but is so famous I could probably describe in detail - unctuous deboned pigs foot stuffed with light chicken mousse and morels with a rich sauce, right? Can't really set it against this then can we now?!

The quail dish looks really good though, I had a thought about combining quail with pomegranate a couple of weeks ago but never got round to it. The addition of pistachios sounds wonderful, any clue to how they did the sauce for that dish?

Btw I quite enjoyed the trotter dish I had in Paris, but then I like all that sloppy stuff!

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I will never make it to the restaurant but I am definitely going to try and recreate the shrimp dish. The goose rillettes look wonderful - I just looked up some recipes and have it on "the list". Thanks for the report.

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David I've eaten a similar dish to the one you had here, in a nice Paris restaurant. A sort of fried pattie of picked over trotter stuff, mostly gunky gelatinous skin, bits of tendon and the odd bit of "meat". So to me it looks fairly representative of that French rustic style of cooking and in keeping with the other dishes you were served. It wouldn't be fair to compare it to Koffmans signature trotter dish, which I have to admit I've never tried but is so famous I could probably describe in detail - unctuous deboned pigs foot stuffed with light chicken mousse and morels with a rich sauce, right? Can't really set it against this then can we now?!

The quail dish looks really good though, I had a thought about combining quail with pomegranate a couple of weeks ago but never got round to it. The addition of pistachios sounds wonderful, any clue to how they did the sauce for that dish?

Btw I quite enjoyed the trotter dish I had in Paris, but then I like all that sloppy stuff!

Your right of course, and I thought someone would pick up on it. The Koffmann dish is world famous and perhaps world class, a country mile away from the one at Brawn.

With regard to the Quail sauce, I'm not sure really. Perhaps an emulsion of olive oil, lemon juice, and the cooking jus from the quail?

I wish I could reproduce it myself, sadly I,m just a punter, not a chef. Thats why we spend a small fortune getting these guys to cook for us :biggrin:

"So many places, so little time"

http://londoncalling...blogspot.co.uk/

@d_goodfellow1

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