St John

[Jinmyo]

Adam, they did the pizza.

They actually did the pizza.

Bourdain liked it.

[g.johnson]

Adam, there's also some weirdness in Edinborough. The fried Mars bars, haggis. They even fry a pickled egg.

All fried products are as nothing in he face of the mighty Edinburgh Deep Fried Pizza. Think Frozen McCain's, dipped in batter and deep fried (batter keeps the topping on).

Andy thanks. I thought "Cheap" and "Fucks" may be involved.

Do Edinburgh chippers do macaroni cheese pie* or is that an Aberdeen speciality?

*Mac and cheese in a pie case, deep fried. No batter: this is a delicate dish.

[Adam Balic]

Prof. Sam. - Yes indeed. And Baked Bean versions as well. Pie crust is groovy though, free standing coffins - very medieval.

Jinmyo - figures. The guy is a self confessed potential puppy eater, so there you go really.

[ngatti]

Had my fourth meal at St John last night, with Tony and Nick, and I was reminded why I like this place.

It had been suggested that Saturday night would be less busy than weekdays, but by 8 or 8.30 the place was very full. Service was pleasant, helpful and timely throughout.

I started with smoked sprats and horseradish sauce. Just that, no frills, no bits of coloured veg to decorate the plate. This was a taste from my childhood, and it was perfect. I suppose it could be argued that all the restaurant does is buy the smoked sprats, make some horseradish sauce and stick it on a plate at £6 a time (I remember the debate about pea pods!!!) but that's fine with me.

I was tempted by the lamb special (but that was for three people) but I settled for another special of poached chicken and leek. The chicken was tender and moist, with a good texture, but overall I found this blander than I expected. I thought the leek would raise its flavour, but if anything it just blended into a mild, albeit pleasantly flavoured, monochromatic dish.

The dessert was a killer rhubarb crumble (brilliant) with custard (lovely taste but I prefer it barely falling off the spoon).

We had a bottle or more of Viognier white, followed by one or two bottles of house red. Pleasant drinking.

The discussion was lovely, the company pleasant, the atmosphere relaxed, and the food excellent. Yes, I reminded myself why I like St John so much 

Well after being pleasantly urged by jinmyo to "eat guts" on this trip, I find that i did...literally. The pork chit'lins were pretty tasty. These seem to have been marinades and char-grilled. The charred grill marks giving a very pleasant flavor to the meat. I've never eaten chit'lin and was surprised at how meaty and tender these were. Some proper mustard and a side of mashed complete the dish.

For apps I felt that i coudn't pass on the roasted marrow (a house specialty). Four very generous marrow bones, with toast and nicely flavored parsley and shaved shallot in a light vinaigrette. Yum!!. I also sampled the sprats and found them quite tasty.

Dessert was a slab of Lancahire with an eccles cake (pie?). Also tasty.

Great meal!! Thanks Tony, and thank-you Martin!!

Nick

[Tonyfinch]

The sprats and horseradish were excellent, but a bit of a salt hit. I could feel my blood pressure rising.

I had Roast Middlewhite with Turnips. The pork was moist and tasty but the turnips came on the same plate swimming in the water they'd been cooked in-giving the whole dish a wet, school dinnerish kind of quality.I'd have preferred the turnips, which were sweet and pleasant, to have been drained.

I've had fresher Eccles Cake with the superb Lancashire cheese before now. I suppose it depends how soon out of the oven you get them. The combination still makes a wonderful dessert though.

Saturday night saw this restaurant full(or almost) and buzzing. It obviously has a unique appeal which must be to do with its minimalist and stark approach. What you see is definitely what you get here-no surprises no frills. Could it work anywhere other than Britain I wonder?

Edited February 19, 2003 by Tonyfinch (log)

[Andy Lynes]

Waiting for Fergus :

huge portion of Welsh Rarebit with Worcestershire sauce, two very good coffees and a coke in the bar whilst hanging aroung for Fergus to arrive to discuss an upcoming eGullet event. I thought it was 2.00pm, he thought it was 3.00pm, I had to leave before he turned up. The upshot of which is a return match over lunch next week, which I will report back on.

Rarebit was excellent, very mustardy, peppery and of course cheesey on superb home baked bread. Service was stand-offish until they found out I was there to see Fergus, when they couldn't have been more helpful. I love the bar area and was only disappointed by the lack of the chitterling sarnie on the menu.

[La Niña]

Saturday night saw this restaurant full(or almost) and buzzing. It obviously has a unique appeal which must be to do with its minimalist and stark approach. What you see is definitely what you get here-no surprises no frills. Could it work anywhere other than Britain I wonder?

One can only pray.

[Matthew Grant]

Paid my first visit today. Popped into the bar, Welsh Rarebit as described by Andy - very good and an excellent rhubarb crumble with custard. Agree on the service though, difficult to attract a waiters attention in the bar area. Good value I will now return at some point for dinner.

[Andy Lynes]

Extraordinary lunch yesterday with Fergus, his dad plus various people dropping by the table including Trevor Gulliver, and Dan Lepard who is back baking at St John and for the soon to open St John Bread and Wine. An extremely convivial time was had by all. As I was a guest, I won't pass judgement on the meal but here's what I ate :

Skate, Green Sauce and Bread

Chitterlings and Parsnips

Blancmange, Apple and Shortbread

[Akiko]

Each time I go, I'm even more impressed.

We went the other night (Mr. Akiko, my friend who is the chef of Ann Sather's in Chicago, and I) and while I am definitely a meat enthusiast and what Fergus is famous for is the meat... but with his vegetables, I'd happily be a vegetarian.

The salad and the mash and the turnips, were all incredible. And that was just our sides! The last time I was there we had the globe artichoke which was also incredible.

For starters, Chris had snails wrapped in bacon on a skewer (bacon was lovely, couldn't really taste the snail but was a nice texture), Carol had garlic soup (very nice), and I had the marrowbone salad, which in my opinion was the best out of the three.

Then Chris had the bath chop (slices of deboned pigs head wrapped in the tongue and panfried), Carol had the roast beef on dripping toast (the name alone makes my mouth water!) and I had the leg of lamb. I was a little worried about the bath chop but it was actually excellent. Super rich, parts of it like crackling and other parts as fatty as bacon... maybe fattier. Everything was very good, perfect roast beef (nice and rare, my mother in law would have been horrified but I think roast beef should be very rare), some of the spiciest (almost like wasabi) english mustard I've ever had, and very tender roulettes of lamb with the crispiest crust.

And since we couldn't let Carol leave the UK without having spotted dick, we had that (lovely custard cream with flecks of vanilla to pour on top) and an eccles cake. That lancashire cheese they serve with the eccles cake is absolutely the perfect complement.

Just writing about it is making me want to go back...

[La Niña]

Waahhh....I want to go, and with you, Akiko. Waaah.

[Akiko]

Nina, its easy, Come visit our side of the pond!

[La Niña]

I will, I will. I've only been to St. John's once - but it's the meal I think about the most. (Thank you, Simon!)

[Simon Majumdar]

My pleasure Dollface

S

[Adam Balic]

I will, I will.  I've only been to St. John's once - but it's the meal I think about the most.  (Thank you, Simon!)

Oh God, did he do that thing of his, where he tucks the napkin down his trousers and pulls it out his fly and pretend to be an elephant? Just try to forget about it.

[La Niña]

Oh, I thought that was the "tongue thing."

[Simon Majumdar]

Oh, I thought that was the "tongue thing."

What's the difference between St John & Simon?

With Simon, Tongue is always on the menu

Ahem!

S

[Simon Majumdar]

Very good meal at St J's last night. They had a great starter of confit chicken necks on as a special. if any one is going soon, I can really recommend it

S

[Andy Lynes]

Fergus Henderson joins us for a Q and A next week, 26 and 27 March. Full announcement will be posted by the end of the day.

[macrosan]

Tell him to bring some of those chicken necks for us to taste.

[Charlene Leonard]

Very good meal at St J's last night. They had a great starter of confit chicken necks on as a special.  if any one is going soon, I can really recommend it

S

i'm going to St.J tonight - what are chicken's necks like? I imagine them to be quite rubbery, not too sure why though

[Simon Majumdar]

Not in the slightest rubbery

They were crunchy, wondefully greasy and had quite a lot of meat with them.

There were four big chunks of them on the plate with a sharply dressed salad

Excellent

S

[Charlene Leonard]

crunchy, wondefully greasy

sold.

[Jon Tseng]

Good gig on getting Fergus in Andy!

So those long an tortuous meals you had to endure to sort it out were worth it then?

Have had the chicken necks in the bar - were ok but mouth-puckeringly salty (think my ones were deep fried, not confit)

J

[Charlene Leonard]

no chicken necks. Excellent hare saddle with parsnips. Apple and Calvados sponge pudding a little disappointing though