Racine

[Andy Lynes]

Sounds great!!!! (Oh, the sarcastic wit of the man is unsurpassed).

[tony h]

I had lunch there last thursday and a fine lunch it was too.  saffron & wild garlic mousse w wild mushrooms.  The mousse was impossibly light & melted on contect with your tongue.  The wild mushrooms were a bit of a distraction - the texture was similar - something with a bit of bite or crunch may have been more appropriate.

Road rabbit followed (the waiter pushed that).  It came with perfect mash, green beans & bacon(all excellent) - the rabbit was more OK than great (a bit tastelss) .

puds - liquorice ice cream.  It certainly wasn't lacking in punch - made me feel a bit like I'd just had a puff on a ciggy - similar contraction to the throat.

Approx 27 quid - which is a bit ott for a simple lunch with no wine (for another fiver I could have gone to Capital).  There is a set lunch menu which I'll try this week & report back.

(Andy - when your next slobbering over HH & cupid's all aflutter, can you suggest he tries adding some lime syrup as an accompanyment to liquorice ice cream - it will (should/may?) transform the dish into something quite stunning & other worldly - in humble opinion, of course).

[Andy Lynes]

Hey, sounds gre...... oh I can't be bothered.

BLH, I'll mention the lime thing to Henry if i see him when I go.

[Gavin Baxter]

Road rabbit followed (the waiter pushed that).  

I assume that this is a typo...or is there really a recipe for "pavement pizza"

[tony h]

should be roast (but its a close run thing)

[circeplum]

went last night.  thought it was quite nice - wouldn't raise even an eyebrow in france - but wouldn't rush back.  i'd use it if it were in my neighborhood thanks to the gorgeousness and hospitality of the staff.  

it was full of restaurant critics: tracey mcloud and caroline stacey from the independent and aa gill plus blonde who took notes.  was gratified to notice that aa is fighting a losing rearguard action against going bald.  for someone as famously vain as he, this must cause him untold anguish. tee hee.

[Andy Lynes]

What was your opinion on what you ate?

[circeplum]

potted shrimps (ecrivisses grises, i think) with poilane bread - strangely sweet and totally solid.  almost had to slice them. lots of spice: mace?

smoked duck salad - very tiny portion of rather ordinary meat.  good beans and excellent dressing.

special of quail in lemon sauce with girolles - sensitively handled birds, not at all dry.  gritty mushrooms.  glorious dauphinoise potatoes.

cornfed (?) chicken with lentils, creamed spinach - nice if unremarkable apart from a sensuously tarragony herb butter.

montblanc - great meringue topped with wormy threads of creme de castagne.  far too sweet.

the butter - echire - was sumptously, addictively good. i ate far, far too much of it on rather inauthentic baguettes (tasted a bit delice de france if you ask me.)

andy - sorry this isn't as comprehensive as the magnificent cabrales but i'm allegedly working.

[Andy Lynes]

That will do me fine, thanks for taking the time.

[mrshugget]

Sounds....not so great!

[tony h]

Just had lunch there again today - its very handy for work.  Tried the set lunch menu.

Starters - I had the rabbit rillettes (sp) - a bit fatty but mostly OK.  My colleague had the poached eggs w anchovies - looked great.

Mains - both had roast monkfish w artichoke, broad beans, mash & excellet red wine reduction.  Very good indeed.  

No wine as not allowed to drink during the day.

So for 12.50 pounds for 2 courses I think it was pretty good - frankly - better than the a la carte lunch from last week.

[Andy Lynes]

Had a highly enjoyable 12th wedding anniversary dinner at Racine last night. I will write a full review soon, but for now :

We sampled 6 of the 9 starters between the 2 of us thanks to a tasting plate courtesy of Henry. This included: the pot de crevettes au madre (which had been turned out onto the plate and were quite seperate and not too sweet I didn't think so perhaps they have been through a bit if a re think since circleplum had them); the pate de foie de volaille, made to Henry's Mum's recipe and as served at his Dad's much missed Brighton restaurant Le Grandgousier, quite the best coarse pate I have had; the bayonne ham with a wonderfully mustardy celeriac remoulade and some smoked duck with anchovy dressing. This was served with a pot of excellent cornichon and some sea salt.

I then had the garlic and saffron mousse which was the highlight of the meal for me and reason enough by itself to pay the place a visit, whilst Gill had a massive salade lyonnaise full of black pudding, lentils, bacon, anchovy etc etc which she forced herself to leave some of in order to make room for a generous bowlful of Marmite Dieppoise, a stew of cod, mussels, clams, squid with cream, white wine and we think pastis and brandy. I had the tete de veau, served with a large slice of brain, new potatos and the braising liquor.

Desserts were a slightly to firm Macaronnade de peche and the Mont Blanc.

With house champagne, a bottle of Australian Chardonnay, a glass of Jurancon and coffee, the bill was around £90.00.

Service was very good, but could have been more switched on when it came to wine. If they have a sommelier, I didn't see him or her.

[Andy Lynes]

Tracy MacLeod liked the place by the looks of it going back to my roots

[John Whiting]

From today's Guardian, here is Matthew Fort's take on Racine. He could hardly be more enthusiastic. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4473619,00.html

Edit: No, the web site says it was August 3, although I don't remember it.

[macrosan]

Racine is Henry Harris's new restaurant, opened in June 2002, at 239 Brompton Road, Knightsbridge. I had dinner there yesterday in the company of SteveP and Scott and Samantha F, a booking made at a couple of days notice because of Steve's late change of travel plans. My wife (in the style of Groucho Marx) always says that you shouldn't book at a restaurant that has tables available because there must be a (bad) reason for that. In this case, my wife was right.

The dining room is plain and bright, with a row of tables along each side wall and a row along the centre. The tables are tiny and cramped together. I arrived first and it required two waiters to shift the table so that I could barely squeeze into the bench seat on the wall. When Steve arrived, and wanted to sit beside me, the staff seemed totally nonplussed as to how to move the tables in such a way that he could get into his seat without also moving the people at the adjacent table. It wasn't easy. Throughout the course of the meal, the staff had to continuously reshuffle items on the table to make way for a bottle of water, wine, fresh glasses and so on. A waiter had huge problems pouring wine for our neighbours due to lack of space, and they fared no better at our table. They do, fortunately, employ waiters with very long arms and relatively steady hands.

The standard of service was amateurish. Cutlery was wrongly placed after ordering, dishes were wrongly allocated. Dishes were inaccurately or inadequately described. The waiter at one point excused a misunderstanding by explaining that he was French. When I ordered coffee, I asked if they had a cafetiere, which the (French) waiter had never heard of. I then asked if the coffee was filter, to which he replied yes. I was served with espresso. In fact he didn't seem to understand much of the French spoken to him either. There was much audible clattering and breaking at the station beside the kitchen.

The menu is small but varied. I ordered Smoked Duck as a starter, later to be told it was unavailable, so I switched to Baked Tomato in Basil with Brioche. This proved to be an excellent choice, a good quality tomato, not over-cooked, with a light and well-balanced sauce.

The main course was a huge problem in three parts. Both Steve and I ordered Dover Sole. Steve carefully asked the waiter if the sole was grilled, explaining that he has a wheat allergy and so didn't want it sauteed in flour. The wiater confirmed that it was grilled, and reconfirmed it twice when pressed by Steve. When it appeared, it had obviously been sauteed in flour and had to be returned and a new one cooked. This followed a prior fiasco, when a waiter came to our table and informed us that there had been a "problem cooking one of the soles" so they had thrown it away and were starting again. At least the waiter apologised for the delay. I recall that the other three at the table opined that they had overcooked it, while I expressed the opinion that they discovered the fish was off. When my fish arrived and I tasted it, I was inclined to confirm my theory. Dover sole has a very distinctive taste, and I love it. My fish was flavourless bordering on off; it had that slightly wet texture that fish acquires when it is less than fresh; it certainly did not have the distinctive dover sole flavour. The menu described the sauce as Beurre Montpellier (sic with two Ls) which the waiter had described as a butter sauce with herbs. In fact it was tartare sauce, which was mild and pleasant. Just for once, I wished it was one of those ugly, strong and sour tartare sauces that you often get, because that would have flavoured the fish.

I ordered an extra side of Roast Vegetables. These were awful, consisting of beetroot, parsnip (I think) and maybe another unidentified vegetable, all blackened, undercooked, hard and tasteless.

My dessert was Liquorice Ice Cream. Dreadful. There are many styles of ice cream which may validly claim the name, but this was none of them. It was an icy mess, so cold that my mouth was numb after three mouthfuls, almost entirely flavourless, with the texture of crushed ice, swimming in a sea of what looked and tasted like skimmed milk.

The espresso coffe was good. We started with a white wine (Montrachet M Collin 98) which was superb at £38. Then a Pauillac Lynch Bages 78 (I think) at £95 which was pleasant, but which SteveP pronounced not great.

The food came to £35 per person including tip.

I was surprised and disappointed that after the two fiascos with the dover sole, there was no particularly pointed apology, no gesture such as perhaps free coffee or liqueur. I was not surprised to be told that Henry Harris was not present that evening (Sunday). Racine has been open only a few months, the waiting staff are raw and poorly trained, there are obviously big problems in the kitchen, yet Harris feels he can have the night off. Based on this experience, he's wrong, and I can't help but believe that this place will fail unless he gets his act together very soon.

[jeremysco]

That must be close to your worst food experience ever.

I just hate that when it happens. The worst meal I ever had was at The Admiralty a couple of years back. All four of us had an remittingly dire experience from start to finish and paid through the nose for it. Despite (some) good reviews since I just cant bring myself to even go in the building again.

Poor, poor Macrosan.

[Scottf]

Racine has opened to plenty of plaudits from reviewers but I have to agree with Macrosan that it wasn't an impressive meal. I wasn't as offended as he, it was just so average.

The service bordered on comical at times and nearly all of the staff appeared to have difficulties in understanding questions or relaying answers we could understand.

I wanted the Salad Lyonnaise as described by AL's review on his website.http://www.ukgourmet.com/racine.html When Steve asked what was in the salad we were told "Greens, anchovies and egg". When we asked was that it the waiter said "yes but there's a lot of egg and anchovy!"

I settled for Warm Garlic and Saffron mousse with mussel dressing. The mousse was of a good texture and was flavoursome but the mussels were particularly gritty.

For main I had Rabbit, mustard sauce and grilled bacon. I think Macrosan's got the next chain of events slightly in the wrong order but I thought they miscooked the first Sole, which is why we waited so long for mains, then presented the next one panfried which was returned. I think the other 3 dishes were probably stuck on the pass until Steve's dish was recooked as the mustard sauce was showing signs of a skin.

However the dish itself was inoffensive, the rabbit wasn't too dry, and the accompanying green beans were well cooked. The side of vegetables ordered by Macrosan looked actively offensive and I declined a taste.

Steve and I both ordered Rice pudding to finish and this was excellent. Very moreish, good al dente texture, vanillary flavour. Had a blob of fresh cream and jam too.

Had the same issue as Macrosan with the coffee, but I think by then we had been ground in to submission!

The Montrachet M Collin 98 was a pleasure to drink, whilst the Pauillac Lynch Bages 78, which was particularly woody - though cedar not oak with a hint of cassis and berries, drank much younger than its 24 years and will drink well for the next 10

So overall average food and a disappointing meal but great company

[SamanthaF]

!

the  Pauillac Lynch Bages 78, which was particularly woody -  though cedar not oak with a hint of cassis and berries, drank much younger than its 24 years and will drink well for the next 10

With a hint of lead pencil

[macrosan]

Oh yeah, I forgot about the lead pencil

...and Scott, I dodn't get the sequence of events wrong, I just deliberately wrote them in reverse sequence That's called literary style, I do believe

ed: speeling orfel twoday

[SamanthaF]

Further to Macrosan and Scott' s two penneth worth - here is mine - but I'm more pricey so mine is ten penneth worth

For starters I had the special of foie gras with a spiced pear. Pleasant but teeny weeny tiny. I've had bigger foie as a garnish! The pear was somewhat 'soggy' and I failed to detect the spice. NOT worth the £10.50 price.

I think I was the luckiest with the main, I had the confit duck with haricot beans and a red wine sauce. It was 'nice'. I don't mean that to sound trite, but I feel confident that I can repeat the dish at home. For me, I like to be impressed when I eat out so that I say "WOW - how did they do that?", or "That's good, what is in it".

For Pud I had Vanilla Icecream with Chocolate Sauce. OK. Enough said.

I was not overly offended bt the food, but I was waiting for the Candid camera crew to pop out. The language barrier was almost comical

The wines were very nice.

A very interesting evening, with very entertaining company.

[Scottf]

...and Scott, I dodn't get the sequence of events wrong, I just deliberately wrote them in reverse sequence    That's called literary style, I do believe 

Re read and noted.

[Jinmyo]

The waiter at one point excused a misunderstanding by explaining that he was French. When I ordered coffee, I asked if they had a cafetiere, which the (French) waiter had never heard of. I then asked if the coffee was filter, to which he replied yes. I was served with espresso. In fact he didn't seem to understand much of the French spoken to him either.

"We're from...France."

[macrosan]

Hey Jinny, that's amazing. That is our waiter, the tall one third from the left with the bemused expression on his face

[SamanthaF]

Hey Jinny, that's amazing. That is our waiter, the tall one third from the left with the bemused expression on his face 

Yeah - you can tell, because he is just about to drop his camera

[Steve Plotnicki]

Sorry to be late in chiming in here. I though Macrosan's recounting of the service is spot on. But it didn't offend me as much as it did him. I'm also with Scott on the food. It didn't offend me, but it was unexceptional. And I second his comments about the rice pudding which was really first class. I think the worst comment I can make about the place is that it was more a throwback to the type of French bistro/restaurant that I used to find in London pre the food revolution occuring there, then the type of place I've come to expect. It's sort of symbolic that Racine is just a few doors down from Brasserie St. Quentin. And if I wanted to eat "faux" French food we could have gone there. At least they would have done a professional job of it and the sevice and food mishaps would have been averted.

But one must give credit where credit is due and I have to say that the wine list at Racine was both well thought out, and priced well. We enjoyed a 1999 Bernard Morey Chassagne-Montrachet Morgeot which was still a bit tight and oaky, but showed some breeding. And then we followed that with a 1978 Lynch-Bages which was very well priced for a 24 year old wine. When they presented the bottle, I could hardly believe it as it looked like the label was adhered the day before. The only sign that the wine was it's age was the amount of ullage in the neck of the bottle. And as it looked, the wine was fresh, tasting at least 10 years younger. Nice wine, which grew in the glass with air. It will be more pleasurable in 7-10 years. Where it falls short, which is not atypical for the vintage is the wine was somewhat dilute. A hair or two more concentrated and it would have been a real winner. But something I would never reject a glass of if offered.

I must say that despite the choice of restaurant, the company was exemplary. Macrosan and I put on a show for Scott and Sam about how two Jewish men, one almost middle age, and one already elderly can bicker in a friendly manner. And clearly one of the evenings more enjoyable moments was when everyone was trying to describe the characteristics of the Lynch-Bages (self-inspired I might add.) It restores one's faith in humanity when one is having dinner with people who identify the characteristics of wood and other flavors, and when told that the classic traits of a Pauillac are cedar and lead pencil say "that's it, lead pencil."