Racine

[John Whiting]

I am rapidly becoming a whore for their fish soup...

As a whiting, I am rapidly becoming a fish for their . . . forget it.

[howardlong]

I suppose its a factor of what you order but other than a nice Cote Rotie from Delas I wasn't impressed - the half bottle of late harvest Tokay Pinot Gris was dull,dull,dull especially at £50+

Gavin,

what disappointed you?

the wines on offer, the prices, names you didn't know?

Given the style of restaurant, I thought the list perfectly adequate, and the markups very fair.

Scott

FWIW I would agree with you on the wine. Sure, there's not much in the fine wine department, but I was impressed for a restaurant like this. IMHO the selection includes a good selection of very acceptable mid-range options (£30-£60) and as you suggest the gouge is surprisingly relatively low.

Cheers, Howard

[howardlong]

My own final course proved to be the only disappointment. The cheeses from Patricia Michelson’s La Fromagerie were in good condition, but consisted of four narrow strips, each about three inches long. At £6.50 per serving, the mark-up must rival the wine list of a greedy hotel.

But how does a restaurant manage its cheeses if it doesn’t serve enough to turn them over smartly? The EU food laws now strangling the artisanal cheese industry require that they be kept refrigerated at a temperature which masks their flavor. For an evening’s service they may be brought up to a warmer temperature, but an individual cheese may only be thus warmed up twice. If it is not consumed by the end of the second exposure, it must be thrown away, even if it is reaching perfection (or so I was told by a catering manager). A butcher once gave me a whole wheel of Grinzola that had arrived unrefrigerated a day late. Sectioned and wrapped, it fed me magnificently from the freezer for a year.

My guess is that Racine serves so few cheese orders that they are kept refrigerated at the highest legal temperature and cut for serving into strips narrow enough to warm sufficiently by the time they reach the table. A disappointing end to a very satisfying meal – but today even in France one rarely sees a groaning cheese board whose aroma announces its trundling approach from halfway across the room. If the stern admonitions of the cheese police were justified, there wouldn’t be a dedicated cheddarast left alive!

Your comments on the cheese were precisely what I thought. Just goes to show that although the quality and supplier of the cheese may be good, the way it is served makes all the difference.

I've only once had cheese at Racine, on my first trip, and that was after I'd seen one reviewer who was 'impressed' by it. I've never bothered since. The way it's served at Racine, the cheese could just as easily have come from Sainsbury's.

I would suggest that they're in a hole of their own making. They don't turn over enough cheese because it's not served well enough to warrant many takers.

How they'd manoeuvre a cheese trolley around the tables in Racine could be interesting.

Cheers, Howard

[Gavin Convery]

FWIW I would agree with you on the wine. Sure, there's not much in the fine wine department, but I was impressed for a restaurant like this. IMHO the selection includes a good selection of very acceptable mid-range options (£30-£60) and as you suggest the gouge is surprisingly relatively low.

Looks like I chose badly then, but I'm disappointed that a £50+ wine should have been so uninspiring.

[MobyP]

Henry Harrris has a new cookbook out: A Passion for Protein (Quadrille).

From Today's Telegraph:

"Henry Harris is the chef-patron of Racine restaurant in Knightsbridge, London. He had never thought about dieting until he watched the pounds drop off his wife after she went Atkins. Harris's answer to Atkins is outrageously luxurious: it is hard to believe that starting your day with devilled kidneys (butter, cream, brandy . . .) is any contribution to weight loss. You might proceed to avocado, crab and cucumber salad for a light lunch and a veal cheeseburger in a mushroom bun followed by raspberries and cream for dinner.

It's probably just as well Harris doesn't mention the calorie content of these delectable platefuls, although he does point out the importance of regular exercise. This is the perfect gift for a recovering potatoholic. "

[Andy Lynes]

Shame its not "The Racine Cookbook". Still, I could do with losing a few pounds.

[John Whiting]

Shame its not "The Racine Cookbook".

Or (see posts above) A New Beginning.

[curlywurlyfi]

I went to Racine on Friday 10 June for a birthday lunch with my friend Godwin ("Barrister To The Stars") and his girlfriend Sarah ("Solicitor To A Charmless London Borough"). Godwin and I are both June babies and Sarah is late May so, while we pour scorn upon her as not being born in the best month ever, we graciously allow her to come along to these things.

Slightly disconcerting entrance to the room - you find yourself in a tube of red velvet - part the curtain and you're in the room - I can see this would be a good draught-excluder in the winter but on a warm Friday in June it was quite disconcerting. (Also it wasn't immediately obvious where the gap in the curtains was so there was a certain amount of pawing at the cloth in a slightly frenzied and claustrophobic manner.)

Opened with a glass of champagne, and after a certain amount of horse-trading over who would have what - the menu really is astoundingly comprehensive, and I could have ordered five things from each bit, which never ever happens - ordered a South African sauvignon blanc from the winelist and got on with it.

Sarah had the chilled crab + cucumber soup. this was beautifully presented, with an ice cube holding a spot of lobster oil floating in the centre. Delicious, rich crabby flavour, hint of tomato.

Godwin (because Sarah wanted the pate too and he buckled to her will) had chicken liver pate. this came with teeny cornichons and pickled onions and was wonderful, rich, savoury, mmmm. Possibly a little un-pink, if one were being picky.

I had crab + thyme salad with chorizo and saffron mayonnaise. Stunning presentation. Huge amount of delicious white crabmeat in a tower in the centre, on a little bed of cucumber ribbons in mayo, with three pinky-orange circles of thinly-sliced chorizo at noon, four and eight o'clock, with a daub of saffron mayo in between each, sprinkled with cayenne. This, sadly, was a little disappointing - the crab was lovely, but the chorizo was a little underflavoured and the sprinkle of raw cayenne didn't integrate them well. Couldn't taste the saffron in the mayo at all.

Then mains. Sarah had the plaice in spinach + morel sauce from the set menu. Divine. Perfectly cooked fish with rich sauce, tiny morels giving almost truffly edge. Godwin had duck breast with (I think) grapefruit segments - nice, but a little dull. I had grilled rabbit with mustard sauce + smoked bacon - wonderful - rabbit (which can so often be like eating cottonwool) was juicy, sauce had real mustard bite. And of course bacon, what's not to like. Oh, Godwin and I got potatoes as well, I didn't eat mine (saving room for pudding) but he motored through his (dauphinois? can you see that things were getting a little hazy?)

Finally, puddings. Sarah + I had spied a creme caramel at the next table and so she bagged one of those, along with a glass of Muscat, so I felt I had to go elsewhere on the pudding menu and had pot de creme de vanille with pruneaux. Blimey. Clog those arteries in one. But delicious. And home-marinated prunes had real kick. However, her creme caramel was amazing - ethereal, wobbly, gentle - sigh. Wished I'd had that. Godwin had cheese and a glass of Muscat also, I had a couple of espressos and another glass of Sauvignon, then we threw caution out the door and ordered another half bottle. yikes.

So, irritatingly, the May baby won every course (yes, her fish was better than my rabbit). But god, it was good. All of it. Even the disappointing crab was delicious by normal standards. And professional service, and happy chefs (you have to pass the kitchen on the way to the loos). Slightly older clientele, though - we were the youngest people in there, at 35.

Eventually at about 5pm when they started having staff dinner in the corner we felt we'd better make tracks. Total including service for three a la carte with three glasses champagne, two and a half bottles of wine + one glass + two glasses pudding wine, coffee, water + general exemplary looking after (oh and the best baguette I've had in London) was £70 a head, and we reeled out into the late afternoon sunshine well contented.

[howardlong]

...Blimey. Clog those arteries in one... three glasses champagne, two and a half bottles of wine + one glass + two glasses pudding wine...

...and very handy for Racine is my gym (Aquilla) almost nextdoor to work off that boozy lunch ;-)

Great review, have to agree with you on your summing up. A wonderful antedote to the toursit traps of the area. I hadn't ever really thought too much about the age of the clientele, but in retrospect you're right.

Cheers, Howard

[oldschooltie]

...Blimey. Clog those arteries in one... three glasses champagne, two and a half bottles of wine + one glass + two glasses pudding wine...

...and very handy for Racine is my gym (Aquilla) almost nextdoor to work off that boozy lunch ;-)

Great review, have to agree with you on your summing up. A wonderful antedote to the toursit traps of the area. I hadn't ever really thought too much about the age of the clientele, but in retrospect you're right.

Cheers, Howard

anyone up for an egullet meal at Racine?

not sure how the logistics would work (room at the back isn't exactly wonderful), but could finish by watching Howard work (some of) it off in the gym. Or join in. Or maybe not.

[Andy Lynes]

That is an excellent idea. I've mentioned it to Henry Harris a number of times in the past and then for one reason or another it hasn't happened, so lets try and make it happen this time around. I will be free from mid July onwards.

[Suzi Edwards]

count me in. should be back in blighty by then.

[howardlong]

That is an excellent idea. I've mentioned it to Henry Harris a number of times in the past and then for one reason or another it hasn't happened, so lets try and make it happen this time around. I will be free from mid July onwards.

Definitely up for that. Whether I make it to the gym afterwards is another matter. I suppose they could grease the door frames to squeeze me in.

[MobyP]

What would maximum numbers be?

[Andy Lynes]

Probably 6 or 8 in the main room, more in the back room. Lets see who wants to come and when and then I can speak to Henry about it.

[Jon Tseng]

sounds good

J

[Stigand]

I'd be up for it - embarassed to say I've never been to Racine but would love to go.

[Andy Lynes]

I spoke to Henry this evening. The maximum table size in the main dining room is 6. The back room will hold 12 around a central table or 14 in a horeshoe configuration. Henry would compose a set menu for us. Minimum spend would be £1,200 (including service) as that is what the tables would make on a usual night. That would mean £100 a head if there were 12 of us or £85.00 for 14. Under these conditions, I would have to insist on taking full payment in advance.

I haven't gone into further details as yet in terms of what we would get for our money, and although I know Henry quite well, I wouldn't want to make any promises about doing any deals. Henry is away the first 2 weeks of August, so the end of July would be quite a good time, or later in August. Alternatively, if holiday arrangements become a problem we could move it back to September.

[Jonathan Day]

We had gone to a party in South Kensington and wanted something to eat before returning home. I called Racine. Was there a table for two available? The person on the other end was almost inaudible, given the background noise, but I finally worked out that they had one table left.

We had a pleasant meal, though a light one: I had the crab/cucumber soup and the brains with capers, my wife a ballotine of foie gras and then scallops. Service was attentive and efficient, and the Echiré butter noted by other posters was fresh and good.

The crab-cucumber soup was delicious, though it was better before the oil in the ice cube entered the soup, rendering it a bit stronger and spicier than I would have preferred. Calf brains with black butter and capers had a pleasant interior texture but were just a bit soggy, with no exterior crispness, and I found the caper sauce somewhat too strong and salty. The foie was unusally good and the scallops fresh and sweet, though again the flavours seemed slightly exaggerated.

It's good to know that Racine seems to be doing well. But it's entirely French, from the menu to the waiters, and I found it hard to escape the thought that, for a quick train or plane ride and about half the menu price, I could find food in France with equally good (or better) ingredients and more balanced flavours. A similar problem applies to Italian restaurants in London: "the real thing" is not that far away, and almost always better and cheaper, despite a restaurant's earnest efforts.

There are places in London that aren't trying to replicate a French bistro, but truly doing their own British thing, even though they draw on French traditions: Chez Bruce for example, or St John, though St John's culinary language is more British than French. That's something you can only find in the UK; it's something I find more and more valuable.

[Suzi Edwards]

I spoke to Henry this evening. The maximum table size in the main dining room is 6. The back room will hold 12 around a central table or 14 in a horeshoe configuration. Henry would compose a set menu for us. Minimum spend would be £1,200 (including service) as that is what the tables would make on a usual night. That would mean £100 a head if there were 12 of us or £85.00 for 14. Under these conditions, I would have to insist on taking full payment in advance.

I haven't gone into further details as yet in terms of what we would get for our money, and although I know Henry quite well, I wouldn't want to make any promises about doing any deals. Henry is away the first 2 weeks of August, so the end of July would be quite a good time, or later in August. Alternatively, if holiday arrangements become a problem we could move it back to September.

i would love to come, but i never know where i am going to be at the moment, so may i be first reserve in case someone drops out at the last minute and i am in the country?

things may change with work, so i'll let you know if i can come...

[Scott]

I spoke to Henry this evening. The maximum table size in the main dining room is 6. The back room will hold 12 around a central table or 14 in a horeshoe configuration. Henry would compose a set menu for us. Minimum spend would be £1,200 (including service) as that is what the tables would make on a usual night. That would mean £100 a head if there were 12 of us or £85.00 for 14. Under these conditions, I would have to insist on taking full payment in advance. 

I haven't gone into further details as yet in terms of what we would get for our money, and although I know Henry quite well, I wouldn't want to make any promises about doing any deals. Henry is away the first 2 weeks of August, so the end of July would be quite a good time, or later in August. Alternatively, if holiday arrangements become a problem we could move it back to September.

Andy,

I'd go on that basis, but don't tell me spend per head is an average £100 at Racine.

that's just a lie (Henry, not you ).

Edited June 22, 2004 by Scott (log)

[Andy Lynes]

I'd go on that basis, but don't tell me spend per head is an average £100 at Racine.

that's just a lie (Henry, not you ).

Its not. My assumption is that Henry can fit more covers when the back room is set up in the normal restaurant configuration than for a private booking.

[Andy Lynes]

Looks like Racine could be the place to eat grouse this season, £20.00 a pop: Grouse with Fay (although apparently Benares are doing it for £15.00, but whether that's for the whole bird or not I don't know).

[tony h]

my god - does that mean there's actually been a change to the menu at racine?

well, that is something to celebrate

[MobyP]

I've never had Grouse before - so I'm going tomorrow for lunch. Anyone up for it?