Restaurant Tom Aikens

[Andy Lynes]

Opens to the public tonight, is anyone booked in yet? Did any media type get to the launch party last night?

[tutti_frutti3]

uh oh

Edited April 30, 2003 by tutti_frutti3 (log)

[Andy Lynes]

How fascinating...

[Gary Marshall]

lots of pr in the caterer and restaurant mag.

looks v good, opted for a ramsay-esque monday to friday opening.

ambitions for 2 stars again,

(no doubt on line at caterer.com too)

cheers

gary

[Andy Lynes]

I'm excited about this restaurant, it should be a shot in the arm to a scene which seems to be dominated by the news of the ever expanding empire of Ramsay and Wareing. Wonderful cooks the pair of them, but it's nice to see an independent, and apparently ambitious enterprise being launched.

[rjs1]

This could be very good - Aikens is an interesting chef. If he's still doing his leek & foie gras terrine with celeriac (sp?), it's a wonderful summer dish.

[VivreManger]

For those not in the London loop, would you mind sharing the Aikens coordinates? In order to eat London in October, I am now gathering destinations.

[Andy Lynes]

He's at Elystan Street in Chelsea, don't know the number I'm afraid. He's meant to have a website at www.tomaikens.co.uk but nothing comes up when I try it.

[SamanthaF]

We are booked in for next week for 8.00pm. No mention was made of table turning - I like that

Will report back.

[Jon Tseng]

what's the price point?

j

[Andy Lynes]

Caterer reckons £29.50 a la carte. That won't last long. It'll be nearer £40.00 within 6 weeks I would guess. Lunch is £24.50.

[Gary Marshall]

I'm going tomorrow lunch, also v positive review from jan moir in telegraph, can't wait!

[Paul Bell]

All being well, we are going next week.

As an aside interesting that this restaurant, with relatively little publicity is getting significant interest (from us) but as far as I know Sketch is still unvisited

Paul

[dallardice]

I put a report on my visit to Sketch on 26/4 in the Sketch topic. It wasn't a detailed review, but I was surprised it didn't yield more comment.

[rjs1]

Restaurant Tom Aikens gets 3 stars from Fay Maschler in the Evening Standard today.

[Jon Tseng]

Restaurant Tom Aikens gets 3 stars from Fay Maschler in the Evening Standard today.

Is that the first time she's done that since Lolas?

[SamanthaF]

Restaurant Tom Aikens gets 3 stars from Fay Maschler in the Evening Standard today.

Is that the first time she's done that since Lolas?

I think so.

21 hours and 25 minutes until I am in TA with ScottF - can't wait!

[Andy Lynes]

Regarding the pricing, it would appear that dinner is £39.50 a head. The telegraph review says that dinner for 2 is £79.00 before wine and service and the Evening Standard says around £130.00 all in for 2. Very positive review from Fay Maschler, but she did note the amount of jelly used throughout the meal. She also mentioned the "waves of extras" sent out from the kitchen. It will interesting to find out if everyone gets those, or just famous critics.

[Scottf]

She also mentioned the "waves of extras" sent out from the kitchen. It will interesting to find out if everyone gets those, or just famous critics.

Just been discussing the very same with Sam. Will let you know in the morning

[Gary Marshall]

Had lunch yesterday at tom aikens.

On arrival i was slightly perturbed to see building work still continuing but thankfully the interior is complete.

I've not seen fay maschlers review, but jan moir's i think did give the impression of a very comfortable 'proper' restaurant, lots of nice linen,table skirts, glasses etc and indeed all these are present but the anouska hemple designed interior is, well a bit 80's. It's all dark wood, black chairs and very minimal, not what i was expecting at all (for some reason i was expecting something a bit more cossetting like hibiscus). It also looks pretty much exactly like guellers in leeds, and i think the decor there has been a big part of their much publicised problems, but anyway la hempel has designed more restaurants than me so we'll see, but give me j sheeky's anyday.

there's a 3 course set lunch with coffee for £24.50 (plus 12.5% service) which looked good as i spied dishes coming out, 2 choices for each course, but as i was being treated we plumped for the a la carte which was £39.50 incl coffee but sans optional 12.5% service

Amuses were shooters of a bright green snail soup, good.

the menu (in a blackbinder) is headlined by the principle ingredient i had LANGOUSTINES which were roast langoustines with braised pork belly,chervil sauce, artichoke puree, truffle ravioli. it was 3 langoustines on a little nuggets of pork with the raviloi on top, it was technically all very good and satisfying but not amazing, saucing is very light, and as i get excitied by seeing sauce spoons i was diappointed not be able to put it to good use!

my colleague had WILD SALMON marinated with beetroot and orane with caviar, dill and beetroot leaf saldad. his rationale for ordering was he was (edit)not (!)a fan of beetroot and wanted to see if a decent chef could change his mind, he didn't but the speed at which it was woolfed down suggested it was ok.

Although i toyed with the PIGS HEAD, and sounded great, it was served with brains 2 ways, i know that's a plus for many, but with my 'no brains, no testicles' rule, i demurred and went for the PIGEON which was steamed with thyme, chestnut veloute and cannelloni, soft lettuce. (incidentally the first pigeon i've fancied since been put off it at the fat duck) i can't do this dish justice as my memory .......fades but it was pigeon in a varity of forms seared, confited, braised, sausage, it was damn fine and has restored my faith in pigeons! Colleague had SEA BASS which again disapeared before i could get my fork into it.

Decent french cheeses follwed (£10 supplement) and in the interests of thorough research for my egullet friends i partook of desert which was APPLE an apple filo with almonds and green apple sorbet. a tower of filo and apple, quite light and again good.

the wine list is good and the amiable sommelier gearoid devaney was helpful. we had a glass of pol roger nv to start, half a didier daugenau pouilly fume (more for the fact i wanted to try it than for food matching purposes) then some wines by the glass to match mains and cheese, a basic bourgoune for the pigeon and soemthing from the languedoc for the cheese. stupidly we had a 4pm meeting so couldn't make full use of the list but it looked interesting not a lot of halves but certainly seemed happy to offer a good selection by the glass and some unusual southern french wines and alscatians in there too.

In summary the starters were probably the low point but a very accomplished meal. I would have liked to have chatted with tom aikens but had to rush off, staff good but still in training. Unfortunately for me i think my expectations were prob a bit too high, i've never eaten tom aikens food before and the reputation suggested fireworks and i was therefore slightly disappointed overall not to have a truly outstanding lunch, however there were flashes of brilliance, and i'd certainly say it's worth a visit

in terms of expectations being surpassed i had a better time at the one starred yorke arms in ramsgill on saturday, i'll write it up later as curry is beconing now!

ps no waves of extras for me, hope sam and scott have better luck!

cheers

gary

Edited May 9, 2003 by Gary Marshall (log)

[Andy Lynes]

When I saw the picture of the dining roomin the Standard I thought something wasn't quite right with it, but of course you are totally correct, very 1980's. Were there any Athena posters on the wall? A drawing of a red Ferrari would finish it off quite nicely I think.

[SamanthaF]

Were there any Athena posters on the wall? A drawing of a red Ferrari would finish it off quite nicely I think.

No Ferraris, but quite a lot of abstract paintings of nude women.........

I'll leave the foodie bits to Him Who Must Be Obeyed

[Scottf]

I quite liked the dining room; it was bright, airy and well lit. Must make me 80’s man. I’m off to grow a wedge and practice my backspins and windmills. Anyone got any lino going spare?

Extras, yes, and plenty of them. Canapés of Beetroot puree, jelly and foam in a shot glass, Salt Cod Brandade sandwiched between filo pastry, spoons of Foie gras parfait set with onion jelly and shards of bacon, Red Mullet again set in jelly but this time an intense Provencal, Foie gras set under a poached Quail’s egg and Skate goujons. All quite exquisite.

Pre dessert of Vanilla cream with Strawberry syrup and ice made a refreshing change and the amount of petite fours presented for two was amazing. A rack of assorted tuiles, a box of chocolates, a bowl of assorted Madeleine’s and two small glasses of a Butterscotch cream and a Prune cream.

Contrary to Gary’s view (you just don’t get it do you Gary ) we preferred the starters to the mains. Sam had the Langoustines and Belly Pork as detailed above. Beautifully presented with Truffle ravioli atop each stack. I had Scallops with Grapes and Pernod. The scallops were perfectly cooked and the sweet nature of the sauce suited them fine.

Mains, the Pork Head and Veal came as assiette's of the animal in question. Sam’s Veal had a piece of sliced loin that lacked flavour, braised shin and belly which were much more like it and some very tasty Sweetbread. I found the Pork Head slightly disappointing especially as it’s an Aiken speciality. The menu stated Cheek, Trotter, Belly and Tongue, but on looks and taste apart from the obvious slice of trotter the rest was very similar, in fact I think it was all Cheek apart from a small piece of Tongue. Not the variety I was expecting, thus not a patch on the Foliage version.

Desserts were good, a Raspberry Sable with Italian Meringue for me, and Cherry Compote with Chocolate Marquise for Sam.

With all this we drank a 2000 Chablis 1er Denis Race at £34, which was very suitable for our food.

Gary mentioned that Coffee is included in the price, which I’m guessing is a perk whilst the restaurant is still bedding down.

The meal lasted 3.5 hours which for us was slightly too long. The waits between courses were just on the wrong side of comfortable for us, but in saying that if they’d whipped us in and out in 1.5 hrs I’d be the first on here complaining. It has Michelin stars written all over it, obvious comparisons at this stage would be Foliage and Pied a Terre. For last night I’d say 1+. The restaurant can only improve on last night however and I guess the 2005 guide will have the restaurant with 2*’s. There’s tremendous potential here and as long as the prices don’t climb too dramatically over the coming months I’d like to think we’d definitely go back to see how they’re progressing.

Edited May 9, 2003 by Scottf (log)

[Gary Marshall]

i forgot the pre-deserts, they were very good, we had similar.

also one thing we thought that as they bed it down, if they were full, they'd struggle. At lunch there were only 10 covers in the time we were there, as usual we were first in, last out, and they seemed stretched.

I agree with scott, certainly 1 star rising whether, as hoped, it marks the start of something unique to the london dining scene remains to be seen.

gary

[Scottf]

I agree with scott, certainly 1 star rising whether, as hoped, it marks the start of something unique to the london dining scene remains to be seen.

Agreed. Didn't get anything last night that you couldn't get a similar version of at Foliage, Pied a Terre, The Capital etc.

Funnily speaking to his wife Laura last night, they've been travelling France and Spain extensively eating 3* cuisine. From the gist of her remarks thet appeared to favour restaurants with a unique approach particularly El Bulli and Veryat.

Perhaps a more unique approach may come once he's had time to settle in.