Restaurant Tom Aikens

[Andy Lynes]

Its rumoured that he was hopping mad not to have been awarded 2 stars straight off the bat this year and wrote a letter of complaint to Michelin.

This thread, and in particular the quote above, is mentioned on page 13 of the current issue (25 Feb) of Restaurant Magazine in their "Cleaver" magazine. eGullet is described as a "food geek website" (don't worry, I've already explained to associate editor Joe Warwick in a language he understands of what I think of that description), and that Aikens has stridently denied the allegation. Well, he would wouldn't he?

The Cleaver says they are willing to believe him, "even before we learnt that the story had started with a PR who represents a rival chef, whose first name rhymes with both an Arab state and a contestant on this years "I'm a celebrity, get me out of here." I do believe they are saying my sources are unreliable. Damn cheek!

[Gary Marshall]

. eGullet is described as a "food geek website" (don't worry, I've already explained to associate editor Joe Warwick in a language he understands of what I think of that description),

what, that he hit the nail on the head?

it is exactly how i describe my web activites

gary

[MobyP]

The Cleaver says they are willing to believe him, "even before we learnt that the story had started with a PR who represents a rival chef, whose first name rhymes with both an Arab state and a contestant on this years "I'm a celebrity, get me out of here."

Peter Andre? Kerry? Lord Brocket?

[howardlong]

The Cleaver says they are willing to believe him, "even before we learnt that the story had started with a PR who represents a rival chef, whose first name rhymes with both an Arab state and a contestant on this years "I'm a celebrity, get me out of here."

Peter Andre? Kerry? Lord Brocket?

LOL keep abreast of things will you? You don't have to believe everything you read in the Cleavage.

Howard

[Paul de Gruchy]

Went to Aikens again last week and the food was good but not a patch on the meal I'd previously written up. There were flashes of inspiration but nothing matched the amuse and the p4s. Still, it was an enjoyable meal and I did find myself smiling the "everything is all right in the world" smile as the coffee came, which is the test of a good restaurant. Just no individual dishes to match the brilliance that I've had before. So maybe next time I'm in London I'll try somewhere else.

[tony h]

What's the best thing to do when you?re unemployed: lunch at Tom Aikens

The amuse of frothy but dense pumpkin soup sprinkled with truffle started well but finished on a bad, very bad, note - pieces of duck egg white were sitting on the bottom of the cup - it took a few bits before I realised what they were: bad news & stomach cramps later on, oh dear.

Despite being unemployed just now I don't seem to have much time so I had to go for the lunch menu rather than a leisurely al la carte or tasting. So, first course was mash & truffle. OK - he described it better - but that's pretty much what it was. Spiral of creamiest potato with slivers of boiled potato lovingly draped over the spiral. To the side was a tower made of filo cylinder stuffed with a potato foam. The plate was drenched in truffle bits & truffle vinaigrette - large leaf herbs (chervil, I think) decorated the plate. Quite stunning - one of those dishes that in lesser hands who have been a complete mess - but here he managed to elevate the potato & truffle simply but superbly. I so wanted more.

Main was belly of lamb - a first for me. The belly had been rolled and sliced & with a slices of leek sausage-like creation containing pieces of lamb shank encased in a creamy leek filling. All magically accompanied with sliced roast carrots (god knows what he did to them but it was hard to believe it was merely roast carrots) and a few haricots. The sauce was a thing stock with an enviable depth. This need lots of wonderful bread to soak it up.

Desserts - was a chocolate & caramel creation - two cylinders of chocolate draped over each other, one filled with light chocolate mouse the other with dark mouse. To the side was a clear-ish cylinder of caramel filled with caramel mouse & caramel ice cream. Shards of chocolate & caramel were dramatically arranged on the plate with a tourettes of cream & liquid caramel splashes here & there. It was good but frankly just too much. I left half

A cacophony of petit fours, chocolates and other goodies arrived - and when I couldn't face them they were promptly put into little bags to take away. Coffee was included but I didn't have enough time.

24.50 for all that - a bargain. My only gripe - the restaurant was too hot - apart form that there's a genuinely gifted operator working in the kitchen. Do go.

Edited March 4, 2004 by blind lemon higgins (log)

[MobyP]

That's a miracle, for 24.50.

Were you on your own? How did they treat you?

[circeplum]

All magically accompanied with sliced roast carrots (god knows what he did to them but it was hard to believe it was merely roast carrots)

i know! those carrots! it was like they'd been long-braised in some kind of fragrant stock before being roasted/caramelised into a kind of fondanty super-carrot. amazing.

[Jamsie]

So did you go yesterday on the 3rd?

If you were walking into the dinning where abouts would you have been sat?

I went yesterday and went for the same starter and main (think that was the most beautiful potato i've ever tasted) and the lamb was superb

Went for a chocolate pear creation off the ala carte menu for dessert which was beautiful

For the price it's an absolute steal and if i ever get into the Howard Long category (have you read his review of Sketch on london eating? he got cash) then i'm definitely going back for the tasting menu.

[tony h]

I was there on tuesday & on my own - they treated me wonderfully

Final bill was £32 when you include tip & water - still a bargain. I couldn't drink as I was meeting my new boss & reports that afternoon

This is easily comparable to the Capital for lunch - the main difference being the C has a much larger range to choose from. I look forward to further visits. Half to say, the tasting menu looks a crappy compared to the fat duck

Celeb spotting - only a sitcom actor who's name I never knew & a 70s rock band bass player name also not known (& neither do I want to know) - very poor show

[MobyP]

Another extremely fine meal with Jon Tseng. We went there for the 26.50 lunch deal, but we both crumbled when we saw the menu, and went for the regular shabang.

The amuse was a duck cassonade with celariac velouté/foam, and poached quail's egg. I had the roasted langoustine with chicken wing and braised pigs belly with truffled maceroni, which is very much Aikens crossing over tastes on a plate. Lovely textures, and fun to eat. But only 1 langoustine. Then I had the veal - shin, sweetbreads with a caper sauce. This was serious cold weather comfort food. Lovely and unctuous. For desert, a cornucopia of pear - I lost count of how many different pear and chocolate preparations were on the very large plate - but it was delicious. I forget the predessert - the regular mignardise of different flavoured wafers, chocolates, and hot freshly baked madeleines. I was stuffed.

I was very sorry I couldn't have the wines, as I think the place is suited to langorous dining. The service was excellent. We had tap water, and they refilled our glasses on a very regular basis. I look forward to returning in later Spring, and see where the menu goes, as he leaves Winter behind.

[Andy Lynes]

What's the best thing to do when you?re unemployed: lunch at Tom Aikens

Although not officially unemployed until Wednesday of next week, I am taking your advice and going to lunch on Monday.

[Jon Tseng]

Yes, this was a very impressive meal.

Thoughts in no apparent order

1) Full up on a lunchtime (albeit on a Friday).

2) Very nice looking cheese trolley which didn't have.

3) Apparently a brigade of 12, which sounds large (around 45 covers) - although one thing would note is food/plating looks horribly labour intensive.

4) Lots of "cassonades" on the menu - amuse, starter and in various deserts. By this I think they mean barely-set eggy custards like Japanese chawan mushi (sp); this isn't a term I've come accross much in restaurants (I think Gordon Ramsay at Aubergine used to call his creme brulees "cassonades" because of the serving container). One minor fault - was served a the duck cassonade with quails egg amuse - having ordered the chestnut/foie gras cassonade with fried egg starter. They really should have subbed in something a bit less similar.

5) Starter Chestnut cassonade with foie gras mousse, fried duck egg and turnip, I think. To be honest, a big brown splodge on a plate. Cassondade/custard topped with thin escalope of sauteed foie gras (goose I think judging by side) with egg on top napped with a brown (foie gras?) sauce and a white foam. Think bits of diced turnips scattered around. Sinfully good - extremely rich - very good portion size. If I would pick up on anything foie gras escalope a little over done (which is inevitable when you have such a thing slice). Also the foam was useful in covering up all the fat which leaked out of the foie gras as you ate it - one of the presentational problems you tend to have with sauteed foie is the big slick of oil it leaves all over the plate which can mess up the best of saucing.

6) Main Plate with various bits of suckling pig. Roasted chunk of belly, what looked like a shaslik kebab ("beignet of pork and celeriac"), some more rolled bits of belly and a couple of miniature pork chops - looked a bit like lamb chops. And a deep fried breadcrumbed cube of pork/cheese. Plate was brushed with a carrot puree. Basically one of the big composed show-off dishes. Everything well executed apart from the belly meat being a bit overdone (common fault) and some completely irrelevant bits of battered squid which had also sneaked onto the plate. Oh, and the cheese thing was a bit random. Pork cordon bleu perhaps?

7) Pudding a piece of roasted pineapple with pineapple jelly (a nod to the Fat Duck perhaps?) and a really excellent pineapple sorbet.

8) Overall the best meal I have had this year - technically assured and exceptionally complex cooking. Definitely worth a second star.

9) No canapes - all the restaurant critics said they got shedloads of canapes at the table. So did Moby when he came in the evening. Maybe its only a supper thing?

cheerio

J

[the greek]

I think Gordon Ramsay at Aubergine used to call his creme brulees "cassonades" because of the serving container

Cassonade; nothing at all to do with the container. It is cane sugar, which has only been refined once so has a brownish colour to it. Used to glaze brulee`s, hence the term cassonade.

[tony h]

9) No canapes - all the restaurant critics said they got shedloads of canapes at the table. So did Moby when he came in the evening. Maybe its only a supper thing?

no - i was pummled with PFs at lunchtime which they sweetly boxed for me to take way as I'd run out of time. then again, i was taking notes so maybe they thought I was jay rayner (on a good day, of course)

[MobyP]

Yes - at my dinner I remember cavalcades of pre-amuse and amuse. Soups, foie gras lollipops surrounded by madeira jelly (which were genius), and then I started hallucinating with pleasure and the memory fails me.

[Jamsie]

You may be interested to know that on Trouble at the top 9:50pm on BBC2 it follows Tom Aiken going back into business with the new set up

[MobyP]

Did anyone see it? I was seriously impressed with the both of them. And the plates looked incredible.

[John Whiting]

I was seriously depressed by both of them; I'd rather watch the Hamiltons in panto. And the plates looked vulgar beyond imagining. We promptly dropped our plan to visit.

[MobyP]

Well, I hardly think they were peforming for anyone's benefit, John. And the plates are certainly not meat and two veg - but they are magical to behold, and to eat from.

[John Whiting]

If that's what they're like when they're not performing for anyone's benefit, then so much the worse. The plates on view were indeed sensational to behold but artistically they were on a level with the Christmas cards my parents used to get from the newly and ostentatiously rich.

EDIT: If there's no one out there that agrees with me, that will be an education in itself.

Edited March 25, 2004 by John Whiting (log)

[Andy Lynes]

The plates did seem to be awfully busy, but maybe they've calmed down a bit by now. That said, the tasting menu I had soon after they opened wasn't remotely as garish as some of the dishes featured in the programme.

I was slightly surprised by the comments about AA Gill, something along the lines of "he wasn't like our other customers". I was there the night he ate at the restaurant and he seemed to be having a whale of a time, holding court on a table of 6. I wasn't monitoring his every move of course (my dining companion was way to fascinating for that) but when I did glance in his direction, he always seemed to be smiling and as far as I could tell was being the perfect customer.

[oldschooltie]

Well, I hardly think they were peforming for anyone's benefit,

I assumed that they were performing for their own benefit (as arranged by their PR company).

At least the Hamilton's in panto were trying to be funny.

[Sarah74]

I have to say that I was truly scared by Mrs Aikens - Tom seemed almost to cower whenever she addressed something directly at him and her begging him to say something, when, quite frankly, he looked dead on his feet, was cringeworthingly embarrassing.

Although I am only a newbie in this whole food game, I was so impressed by the time, effort and love that Tom and his staff put into the whole experience. I have always been impressed by sheer determination to succeed and this programme (along with this thread!) have encouraged me to book a table ASAP.

[tony h]

I have to say that I was truly scared by Mrs Aikens

me too - i had to watch hiding behind the sofa

but wasn't he such a prat! & he cooks like an angel - go figure