L'Enclume

[fisherman]

My experience at l'Enclume would have been improved by two things: a better prepared staff and some wine recommendations matched for the meal. Service was well intentioned but unskilled and verging on stand-offish. Courses appeared without explanation and information was only solicited with considerable coaxing.

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i'm surprised by this, the service when we went was perfect, all the staff had a sense of humour, were attentive enough without being over fussy (we never had to ask for anything, just as bread, wine, water or anything else ran out, someone appeared to replenish) and were well informed about the dishes, information was difficult to hold back if anything!

[PS]

I'd agree with Fisherman on that as well. The staff were friendly without being in-your-face and certainly weren't stand-offish. Nothing appeared in front of us without an explanation. Indeed, they seemed delighted to explain what was on the plates, so I'd be surprised if they missed an opportunity to do so. Unless there's different staff on at lunch and dinner, but I don't think that's the case.

[Suzi Edwards]

I'd be surprised too if they had different staff too. It's too small to be able to have too much rotation but maybe they sometimes use newer people on lunch? Although I'm sure Penny or Mary would still be there to make sure everything is looked after.

[grahamR]

We were the only diners, although I’m not sure if that explains anything. I was surprised how young the staff were (everyone in their very early 20’s) and I did note they were recruiting. I shall just have to go back and try again, which is really not going to be any hardship!

[tanabutler]

I made my journey to Cartmel by train. The view over the bay as you travel towards Grange Over Sands, the closest station to L’Enclume,  is breathtaking as only nature can be. I’d forgotten we had scenery in England. From my seat the train track seemed to rise from the water, curving away from land on both sides with an almost supernatural aspect...

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I just want to say that this post is one of the loveliest things I've ever read on eG. It is thoughtful, poetic, and inspiring. Having met the young woman who wrote it, I can see how much I've been missing, not reading more in the UK forum.

I've got a plane ticket to Europe, now I just have to sell my soul to round up the funds necessary to travel. The dollar's never going to bounce back to the level it was at in 2001, when I visited, so I might be out of luck.

Beautifully written, Suzi: a reflection of the diner, certainly.

[Mrs Woman]

VLS ain't impressed

http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,1454517,00.html

[Andy Lynes]

Although that review did make me laugh a bit, it does underline the futility of having a humourist writing restaurant reviews. I just knew he was going to hate it and it was easy to predict the way in which he would express that hatred. On the other hand, if he had loved it, I would have suspected that he was playing against type. Comparing food to "an egg laid by a cancerous chicken"; "a putrefied head wound" and "a sperm sample" is abhorrent. Such cheap shock tactics are insulting not only to the chef but to the reader.

There was also a sort of inevitability about a review of somewhere like L'enclume following on from last weeks piece on Little Chef. It would be interesting to read his review of Michel Bras or Veyrat to see what he makes of that, but what are the chances of that happening? Aren't we due for a trendy gaff up West? Or will it be a Harvester or perhaps Le Manoir which is almost certain to pop up soon.

[fisherman]

i read it despite the fact it was written by the idiot, and only because it was about a place i hold in very high regard, i wasn't surprised at his comments, just the sort of inane rubbish you expect from him.

i haven't read any of his reviews for a while, reading that one reminded me why.........

[PS]

If Half soft and scrambled eggs, soy, wasabi, smoked cod froth is "an egg laid by a cancerous chicken, then covered with shaving foam and stubble" resembling "nothing so much as a putrefied head wound" then I'm going to have to get myself a cancerous chicken, cos I loved it!

[fisherman]

me too, one of the best things i eat there....

[Gary Marshall]

scott and i finally made it to L’Enclume the other saturday evening, but where to start?

naturally with a booking with the menu gourmand at 7pm there was a lunch shaped gap in our day, however arriving in the lakes too early would have resulted a few hours too many in the local hostelleries so a diversion was required, to the star at harome, only about 45 miles in the wrong direction but hey we didn’t want to spoil our dinner!

scott was in no mood for taking it easy and a loin of roast pork was quickly despatched, i went for the girls lite lunch option of lemon sole with rosemary and sea salt and a caper beurre noisette i think. Thus replete we set off for cartemel and a mere 3 hours later arrived in the pretty village.

Our first thoughts were that maybe there’d been some sort of alien abduction as there was no-one to be seen on the streets, i suppose the unusually sunny day had lulled us into a false sense of summer and i was expecting hoards of tourists, but no just scott and i. We checked into our rooms at the cavendish arms and settled down to a well earned post drive pint. We had been told the cavendish was close to l’enclume, well it’s so close we wandered down the road to look at the menu with our beers to check out the menu!

we then went in search of life and found a few more faces in a pub on the square whilst killed sometime before heading back to change, which. included a scary simultaneous conversation ‘what time is it? ‘‘6.30’, ‘what time are we eating’ ‘7pm’, (both) ‘time for another then!” thus leaving our selves approx 6 minutes for a shower and dash the 20 paces to the restaurant.

We arrived at l’enclume for our 7pm slot and were swiftly taken (past the very attractive cheeseboard) by penny through to a second seating area in the conservatory where champagne was suggested and naturally accepted, we had already requested the menu gourmand so there was no real ordering to be done but we took the chance to have a read and to peruse the wine list.

the wine list i thought offered excellent value for money with an interesting selection, they share a wine merchant with my local so lets say i was on more than nodding terms with many of the bottles, but after a chat with mary we went for an auxey-duresses and a ladoix serrigny, both £30 something.

At our table we were offered a good range of very good bread and all was well with the world. At this point the restaurant was quite quiet but it was full by the end of the evening with most going for the full fat-boy gourmand.

the slate of contrasts was first, being an old hand of palette cleansers i expected strict instructions on what order to eat them but pleasingly they were absent, A balsamic jelly, beetroot foam, a spicy beef meatball, piece of melon and a salt brandade were on offer and quickly dispatched i enjoyed the balsamic and meatball the most.

next up chestnut and bacon broth, chervil topping, in a little shot glass, pleasant enough but no real wow.

perilla and parmesan french fries were next , they looked like french fries, two of them in a shot glass with another shot of parsley dip and for some reason a ginger marshmallow. The fries were interesting but couldn’t really see the link between the other items on the plate.

cubism in foie gras, two cold, one hot, cantaloupe, fragrant myrrh, almond cake up next, a little pyramid of parfait, the hot being a cromesquis and and foie ice cream. Unfortunately having had hibiscus’s foie gras ice cream this fell short of that mark. Almond cake provided a little sweet contrast and being fans of salt, we could have done with a little more than the line on the plate. Also ice leaves on the plate, seemingly the garnish du jour. overall an attractive looking dish but not as dramatic as expected.

half soft and scrambled eggs, soy, wasabi, smoked cod froth. This i really liked, the first dish of the night with a real kick to it- nice dish served in the egg shell.

flaky crab, curried avocado, parmesan yoghurt sorbet. The individual components were good, i especially remember the tadpoles of curried avocado, but again there were a lot of flavours there that didn’t seem complementary.

virtual tomato, consomme. With a deep fried basil leaf and a savory crisp, poured from a test tube and gradually melting the powder, it tasted to me exactly like tomato paste from a pizza base, not quite what i expected.

white truffle custard ‘chinese style’. The chinese style being a take away pot with 47 on it and the accompanyment of a duck spring roll, again couldn’t quite see the angle here.

scallops, bacon polenta, cauliflower crunch, passion fruit crunch, hibiscus sweet. Back on song here a good looking dish (i’m relying on photo’s to prompt!) and everything worked well.

next the reknown cubes from land and sea, eucalyptus hollandaise. Although i’d heard a lot about i didn’t actually realise what was in it, for the record nice brunoise of lambs sweetbread and lobster, the green hollandaise flashed under the grill didn’t look great but it was an interesting mix of textures and an interesting dish.

hot pepper terrine , langoustine, various nik naks, jasmine foam. A single langoustine, on a little square of red pepper terrine, and the now familiar tadpoles and streaks of seasoning on the plate, there was also an asparagus tip, bit of fennel and the nik naks which were little chilli twists, an ok dish.

roasted sea bass, ice cube, frogs legs, hydromel. the cube was supposed to be a taste of the sea but it wasn’t pronounced, rest simply cooked and fine.

John dory, bergamot aromas, bitter caramel. i don’t remember the bergamot aromas - and i drink gallons of earl grey! the bitter caramel in a circle around a chunk of JD.

fennel irish coffee. worst dish of the night, think it was consomme with a fennel cream, one mouthful was enough as it was like drinking gelatinous cold beef stock.

mrs little’s beef fillet, waberthwaite air dried ham,apple, juniper berry juices. A nicely cooked piece of beef the ham inserted in the centre, adding some salt and a nice berry reduction, could see this as a good full size main course.

the other ‘main’ was loin of lamb, grains of paradise, aubergine, butternut confit, cumin boullion. Again nicely black ‘n blue loin sliced in two, i liked the cumin boullion too another dish i’d happily eat more of.

cheese was described as monsieur rabauds cheese from our trolley, Although i love french cheese i was slightly suprised to see it was entirely french, as everything else was shouting its local provenance where appropriate. As i have a quite serious montgomerys cheddar habit, i would have welcomed some at this point but it must be said the cheeses were all in good condition and a decent selection despatched.

slammer all in one was a tequila based palette cleanser thingy, we did as told and knocked it back.

hazlenut paline ‘sandwich’ , mandarin filling, sage infusion. Nice praline millefeuille type dish, enjoyed by both of us.

melting fig fondant, cassia bark, icy fennel, spice. another very good dish, nice to seenan interesting take on the ubiquitous choc fondant.

chocolate mayhem, no more voices. much hyped and if i hadn’t read about it before it would have passed me by. Lots of preparations of different strengths but not unlike assiettes of chocolate served in numerous places, however well executed and no complaints, just didn’t live up to the billing.

After all that obviously a medicinal calva was required with our coffee, which came with another flurry of p4’s which i remember several being seriously good!

We then reverted to type and had a few kronenbourg’s whilst rabbitting on to mary and penny, until erm, 2 am.

service had been very good all night with all questions answered and wine choices recommendations good, mary talked us out of a £40 puligny montrachet into the auxey duresses, which was the right call as we had the pm later and the auxey was superior, we also enjoyed the captain gagnerot ladoix serrigny too and the wine list was good in general.

before dining i was wary of the unusual menu descriptions and i think they give the restaurant a certain novelty factor which detracted from what is obviously a serious, skillful and intelligent kitchen.

thinking about it now the 20 course menu was bound to include some misses, i can see that the shorter menus would leave a more positive impression as there would be more killer, less filler. With so many courses though and a couple of consecutive ‘misses’ every now again did worry us at the time.

With some of the dishes it seemed they were comprised of a series of ideas looking for a partner like the fries or the crab, rather than a coherent dish of complementing flavours such as the scallops.

in terms of the hits i liked the slate, the eggs, scallops and bacon, cubes from land and sea, the lamb/the beef, cheese, praline, fig fondant.

the misses were chestnut broth, virtual tomato, truffle custard and fennel coffee and a few courses were interesting but i wouldn’t write home about them such as the terrine, dory and sea bass which all came consecutively until the mains lifted the pace again.

overall a very enjoyable evening, i thought it was solid one star cooking and was very impressed with the kitchens’ ability to turn out complex tasting menus to a full restaurant . It goes without saying it takes balls to open with such a ‘no concessions’ menu in such a remote village so i wish them all the best and hope that enough diners make the journey to what is a beautiful part of the country.

and yes, we stocked up on sticky toffee puddings from the shop on the way home!

cheers

gary

[adt]

A very interesting account - writing up the menu gourmand here must be a hell of a mensa test. It's a shame that some of the promised flavours (bergamot, "sea") didn't materialise, a disappointment I've had with a few interesting-sounding menu items at other establishments. Perhaps just a consequence of a chef's striving too hard for subtlety and respect for accompanied raw materials?

I agree that VLS' write-up is offensive, in fact it made me quite angry reading it. However they are rendered, to dismiss such fascinating, individual and creatively constructed dishes as being "as formulaic as McDonald's" is aggravatingly stupid and needlessly disrespectful, likewise the various foul graphic descriptions employed. Of course, a sensational tabloid effect was intended and my irritation soon gave way to a mildly derisory indifference to the man's article. (And a mild irritation that he's been and I haven't...)

[culinary bear]

Oh, so very close, so very close...

Stood outside reading the menu, on the four minutes of today where the sun shone in Cartmel. Rogan walking past in chefs' trousers, kicking loose chippings from the road border. We had neither the time, nor my bank balance the flexibility on the day to be able to pop inside...

Alas, another day.

The sticky toffee pudding is incredible, incidentally. Oh, and the Punch Bowl is a shell at the moment - they seem to be gutting it completely...

[PS]

The Punchbowl's been taken over by the guys who own the Drunken Duck. I'm hoping they're not giving it the wine-bar style makeover that the Duck has had recently. I want to go to the Lakes for a Lakeland pub experience, not a transported city-centre bar session. The food and ales are still very good mind, but a little bit of the character's been lost I feel.

[alexw]

VLS ain't impressed

http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,1454517,00.html

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it would appear from this he just felt the need to print some foul language, maybe he just just start writing a column for VIZ magazine instead, somewhere near "rogger mellie the man on the telly".

[culinary bear]

Oh, please... Viz is intelligently written. :)

[alexw]

Oh, please...  Viz is intelligently written. :)

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My humble apologies to Viz, I wasn't trying to put them down in any way, just referring to the pointless language used to disguise the lack of talent on written display. this was more like busy kitchen speak than an allegedly intelligent broadsheet article.

Alex

[culinary bear]

The thing is, Visible Panty-Line is an intelligent chap, educated, and funny. He also has the skill of not being able to write restaurant reviews to save his life, and it in danger of reaching AA Gill-ian levels of superfluous non-food-related hyperbole before you get to anything remotely connected to the restaurant in question.

[Digijam]

Great write-up Gary, and not just because it's the first I've read that broadly concurs with my own. I was massively impressed with the level of ambition for such a small operation, and the kitchen's ability to turn out a 20 course menu, but rarely blown away by any one dish. Whether this is because I've become a little jaded after visits to a couple of the other usual suspects, I'm not so sure. (Maybe a visit to Anthony's will help answer that one.)

When Rogan sticks to pairing real food with unusual flavourings, such as with the cubes of land and sea, or the egg and foam, he really is up there with the best of them. He seems weakest when he tries the Adria/Blumenthal horseplay, as with the tomato consomme (great concept, but why bother when the end result is just - as you say - a tomato paste flavour?), or the truffle custard (nice, but would work better as a component in a larger dish, rather than as the basis of a visual joke).

Not sure the slate of contrasts really works, either. Stimulating each sense one after the other just felt like a pointless exercise, and that solitary meatball looked like it would feel more comfortable in a Westlers tin.

The fact that the final three desserts are so substantial also smacks of overkill to me. But that may just be because I like a little sharpness to offset all the sugar and fat. And was full to bursting by that point in the meal anyway.

Nit-picking aside, I do really hope Rogan and Penny continue to draw them in. Labours of love like this deserve to flourish. And if those folded loo rolls keep the likes of VLS away, then all the better.

Digijam

[Gary Marshall]

And if those folded loo rolls keep the likes of VLS away, then all the better.

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have the same at anthony's too, i call it attention to detail.

cheers

gary

[Digijam]

It's a good job Lewis-Smith doesn't do hotel reviews...

[sped98]

Hey , it`s been really quiet here of late .Anyway ,here`s the latest 20 course Gourmand menu from L`enclume to get your tastebuds going.

Five contrasts,

‘Right end of the stick’

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Chilled agastache soup, Jerusalem artichoke,

crunchy cumin

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Warm glazed pig cheeks, shallot and sweetcorn,

love parsley squirt

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Cubism in foie gras, two cold, one hot,

cantaloupe, fragrant myrrh, almond cake

*

Half soft and scrambled eggs,grenouilles,

hyssop, cabbage cream

*

Crab praline tart, borage tzatziki, green mango,

Summer purslane

*

Cepes polenta french fries,

arugula cocktail

*

Gingerbread croquant, paprika ricotta, black radish,

tuna shavings, poor man’s pepper

*

Diver-caught Sea Scallops,

salsify and almond, sweet cicely froth

*

Cubes from land and sea,

eucalyptus hollandaise

*

Hot purple terrine, Scottish Langoustines,

various nik-naks, jasmine foam

*

Bass fillet baked in parchment,

flan of courgette, calamari and chickweed

*

John Dory, balm of gilead aromas, pistachio basmati,

bitter caramel

*

Celery Leaf broth, mini kebabs of escargot and tofu

*

Long braise lamb, sweetbreads, spelt wheat risotto,

painted lady

Or

Lakeland Beef fillet, ox cheek boudin cannelloni,

treviso and violet de Brive

*

Monsieur Rabauds cheese from our trolley

*

Blood orange and grenadine, carrot smoke and virtual

*

Roquefort sorbet, spongey smith apples’

Woodruff and balsamic

*

Frozen raspberry gateau, sweet pimento,

Kumquat reduction, chocolate

*

Hot prune mousse, spices, fruit and drink

[adt]

What a magnificent menu... he certainly has a way with words.

Bit wary of the "love parsley squirt" though.

[sped98]

Latest news from Lenclume.

Fantastic new interactive website to play with has just gone online.All the latest menus are on there and also a couple of pics of the food too.

For those ( like myself) wishing to pick up some of chefs secrets there`s a new cookery school opened up at Bluebell house in Cartmel village. Jean christophe Novelli flew over from Ireland for the grand opening a couple of weeks ago.I was one of the lucky ones that attended and managed to get a quick chat with chef Rogan , and he`s going to be demonstrating some of his fantastic creations at the school. At £ 279 for a two day course with full english it`s a steal.

Oh and congrats to the team on getting the "Catey award " for "best UK newcomer 2005"

Edited July 23, 2005 by sped98 (log)

[seanw]

Very nice, reminds me a little of Bras. He could add a couple more items on the gourmand menu, bit stingy!