The Chancery

[Winot]

A quick report on The Chancery which was reviewed here by Giles Coren at the weekend.

The room is as he describes - very smart and above all comfortable. I've been in other restaurants which would have tried to fit four around our table for two. The seats are of the "upright but soft" variety which means you can kid yourself you're having an important business lunch but which don't give you piles (not quite as good as the "laid back but soft" variety which allow you to sink into them over the course of three hours until you reach a semi-recumbent position from which you can just about reach the final cognac).

We started with cheese straws and an amuse which was a filo cigar flled with warm smoked haddock and eel.

Starters were a potage of monkfish and oysters (which I wished I'd had) and braised oxtail and scallops with a pea vinaigrette. The oxtail was beautifully tender and the scallops tasty and resting on an pea puree (I think). The vinaigreete was fine but a little more was needed to lift the dish - perhaps some citrus notes? The potage looked fantastic and wass wolfed down -- the fish scattered around a ball of thin pasta noodles a bit like the string hopper of Sri lanka.

Mains were sea bass, artichoke and pickled veg for me and the braisedd pig cheeks for my companion. Again, he chose better but the fish was perfectly cooked and beautifully presented on a square white plate with a neat potato innovation capping the veg consisting of thin discs of sauteed potato overlapped and pressed into a larger disc - a bit like a potato frisbee.

The wine list looked a bit uninspired to tell the truth but I didn't look too closely as we weren't drinking much -- ended up have two glasses of Macon each from a very short seleection by the glass which was fine but unexceptional.

Service generally good apart from a long delay in taking our orders at the beginning for which the maitre'd apologised charmingly. He is ex Clerkenwell Dining Room as my companion spotted.

The damage was a very reasonable £41 a head including service for starters, mains, four glasses of wine and two bottle of water. this is excellent value for what is very assured cooking in a businessy area and I wouldn't be surprised if prices go up over the next few months.

[Andy Lynes]

Restaurant Services are offering 50% off (food only) at this restaurant until 30 September.

[circeplum]

i'm afraid i found it deeeeeeply ordinary. but i'd like to direct egulleteers to the peculiar little tooks virtually next door.

you might be put off by the diabolical decor (first thing you see when you go in is a table football game ...) but the food, from an ex-roussillon chef is astonishingly good. as is the wine list. as is the cheese board.

cheaper and better than the chancery, but you'd never know it to look at it.

x

[Winot]

i'm afraid i found it deeeeeeply ordinary.

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That's a shame (and a bit surprising given my experience).

Were you there for lunch or dinner? What did you have?

[circeplum]

That's a shame (and a bit surprising given my experience).

Were you there for lunch or dinner?  What did you have?

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foie with ham hock and picallili (sp?) - nice quality but not a good match. sardines with piquillo peppers - the fish were good but the peppers tasted as though they came from a bottle.

a pigs cheek with sauerkraut dish and a guinea fowl (i think, it was a while ago) with a 'onion and sage tarte' - actually a disc of prebaked pastry with some softened onions on top, really disappointing.

also, both these dishes weirdly looked and tasted the same, as though they'd been doused in the same demiglace.

anyway, i have to confess to having hijacked your thread to draw attention to tooks, sorry! their cooking is so good and their business nous so rubbish that i have developed a weird maternal concern for them. apologies again (but i still didn't rate the chancery!)

x

[Winot]

Another lunch today at The Chancery.

First, they don't seem to have completely sorted out the service -- we sat down just after 1pm and our starters didn't arrive until about 1.45pm. I don't think this is acceptable for a business lunch venue, particularly as we had soup, terrine and grilled sardines, none which can have taken that long to cook. As it happens we weren't in any rush, but we could have been.

My pumpkin soup (or "veloute" as they insisted on calling it) was fine but unexceptional and cost £7.50. Not an auspicious start. The foie gras and rabbit terrine and the sardines looked good however.

For mains two of us had the braised pig's cheek which came with crisp smoked pork beely, sauerkraut, spinach and a creamy mustard sauce. This was excellent - meltingly tender meat with bags of taste, great cabbage and perfectly accented sauce. If I had a slight criticism it was that the spinach was a bit gritty, but nevertheless this was a great autumnal dish. The cod on the other hand was pronounced OK, nothing special.

The puddings were also excellent and beautifully presented - I had a rhubarb "trifle" tart with summer fruits (where did they get those from?) and clotted cream; others had a blueberry financier (a kind of muffin apparently) and a pear tarte fine which was about 12cm across and looked fab.

To drink an excellent Givry 2001 which seemed quite reasonable at £30. I didn't see the final bill but I'd guess it was about £50 a head.

[oldschooltie]

I didn't see the final bill

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some of the most beautiful words in the English language