Lindsay House - The Topic

[Gavin Convery]

Good old Andy Lynes...you see that's why he's the country's top food critic and the rest of us are still stuck doing our boring jobs - he knows his onions....and his lightly poached turbot.

Now I was always a big fan of the Lindsay House a few years back when others on this board were dissing it but I had a bad experience when a new chef came in and Richard Corrigan obviously went off to spread his wings. Funnily enough the chef is still the same, but a few years on he's obviously learnt his trade and perfected the simple yet sophisticated manner of his mentor.

We had the tasting menu at £64.

Let's start with a high point...

Smoke Eel & Foie Gras Terrine with Sour apple

This was literally a terrine composed of layers of smoked eel and Foie Gras which as Del boy might have said are two of my most favourite ingredients. The combination is a stunning winner beating the Greenhouses foie gras with espresso syrup into submission. Smoky,sweet, earthy, delicious - I could eat this every day for a year.

Native Scallop with spiced chickpea & olive oil

Probably the least successful dish but still great and also unusual - single scallop, pan-fried with cumin-scented chickpea slurry and extra-virgin olive oil. The scallop was impeccable - not so much sweet as minerally. After a slow start this built into a lovely dish requiring some mopping up of juices with excellent bread.

Butter poached turbot with lightly curried cockles and mussels

The art of less is more - lovely piece of fish beautifully cooked, wisps of spinach a few cockles and mussels, some dots of tomato dice. Beautiful. Killer touch was candied fennel peel adding texture and a sweet aniseed counterpoint.

So far the Dr Burklin-Wolf Ruppertsberg riesling I chose was a perfect match to the varying sweet and minerally flavours of the first 3 dishes.

A bottle of Allegrini Amarone della Valpolicella duly decanted we move to the meat course.

Loin of Venison with braised haunch, creamed salsify and hispi cabbage

The meat was quality of course, salsify not something I'm that familiar with - looked like small white asparagus. Tasted nice. The haunch was presented as shredded meat within a croquette - intensely flavoured it added some real gamey depth to the dish. Combined with the delicious Amarone (only 2.3 times markup), again another perfect simple robust dish.

Banyuls soaked crozier blue with Thyme and Celery

Actually thinking back on this dish I'm not 100% sure this worked or maybe not as well as I thought it would do - within the context of the meal I'm not complaining though. Description is accurate - wedge of the cheese, ribbons of celery, dotted thyme.

Chocolate plate - Pithivier, Fig and Mascarpone, Hazelnut Bavarois & Walnut Gazpacho

I like chocolate, my friend doesn't particularly - we agreed this was a great chocolate dish emphasising some of the more vegetal characteristics over the sweet elements - in particular the Walnut Gazpacho had a nuttiness which offset some of the sweeter items.

To finish a Brandy for me and an Irish Whiskey for my friend. By that point it all became a little hazy but I do remember shaking the hand of the chef (Chris?) and telling him how good I thought the meal was - he was very affable and happy to chat about how some of the courses had been made.

Making some comparisons with the Greenhouse which was my last meal at this level, I would say that the Lindsay House (other than the cheese course which as we know is superb at the Greenhouse) had an edge in terms of the balance of flavours - a lighter hand and the confidence to present things simply. I guess some of that may relate to the Greenhouse's need to appeal to its Mayfair clientele but in foodie terms I found the Lindsay House more satisfying. Richard Corrigan was nowhere to be seen other than in the advertisements for his book but he seems to have moulded his current chef into a fine exponent of his philosophy.

[Andy Lynes]

Gavin, I'm very glad you had a good time. I take it from your lack of comments about service that there were no great issues on that side of things? I bet you were in there for a while though!

[Gavin Convery]

We were in there from 7 til about 11. Service was excellent, there was one particularly cute french girl.....er I mean, they were all very professional. How did you find it?

[Andy Lynes]

I've had very good service the last two times I've been in, no complaints at all although the food can be a bit slow in arriving at times.

[Gavin Convery]

There was a private party upstairs and the restaurant was pretty full but there were no issues with the speed of the food arriving - perfectly paced I would say. Maybe it's easier having the tasting menu.

Any highlights you'd care to share Andy?

[Jon Tseng]

Smoke Eel & Foie Gras Terrine with Sour apple

This was literally a terrine composed of layers of smoked eel and Foie Gras which as Del boy might have said are two of my most favourite ingredients. The combination is a stunning winner beating the Greenhouses foie gras with espresso syrup into submission. Smoky,sweet, earthy, delicious - I could eat this every day for a year.

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Thats the Martin Beragatsui (sp) signature, rite?

[Gavin Convery]

Thats the Martin Beragatsui (sp) signature, rite?

Well spotted I hadn't realised that:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=28224

[Pweaver1984]

After hearing Andys and Gavin recent praise of LH I was looking forward to my meal here last Saturday evening.

Since Gavins visit the tasting menu had changed to this:

Cured Poached Foie Gras & Sauternes Jelly

Roast Dive Scallop & Pea Gnochhi

Lemon Sole with Courgette & Fresh Water Crayfish

Best End of New Season Lamb with Wet Garlic & Moussaka

Banyuls Soaked Crozier Blue with Thyme & Celery

Rhubarb & Alfonso Mango with Sable & Vanilla

And to be honest his sounded like it tasted much better....

I just wasn't that impressed, thought the meal would sparkle more after some fantastic canapes which we enjoyed with a glass of champagne.

I must add that we were booked in for 10pm and when our server finally asked us for our menu decision she didn't seem all to pleased that we went for the tasting menu. Don't offer the menu if your not happy to serve it!

The sommelier seemed quiet down to earth though, but he kept playing catch up through the meal as we'd also chosen the tasting wine menu to accompany (He mentioned that Richard Corrigan had popped in earlier during the evening and had upset the chef and left to go to Bentleys!)

Towards the end of the evening we chatted to another table who were on their 24th wedding anniversay, whom shared the same views on the evening, that the whole experience didn't seem "enough" for the price we were paying.

Bill came to £271. I know the lunch deal sounds better value, but with so many other fantastic places in London to choose from, I will find it hard to return here soon.

[Gavin Convery]

Pweaver, Sorry to hear that you didn't have such a good experience. I must admit that our table was booked for 7pm as we knew we would require that long for the tasting menu and I have to catch a train back out to deepest Essex.

I agree your menu doesn't sound as interesting as ours - maybe it highlights some inconsistency in the kitchen. Also, I think the style at the Lindsay House is simpler with concentration on the pure quality of ingredients more than at other restaurants at this level - that is what I liked about.

Maybe I need another visit to see if I was just lucky and there is a real problem there. But as you say there are so many other restaurants to try and as I eat out rarely in town, it will probably be a while before I go back.

[Janice]

I'm sorry to say that I have another disappointing meal to report from Lindsey House.

The menu was similar to what Pweaver had in May and similarly failed to sparkle.

There were also a few actual problems with both the service and the food.

We had to ask for the wine list twice with the consequence that we didn't receive our wine until halfway through our starters. Unfortunately things went downhill from there.

Only one of the cheeses was close to peak condition and there was no explanation of what we were being offered.

There was an 'accident' with our souffle and although they handled this problem with some charm and an extra pre-dessert, unfortunately the end result wasn't worth waiting for with poor texture and indifferent flavour.

We enjoyed the evening but left with the impression that the restaurant was not performing as it should and with little inclination to return with so many more reliable options available.

May be partly our fault for going on a Monday evening but even so...

Shame.