North road, London, UK

Nordic cuisine remains relatively unknown and may become the next big thing, after the Danish restaurant Noma was voted Best Restaurant of the World. If this happens, it will certainly not be thanks to North road, where the decoration is mimalistic, but the bill is not.

We started our dinner strangely with an assorted mix of fried skins (fish, pork and beef I think). Then, the evening went from disappointment to disappointment, which we could not share too loudly among each other in the quite formal and cold dining room. The dishes did not taste particularly good. I remember the venison loin was well cooked -inside- but the whole dish was ruined by the burnt hay surrounding the meat that ended up tasting like charcoal.

The chef seemed to be trying too hard and unfortunately, too much attention given to originality was detrimental to taste. The dishes were a mix of too many complex flavours and did not deliver. We did not enjoy our dinner.

Skins and quail eggs

Light smoked Scottish diver scallops

Cured native lobster and buttermilk

Kent vegetables and wild herbs (jerusalem artichokes, pink fir potatoes and black truffle)

Norfolk venison loin and beetroot, burnt hay and smoked bone marrow

Bread and butter, custard, toast and spices

For the mention, I ate at North road in November last year. Therefore, it may have improved since. However I don't really feel like trying again. £55 may seem good value for a tasting menu, but now I have actually tasted it, I don't think it was worth the money.

Cost: £55 for the tasting menu

Hibiscus, London, UK

My friend L. wanted to go to Hibiscus. As she could not make it for lunch, we had to pass on the 3-course lunch menu at £33.50, and booked a table for two for dinner. I found the pricing quite surprising. The 4-course (plus appetizer and pre-dessert) costs £85, while it costs £80 to have three A la carte courses. A no brainer, but then, why not go all-in and have the surprise 7-course tasting menu?

We were offered some fried balls of cheese and mushrooms as an appetizer. They were rich and creamy, and looked very cute wrapped in the white napkins like little babies.

First, we had a hibiscus and apple soda. It was too sweet and not exactly what I would have expected as an amuse-bouche.

Hibiscus and apple soda

Our first course was a raw mackerel with strawberries and wasabi. The combination of the oily fish with the freshness of the strawberries worked very well.

Cornish mackerel with red and green strawberries and wasabi

The second starter was a perfectly slow-cooked egg, in a delicious asparagus velouté with a little hint of coconut.

Slow cooked Benton egg with asparagus and coconut velouté

We had many broad beans in our menu, as they are in season. Our vegetarian raviolo had a filling of mint and spring onions and was topped with broad beans. Mint gave the dish an oriental flavour, and a pleasant freshness.

Spring onion and mint raviolo with broad beans

Our fish dish was a black bream stuffed with morilles, on a bed of morilles and broad beans. The fish was nicely cooked but the dish was too salty, which prevented us from fully appreciating it.

Black bream stuffed with morilles and lime

The next dish was surprising. Winkles with black pudding. I guessed winkles are what we call "bigorneaux" in French, and the description of winkles as "sea snails" confirmed my guess. I liked this interesting combination of "crunchy" winkles with soft black pudding, a very earthy surf and turf. But my friend L. was put off by the thought of these little sea snails swimming in her velouté.

Winkles and black pudding

Our meat dish was original as well. We had a very tender rabbit, which is a rare treat in the UK as I have understood that many British people do not eat rabbit. It came with chorizo and a clam, and broad beans, again.

Rabbit from Norfolk stuffed with chorizo and clam

A cheese platter to share.

Cheese platter

Shame on me. I jumped on the pre-dessert so quickly that I forgot to take a picture. It was a lovely verrine of English strawberries, celeriac jelly and Szechuan pepper cream.

Our waitress asked us to guess what ingredients were used in the dessert. We thought of asparagus and cauliflower and it was indeed a tart with white asparagus cream and candied black olives. It was a nice surprise to the palate but the white asparagus cream was quite rich and maybe not the best way to finish a 7-course meal. I would have preferred a lighter and more refreshing pudding.

White asparagus tart with candied black olives (served with a goat cheese ice cream)

We had some petit-fours with our mint tea. The smoked fudge had an amazing smoky flavour, and it felt like eating a sweet smoked ham.

Petits fours

I expected Claude Bosi's food to be a very classic French cuisine and I was nicely surprised by his inventive cooking. Except the fish that was too salty, all our dishes were well cooked and seasoned, which is not very surprising for a 2 Michelin stars restaurant anyway. Food was original and service considerate. I thought first that Hibiscus was quite pricey because of the A la carte prices, but compared to other Michelin restaurants in London or Paris, the tasting menu is not that expensive.

Sometimes, Hibiscus organises wine tasting parties, with a 6-course menu chosen by Claude Bosi at £150.

Cost: £100 for the 7-course surprise tasting menu

Dinner by Heston, London, UK

Mandarin Oriental has made some brilliant dining choices lately. After opening Bar Boulud and the highly anticipated Dinner by Heston in London, Mandarin Oriental has appointed Thierry Marx, the Bruce Willis of nouvelle cuisine to head its Paris branch (opening 28 June).

Due to open in February, the new restaurant of the famous Fat Duck head chef has quickly been fully booked until summer. Since I had been calling Mandarin Oriental since December 2010 in order to secure a table, we were lucky enough (and persistent) to get a booking for the second week after the opening. (And Yes, we are in June, which means that it took me a mere 4 months to write the review...and the menu may have changed since.)

To start, I had a delicious saffron risotto. The rice was cooked to perfection with and intense but not overwhelming saffron flavour. It came with small bites of calf tail that were melting in the mouth. A delicate and fragant dish.

Rice and flesh

The broth of lamb was very good as well with a slow cooked egg, celery, radish, turnip and sweetbreads. It was an interesting combination of textures in a tasty broth.

Broth of lamb

The beef royal came with a very soft puree, and bites of ox tongue. It was maybe one of the least original dishes on the menu but was well done.

Beef royal

The pigeon was a marvel. Once again, the meat was perfectly cooked and had a fabulous spicy ale jus.

Spiced pigeon

We shared a platter of British cheeses, which were good but I still prefer French cheeses (think melting Epoisses, creamy Brillat-Savarin or aged Beaufort with salt crystals...)

British cheese

The poached rhubarb dessert was brillant and had a perfectly balance of sweetness and tartness.

Poached rhubarb

I liked less the taffety tart, as I found that the blackcurrant was overpowering. And as a matter of fact, the taffety tart was too tart.

Taffety tart

To finish our meal we had a complimentay Earl grey ganache that was creamy, sweet, and with an intense tea flavour.

Earl grey ganache

We had a very pleasant time at Dinner, eating lovely food with view on the park. We were not as amazed as at the Fat Duck, but we have not been disappointed by the quality of the food at Dinner by Heston. The attention given to each of the dishes gave them the same perfection in terms of flavour and cooking we had experienced at the Fat Duck.

Cost:

Starter: £12.50-£16

Main: £20-£36

Dessert: £8-£10

Pied à Terre, London, UK

One of my issues is that I eat quicker than I write. As a consequence I have a huge backlog that can be reduced only if I do not go out for the next month and feed myself with the lovely vegetables Abel and Cole delivers to my door every Monday morning. But before that, I had to try the self-proclaimed best value Michelin-starred lunch in town at Pied à Terre. I had already been to its sister restaurant, L'Autre Pied twice, and lunch there was indeed good value. 

Pied à Terre is on Charlotte street, a mecca for food lovers. As we arrived in front of Pied à Terre, we saw two garbage bags next to the door. Not a good mise en bouche, and definitely not a good start to get delivered L's Quality Stamp. A five-course menu advertised at £29.50 in a 2-Michelin star restaurant sounded indeed good value, and we went for it despite a limited choice (two starters and two mains). 

We had three nice appetizers, lovely to see and to taste.

Amuses bouche: sun dried tomato and mascarpone, salmon verrine, foie gras and poppy seed crackers

As a starter we both had the tuna tartar, which went well with the soft boiled quail eggs. L did not like the anchovy beignets but I found them quite enjoyable.

Tuna tartar with French beans and parsley salad, soft boiled quail eggs, walnut mayonnaise, anchovy beignets

I chose meat for my main. The waiter told me that the blade of beef had been cooked for more than thirty hours (or was it eighteen?) Yummy, that beef was tender and the port jus tasty, but I found the bone marrow a little bit too raw.

Slow cooked blade of beef with horseradish purée, salt baked carrot, bone marrow, watercress and port jus

 L. went for the fish. Surprise, more beignets for her!

Poached Gilthead seabream with greem asparagus, baby courgette, dandelion, samphire chips, crayfish tail and shellfish bisque

We had then a refreshing pre-dessert. I remember the waiter mentioning hibiscus but L says it was mango and lime. I guess we will never find out.

Pre-dessert: hibiscus jelly and lime mousse

L. and her sweet tooth ordered a dessert while I had a fresh mint tea with petits fours. I tried one of her financiers and it was soft and fragant with honey. My petits fours were so lovely that it was a shame to eat them, but I almost managed to finish them all.

Honey financiers with fig purée, mascarpone, black olive ice cream and olive oil powder

Petits fours

I liked my lunch at Pied à Terre, but failed to see a big difference with the cuisine at L'Autre Pied, which has "only" one Michelin star. L, for her part did not agree with the "best value Michelin-starred lunch" part and would rather give this title to Gauthier Soho.

Cost: £29.50 for the 5-course menu.

Please note that the amuses bouche and pre-dessert are each counted as one course.

The bill came at £45 each, including service and a glass of wine

La Table de Bastien, Calvi, Corse, France

La Table de Bastien is the gastronomic restaurant of the luxury hotel La Villa and offers a breathtaking view of Calvi bay. As it is quite dangerous to drive in the sinuous roads of Corsica at night and even more after one or two glasses of wine,  we booked a table for lunch. We asked a table on the terrasse and were delighted to eat at one of the best tables of Corsica until the waiter brought us the menu... When booking our table, the receptionist had forgotten to tell us one tiny unimportant insignificant detail, that La Table de Bastien is ONLY open for DINNER. At lunch time, the restaurant of La Villa serves a limited menu at not that limited prices.

Margherita pizza

Tuna salad with artichokes and roasted tomatoes

Cafe gourmand with nougat, mango and passion fruit sorbet, strawberry feuillete and lemon tart with meringue

The pizza and salad were actual well done and we had also a wonderful half bottle of local Clos Columbu wine.

The Maitre d' was very apologetic about the booking mistake, and since we still wanted to try the gastronomic restaurant, we booked a table for dinner the day after. We went for the seven-course surprise tasting menu and a glass of wine.

Nice view isn't it?

Well, well, well. What is this appetizer?
I did not manage to catch the name as our waiter mumbled it. They were small pancakes with a cheesy flavour. Not bad, but not very elaborate. Better than peanuts, fine as a remplacement for bread and olive oil,  but not very Michelin style.

Our first starter was made of two perfectly cooked langoustines in a broth of soy sauce and yuzu, which was slightly too acidic, with a crunchy asparagus. Are asparagus supposed to be eaten crunchy? A matter of taste I suppose, but I prefer them more tender.

Langoustine with soy sauce and yuzu

Cooking a foie gras poele is quite technical, and I must admit the one we had at La Table de Bastien as a second starter was mastered to perfection. It came with a purée of something. I do not remember what this something was, but as we were in Corsica, let's assume it was a chestnut purée.

Pan-fried foie gras

The next course, our fish dish, was an absolute catastrophy, while it sounded most promising. The fish was properly cooked, but there was absolutely no seasoning and the artichoke was almost raw. The whole was bland despite the use of strong flavoured ingredients such as saffron and chorizo. Besides, I did not get the point of having a paella-style risotto. It should be EITHER a paella OR a risotto. But why try to mix the two rice dishes when they use different types of rice and techniques? The result was not satisfying, the rice was too liquid and without enough starch to give the risotto creamy texture, and despite the use of a large quantity of saffron, neither did it taste like a paella.

Seabass, Paella style risotto, chorizo, artichoke

Our meat course was introduced as a "Quasi" by our autistic waiter. Never heard of "Quasi" before. After asking for clarification, we learnt that a "Quasi" is a veal cut. Apart from this "quasi"-incident we enjoyed the tender meat.

"Quasi" of veal

We skipped the cheese course and asked to have tea/coffee instead. The pre-dessert was a success, and a offered a perfect balance of sweet and tart.

Lime sorbet and red fruits coulis

The waiter never bothered to tell us the name of the dessert. From our guess, there were some watermelon, mango, passion fruit, pineapple and pomegranate chunks in the mango/passion fruit sorbet, a soft biscuit and three meringues. This dessert was good, but there were two unedible decorative branches which is an absolute no go. Everything in the plate should be edible, especially in a Michelin-starred restaurant.

Frozen exotic fruits dessert

We had mixed feelings about La Table de Bastien. The surroundings are amazing but food was of unequal quality. There were wonderful courses but they were overshadowed by huge mistakes. Serving a dish without tasting it (if the chef had tasted the fish dish he would have realized that there was no seasoning) is not acceptable for a restaurant that charges 150 EUR per person. Service was unequal as well : the Maitre d' was charming and considerate but our waiter delivered a very poor service. He was careless, did not introduce the courses properly and never refilled our glasses with water without us asking (no, we were not too lazy to do it ourselves, the bottle of water was on another table).

We were demanding because we had high expectations, and with its overpriced menu, La Table de Bastien did not keep up with our expectations. And if "value for money" is one of the five criteria required to have a Michelin star, I wonder how La Table de Bastien got its.

Cost: EUR 150 for the 7-course tasting menu