Reservation
I only reserved our table on the Monday before our visit and was aware that I was cutting things a little fine, luckily however there was one table for 2 remaining at 12 noon which was fine for us as the restaurant is a 2 hour drive from Cambridge and would need to return the same day. The lady who took my reservation also informed me that we would need to vacate our table before 1:45pm, from a business point of veiw I can understand why however as a customer who has driven 2 hours and paid well over £100 for lunch I felt we were being rushed before we even arrived.
Food
Before our starters we received a selection of warm bread and a newspaper cone of battered whitebait with marie rose sauce which was presented in a wooden block and was both quirky and delicious.
To start Anna selected Truffled Pork Terrine, which was simple but elegant in presentation with various pickles, warm sour dough bread and truffled butter, which I have to say was rather luxuriously accompanied by 3 huge slices of delicious white truffle. A simple yet delicious dish that would have been amazing if the terrine was not fridge temperature and the full flavours could be realised.
I selected the Mussels Mariniere with Warm Stout and Brown Bread, a dish that had intrigued me from its pictures on the restaurants website and I had already pre selected before arriving. The dish could be described as mussels cooked traditionally yet with the shells removed and topped with a stout foam accompanied by a minaiture loaf of brown bread. The dish arrived and was presented in a different vessel to that pictured on the website and for me took the theatrical edge I had been excited about this dish away. However it smelt and tasted fantastic, real comfort food, the stout foam and butter in the mussels makes it quite a rich/heavy dish though. Half way through my starter I found myself crunching something very hard, it was mussel shell - two big pieces, I am not one to usually complain however when the waitress came to clear our starters I did point this out. In the words of Michel Roux Jr 'at this level its just not acceptable'.....the restaurant manager informed me she had removed the dish from my bill, however this was not what I was looking for I was more worried about another unsuspecting diner breaking a tooth.
Anna selected Venison with a Beetroot and thyme tart tatin for her main course
Let’s not be blinded by an error of rating from the Michelin guide. They will pay for this outrageous mistake. and I’m not the only one apparently to think like this. A shame for such an established guide.
ReplyDeletereview at http://wp.me/pYaBr-cm