Simon Rogan at The Cube

It’s a complete indictment of my lazy southerner mentality that I’ve never made it up to Simon Rogan’s restaurant L’Enclume despite glowing reviews that would have had me charging half way across France for a similar experience.

But I was sufficiently impressed by my meal at his London outpost Roganic a couple of years ago to jump at the chance of eating at his recent pop-up at The Electrolux Cube.

It’s a weird venue - what feels like an Anglian conservatory perched on top of the Festival Hall, reached by some rather dodgy looking back stairs and a black grass carpet.. Fortunately it was a stunningly beautiful day which made for a jaw-dropping view over London and the afternoon sun poured onto our table for the duration of our seven-course lunch.

Rogan’s food is admirably light, elegant and colourful so every plate was a visual treat, kicking off with a spectacular irridescent ‘cod yolk’ - an egg yolk shaped salt cod mousse encased in saffron jelly served with kale, sorrel and squid ink.

The pairing for that was a 2011 Hunters Marlborough riesling which I thought was a shade too sweet. It was also paired with the next dish - a broth of turnip (Baldrick eat your heart out), the most fantastically light, delicious Westcombe cheddar dumplings, English truffle and apple marigold, one of many ingredients on the menu that were grown at L’Enclume or foraged from the surrounding countryside.

The cryptically named Aynsome’s Autumn Offerings (below) turned out to be an exquisite little plate of local root vegetables with flowers and herbs served with fresh curds and pork skin. That was matched with an accommodating Satzen Gruner Veltliner, Kremstal from Weingut Manfred Felsner - probably my favourite style of wine for this fresh-tasting kind of vegetable dish.

An intensely buttery dish of plaice poached in brown butter with red russian, mussels and oxalis root proved the best match of the lunch with a Domaine Roche Bellene 2010 Montagny 1er cru - no surprise there: white burgundy loves creamy, buttery sauces.

We then had the one red of the meal, a Domaine Serge Lafoue Sancerre Rouge 2010 with the only meat dish, ‘Reg’s Guinea Hen', leeks and offal, pennyroyal and Cowmire cider - which althrough it was cooked in Rogan’s elegant register was still too robust for such a delicate wine. (I’d have gone for a red burgundy with a bit of bottle age.)

Finally two desserts a rather strange, blackcurrant and stout concoction topped with a lozenge of sea buckthorn cream (that egg yolk shape again) paired with Quady’s Elysium Black Muscat and a dramatic-looking crunchy assemblage of pear, lemon verbena and hazelnut which was matched with a Paul Cluver Noble Late Harvest riesling. I’m not sure that desserts are Rogan’s strongest suit - they were pretty but not quite sweet or indulgent enough - or it made have just been I was suffering from sensory overload by this stage.

All in all though, a truly dazzling meal in an amazing location - as it needs to be given the prices they’re charging though I have to say I’ve paid more for less accomplished meals in a Michelin 3-starred restaurant.

And it does make me want to go to L'Enclume which I guess is the object of the exercise for Rogan at least. Harder to see quite what Electrolux gets out of it though. Would you buy a fridge or a dishwasher on the strength of a slap-up meal? I'm not sure I would.

I ate at The Cube as a guest of Electrolux.

Simon Rogan is back at the Cube from December 27th to 31st. Other chefs being featured include Tom Kerridge of the Hand and Flowers, Johnray and Peter Sanchez-Inglesias of Casamia in Bristol, Claude Bosi of Hibiscus, Atul Kochhar of Benares, and Daniel Clifford of Midsummer House. Bookings are taken for lunch at 12:00 for £175 a head and dinner at 19:00 for £215 (prices includes champagne reception, a minimum 6 course tasting menu and matched wines). Check the website for who's on when and call +44 (0) 207 288 6450 to book.

* It’s interesting how white wines dominate the pairings for this kind of cooking. But is that what you’d order if you went out for a meal that cost this amount?

 

Tramontana: ‘Brindisa lite’

I’ve been a huge fan of Brindisa, the Spanish food importer who was probably more responsible than anyone for putting chorizo on our culinary map. They have a great shop in Borough Market and a number of convivial tapas bars so it seemed good news when they announced they were opening Tramontana, a restaurant based on 'speciality dishes from the Spanish Mediterranean'.

Sadly a recent visit proved a let down not least for the toppy prices they’re charging.

Take the (admittedly tasty) Hamburguesa Blanco y Negro, a ‘mini-burger’ of white butifarra sausage and morcilla (black pudding). Now I’ve no idea what the wholesale price of butifarra is - maybe it’s a fortune - but £5 for what is basically a slider is ridiculous.

Rice is supposed to be the big draw but even single estate bomba from a “family owned farm” doesn’t justify £14 per person (minimum 2 people - i.e. £28) for a paella dish of bomba rice with iberico pork ribs and black pudding so heavily crusted at the bottom that at least a quarter of the volume had been lost. And I’m sure the mangetout perched on the top weren’t particularly Spanish. The rice dish with lobster our neighbours were having cost £20 a head. £40! You can order a generous portion of risotto at the River Café for £16-18.

Other dishes were more in the conventional tapas mould - jamon, croquetas, grilled lamb cutlets - all fine but the patatas tramontana, a baked potato stuffed with sobrasada (soft spicy sausage, cheese and duck egg) could have come from Spud-u-like way back in the 80s. And a lurid pink beetroot and hake ensaladilla tasted like mushed-up leftovers.

Somewhat discouraged the four of us shared just one pudding - a perfectly nice arroz con leche (rice pudding) with a sprinkling of cinnamon, a really good match with a glass of orangey moscatel Castadiva ‘Cosecha Miel’ from Alicante. The wine list in fact is great with a good choice of cavas, sherries and lesser known Spanish wines like the crisp, citrussy Verdil our waiter suggested.

But you wonder quite who they’re aiming at. The atmosphere is very different from the standard Brindisa, with a large bar and pumping soundtrack which doesn’t sit easily with the ambitious and slightly obscure regional food.

Maybe they’re trying to roll-out a more popular high-street brand, envisaging Tramontana as a Brindisa Ibiza or Brindisa Lite? If so they need to sort out their pricing as I wouldn't have thought that clientele wants to pay upwards of £50 a head for a casual night out.

For the time being if you want a good Spanish restaurant in London you can’t beat Jose Pizarro’s eponymous Pizarro in Bermondsey Street (maybe an unfortunate comparison as I've just been reminded he used to be executive chef of Brindisa!). And Donostia has had some good reviews. Or even one of Brindisa's own tapas bars but this one needs a rethink.

Tramontana is at 152 Curtain Road, London EC2A 3AT. Tel: 020 7749 9961.

* We were offered the wine on a complimentary basis

 

 

28-50 Marylebone: a smart West End wine bar for weary shoppers

Marylebone has been regarded as a foodie mecca for a while but the action's been mainly at the northern end. Now posh wine bar 28-50 has conveniently established an outpost at the entry to Marylebone Lane, not far from Bond Street tube - a new haven for weary shoppers or workers in need of a restorative glass of wine.

The chain (there are only 2 but bound to be more, I’d have thought) was set up by sommelier Xavier Rousset (ex Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons) and his business partner Agnar Sverrisson who also run the excellent Michelin-starred Texture on the corner of Portman Square. (Another good bolthole from Oxford Street.)

Their first 28-50 - the name refers to the latitudes between which grape vines can be grown - in Fetter Lane, just off Fleet Street, is housed in a cosy wood-panelled basement and has more of a City vibe. The new branch is street level with big glass windows and feels much more West End.

The big draw is the wine list which is packed with interesting and unusual bottles - all available in 75ml, 125ml ad 250ml serves. That makes it possible to try a couple of wines at very modest expense (prices start at £2.20) or even create your own flight.

I picked two, a beautifully crisp, aromatic Mathis Bastian Rivaner from Luxembourg (that was a first!) and a softer, richer 2011 Malvasia from Giovanni Blason in the Venezia Giulia region, which was very similar to the wines I was tasting in northern Croatia earlier this year. It’s a fantastic place to improve your wine knowledge.

Food-wise there’s a range of salads and soups, starters like smoked Severn and Wye salmon and salt beef brisket which also double as bar snacks, more substantial mains (grilled lamb shoulder with borlotti beans, Icelandic fish stew), grills (mainly steaks) and tempting-sounding desserts (lemon tart with yoghurt sherbert and almond and cherry cake with almond milk ice cream). There’s also a set price lunch for £14.95 for 2 courses but to be honest if you're in the mood for a bigger meal I’d go up the road to Texture, whose lunch menu is only a fiver more.

Dropping by 28-50 for a quick meal on my own I ordered a starter of aubergine with grilled courgettes, marinated peppers and goats curd (above) - surprisingly, served warm and more than generous for a first course - and a slightly over-caramelized onion tart with a lot of salad piled on top which was on the small side for a main. (Probably a bad plan to order vegetarian from a restaurant owned by a Frenchman. They never totally get it.)

There was a bit too much balsamic vinegar on both for comfort with the wines which I did mention so there may well not be by the time you try it. The dishes I’ve had at the Fetter Lane branch have been better but these are early days.

If - or rather when - I go back with a friend, as I'm sure I will, I’ll probably opt for a sharing plate of cheese or charcuterie or just a single dish. 28-50 is more about drinking than eating. It is a wine bar after all.

28-50 is at 15-17 Marylebone Lane, London W1U 2NE. Tel: 020 7486 7922 (you'd be well advised to book. It was heaving the day I went)

If you like wine bars you should also check out Vinoteca which has a branch in Smithfield, one just near Marble Arch and one in Beak Street in Soho which I reviewed here.

 

Brasserie Zédel: Paris comes to Piccadilly

If you’re the kind of sad, unreconstructed Francophile (like me) who thinks French food has gone to the dogs head not for Eurostar but the newly opened Brasserie Zédel in London’s West End. Housed in the late and not-much-lamented Atlantic Bar and Grill near Piccadilly Circus, it occupies a huge subterranean space which has been decked out at eye-watering expense in full fin de siècle style.

The guys who have deep enough pockets and the sheer chutzpah to pull off this feat are Chris Corbin and Jeremy King, founders of the Caprice and the Ivy and owners of the equally glam and celebrity-frequented Wolseley and Delaunay.

So reasonable are the prices - oeufs dur mayonnaise for £2.75! - that we assumed the portions must be minuscule and ordered way too much in the way of hors d’oeuvres - an heirloom tomato salad with shallots (£2.95), superbly garlicky paté with chopped jelly and cornichons (£5.75) and some nicely tangy céleri remoulade (£2.95) almost certainly made in house rather than bought-in as it would have been in Paris. Freshly cut baguette came from what looked like a boulangerie in the corner - a slightly kitsch but effective touch.

My carnivorous colleague and I decided to tackle the choucroute Zédel ‘pour deux’ (at £14.95 per person) which could easily have served six and which was presented with much ceremony by one of the servers - the choucroutier? - who dismembered the ham hock for us and reassembled it tastefully on top of our platter. He assured us we had enough boiled potatoes but given the amount of meat and cabbage (which was perfectly seasoned with a nice nip of cloves) I’d order a few extra as a side. (Since when did you see plain pommes vapeur on a menu, let alone at £2.50?)

Our 250ml pichet of fruity Alsace riesling (2010 vintage but unnamed) was the perfect accompaniment and not unreasonable at £12.10 though the wine list is almost certainly where they make their money.

Despite being unable to finish our choucroute we plunged into the puds - almost literally so in the case of a ‘bol de mousse au chocolat’ (£5.25) which came in what looked like a small mixing bowl. 'People like to share' we were told. The eclair ‘Paris-Brest’ - a choux puff filled with praline flavoured cream was perhaps the only dish that didn’t hit the mark - quite tasty but overchilled and a shade heavy. But who's complaining at £2.75?

The only other criticism (and I’m struggling) is that they didn't spell out that our Lillet aperitif was rouge rather than blanc (we should have asked but they still replaced it) and that they brought the starters and wine minutes after, leaving us little time to sip them. But they knocked one off the bill to compensate.

There’s a cheap prix fixe lunch for £8.75 for 2 courses and £11.75 for three and a plat du jour for £12.75 which I didn’t go for because I’m not mad about blanquette de veau which was on offer that day. Other specials like poitrine de porc farcie and lapin à la moutarde look more tempting.

If you’re not in the mood for food or it's too early to face choucroute there’s a little cafe upstairs where you can drink coffee and read the papers. (There's also a separate bar.)

Brasserie Zédel, in short, is a joy. Go before they put up the prices as they almost certainly will. (Apparently not, I'm told by Jeremy King on Twitter. But go anyway.)

(Our bill for 2 was £88.99 including an aperitif, 2 250ml pichets of wine (the other was a Picpoul) and 2 coffees. You could eat for a lot less than that.)

Brasserie Zédel is at 20 Sherwood Street. 020 7734 4888. Apparently they keep several tables for walk-ins.