Fera at Claridge's: a restaurant for a big occasion

Housed in Gordon Ramsay’s former restaurant in Claridge's, Fera is one of the most high profile restaurant openings in London this year which means that it’s burdened with a high level of expectation.

After a couple of lukewarm reviews* - and having seen the prices - I wasn’t even sure I was going to bother but when I was invited last week it seemed too good an opportunity to miss.

I’d remembered the room being rather dull but it certainly isn’t now. there is That Tree in the middle that everyone’s written about but it doesn’t dominate. What strikes you is how beautiful the room now is with its art deco look and shades of soft grey-green. It really is one of the most stunning dining rooms in the West End. Oddly cosy and intimate too, at night at least.

The food is ambitious as you’d expect from Rogan who made his reputation at the two Michelin-starred L’Enclume in the Lake District. It’s one of those meals which is so complicated that it’s hard to remember exactly what you ate. Apart from a couple of standout dishes which stuck in my memory - and one I didn’t think quite came off - I had to get hold of the menu afterwards to find out what we had. And that was even after checking the surreptitiously shot pix on my iPhone

Highlights? A pretty and delicious cocktail of pea shoots (right), with apple, marigold and what I seem to remember was a home-made vermouth - dry, herby and refreshing. A perfect aperitif. A bowl of unctuous warm potato purée with Winslade cheese (below, a new one on me and I know my cheese) with a spoonful of deep, savoury chopped duck hearts in the centre - but don’t let that put you off. Prawns [sic] from Gairloch with pickled alexander, asparagus and (heavenly) shellfish butter though I only remember one prawn. Classic French cooking with a modern twist. We’d unfortunately finished our rather interesting 'The Sylphs' Napa Valley Chardonnay from the Scholium Project by then but it was a dish that was made for a quality chard.

Some little crunchy mouthfuls of ...er.... rabbit, it must have been with lovage cream though it says ‘stewed’ on my menu. Confused. (Style note. Lovage is the new kale). Raw mackerel with caviar and seawater cream. Mmmm.

After that it all fades into a bit of a blur as we were busy talking (as normal, non food-obsessed people do). There was some very good warm malty bread I remember which arrived with whipped (goats?) butter and a pottery beaker of something faintly Marmitey) Nice though oddly homely and rustic compared to everything else. Something fishy (monkfish, my menu tells me) with cabbage, sea purslane and black saison. A refreshing savoury dessert of “Iced sorrel, nitro sweet cheese and apple” (below), basically a lozenge of sorbet with crunchy apple and a rubble of frozen (?) cheese. Rogan likes rubbles. I had to leave before the other desserts so missed the sweet cicely cake and smoked meringue. Damn.

The one dish that really didn’t do it for me was the Goosnargh duck with yellow bean puree, leek and hyssop, which I'm guessing had been cooked sous-vide. I know chefs love their sous vide machines but I’m getting to hate them. They make all meats taste the same - both raw and warm, an unpleasant (to me) combination. Duck in particular needs more intense cooking given its fatty skin. A rare slip in a pretty well faultless meal though portion size and lack of more indulgent desserts will irk some.

The service is relaxed but couldn’t have been more attentive or cossetting. Rogan himself emerges from the kitchen periodically bearing dishes, Noma-style. In fact the comparison with Noma, given the foraged content of much of the meal is irresistible. The British Noma, we will all be lazily saying.

There may be weeds and other wild plants scattered round with gay abandon but this kind of food doesn’t come cheap. You can have lunch for as ‘little’ as £45 (for 2 courses) but at dinner it’s £85 for 4 which you can at least choose yourself, £95 for the short tasting menu, which we had and £125 for the longer one. I’m guessing the bill for our dinner would have come to at least £150 a head with cocktails, wine and service. It would be easy to spend £200 a head without doing significant damage to the wine list.

But if money is no object and you want somewhere special to go to propose, for example, or to celebrate an anniversary or a Big Birthday it fits the bill perfectly. But book well ahead. I suspect getting a table may be difficult.

Fera at Claridge's is in Brook Street, Mayfair, London W1K 4HR. +44 (0)20 7107 8888

* Fay Maschler in the Evening Standard and Jay Rayner in The Observer.

I ate at Fera as a guest of Alice Marshall Public Relations and VisitNapaValley.com