When you keep coming back to a place, you can quickly run out of new nice things to say about it. And I’ve run out. Suffice to say that this visit was as good as all the previous ones.
There was a chicken liver pate to start. Full-on flavour of the pate contrasted with lightly pickled mushrooms and a not overly sweet carrot chutney. More contrast from toast and some salad leaves. A smoked salmon plate was more of an assembly job. It came with a pate – actually just chopped salmon bound together with seasoned crème fraiche (?), a dab of horseradish, salad and bread. Both starters were fine.
I always think of hake as a very Spanish fish and it came, perfectly just cooked through, with Spanish accompaniments – roasted peppers, aioli, patatas bravas and chorizo. It was quite a butch affair. And really lovely. Order the duck and you’ll be asked if you want it pink or cooked through. That’ll be pink please. And they do indeed cook it accurately. There’s wilted kale which worked nicely. And a rosti which didn’t – it might have stated off crisp in the kitchen but, by the time, it was on the table it had gone soggy. A rhubarb sauce brought a bit of sharpness to cut through the fattiness of the duck. Rosti issue aside, this was a good plate.
We both went with Eton mess for dessert. A good balance of flavours but, in a minor criticism, some of the bits of meringue were quite large and quite tough to break up.
