Chelsea

The Painted Heron – Review

July 23, 2016 by Adrian

The Painted Heron Chelsea

112 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, SW10 0DJ

020 7351 5232/www.thepaintedheron.com

In my fantasy world I have the elegance of Dirk Bogarde, drive an Aston Martin and live in Cheyne Walk. This little stretch of exclusivity overlooks the Thames on the north bank between Battersea and Albert bridges, far enough away from the tube to keep the hoi polloi away and close enough to the action to keep me busy. In real life I don’t live anywhere like it but much to my surprise have at least staked a claim by finding a parking space outside Chef-Patron Yogesh Datta’s restaurant The Painted Heron where I have been invited to review the new a la Carte menu. I have previously reviewed Yogesh’s Indo-Chinese City outpost Bangalore Express which does a very good line in upmarket street-food but despite driving past The Painted Heron possibly a million times since it first opened its doors in 2002 I have never visited.We started the evening with some crisp, freshly cooked Poppadums-chutneys are home-made and unusually flavoured. Mango comes with a hint of cumin, there is a deliciously tart plum version, and the garlic and mint iteration is cool and refreshing. I’m drinking a fruity and floral Gewurtztraminer Reserve, Cave de Hunawihr, Alsace 2012 (£33) that stands up to the spices without being too sweet.The Seafood Grazing Platter (£25) was an obvious choice for a shared starter-Pollock Fish Tikka was firm-fleshed and not overwhelmed by the spicing, a crab dosa was elegant and light, tandoori prawns were succulent and a beautiful piece of wild pink salmon was beautifully spiced.Black cod came with a flavoured chilli crust, onion jam, onion and lentil dumpling, yoghurt (£24.50). The sweetness of the fish was intensified by the heat of the chilli creating a real depth of flavour, soothed by the yoghurt and jam.Chicken tikka, almond and tomato curry with clotted cream (£14.50) was rich, creamy and tender-a deluxe take on the standard curry house dish, and the accompanying Basmati rice (£3.50) was fragrant and flaky.Broccoli, cauliflower, sugar snap peas poriyal (£6.50) was delicious-fried veg in a luscious coconut sauce with just a hint of burn! Masala potato, sweet potato and broad bean mash (£6) was a spicy starchy heaven and perfect for mopping up the poriyal sauce.Hot Naan bread (£3.50) came straight from the oven, perfectly blistered and puffed up.We were brought out a mixed plate of desserts to try out; mango cheesecake, chocolate molten pudding, salted caramels and nut slice with coconut cream all impressed though we were pretty full by this time!In my fantasy world the cool,understated elegance of The Painted Heron would suit me fine and in the real world I’d like to see Yogesh Datta’s prize-winning restaurant getting a little more attention. The food is innovative both in use of ingredients and techniques but without compromising the intensity of heat and spice that creates its character and in these hot summer months with the newly opened Heron Terrace for Alfresco Dining there really is no excuse for not going.

Brasserie Gustave – Review

December 2, 2015 by Adrian

Brasserie Gustave Chelsea

4 Sydney Street, SW3 6PP
http://www.brasserie-gustave.com//020 7352 1712

Somewhere in the depths of my unconscious mind I have my own fantasy version of France. I am strapped down on a chaise longue being force fed Marrons Glaces by Leslie Caron whilst Edith Piaf warbles in the background. It’s a place I go when I need some respite from the Northern Line, Boris Johnson and assorted modern day horrors. Chef Laurence Glayzer and manager and sommelier Richard Weiss have gone one better creating their own imaginary France on a corner in Chelsea and Fiona (whose photos these are so thanks to her) and I have been invited to review.Their Brasserie Gustave, named after the redoubtable Monsieur Eiffel of the tower, has mustard yellow walls, red banquettes and posters of the Orient Express on the wall in case. The menu reads like a rundown of the classic hits of French bourgeois gastronomy and to top it all Richard Weiss, who hails from Alsace, is a dead ringer for Green Card era Gerard Depardieu. If you don’t know what I’m talking about you’re too young and should read another blog.I start with pickled mackerel with fennel, carrot and onion. This dish is insanely good and Fiona is only allowed a tiny taste. The pickling has left the fish really tender with a piquancy that cuts through its natural oilinessFiona goes for half a dozen garlic and parsley buttered snails out of the shell, their naked shame protected by tiny croutons and a puff pastry lid. In her blog she says that six were enough but confidentially she let it slip that she could easily have eaten a dozen of the little gastropods which were oozing sauce and sensuality.Seeing Fiona’s reaction to the snails Richard realised she was a game old bird and proposed for her main dish their last grouse of the season ‘roasted in the English style’. Still pink on the bone it was full flavoured but tender and came with game chips that didn’t last very long on the plate.Pour moi a dish of salted cod came poached in milk and served with a black olive crust. It tasted like the sort of winter dish you would pine for as the bitter north-westerly Mistral wind chilled you to the bone-that’s if you were living in one of those Provençal hilltop villages. I don’t but I pretend…Do I have any regrets in life? Yes. Not naming either of my daughters Suzette. The making of a Crepes Suzette is one of the great moments of gastro-theatre and one I strive to experience as often as possible. It’s as close to a religious experience as I am ever likely to have. It’s a baptism by fire and the holy trinity of orange, pancake and alcohol makes sinners of us all.With the recent closures of Racine and Chabrot Bistrot d’Amis the banking quartiers of west London have lost two redoubtable outposts of French gastronomy. However if you are looking for something authentic then Brasserie Gustave more than fits the bill, which isn’t cheap-but in this neck of the words why would it be!

The Five Fields – Review

May 12, 2015 by Adrian Leave a Comment

The Five Fields Chelsea

Follow @Hedonisttweets

8-9 Blacklands Terrace, London SW3 2SP

020 7838 1082/www.fivefieldsrestaurant.com/

Who the hell does Taylor Bonnyman think he is? Chef/proprietor of The Five Fields just off the Sloane Sq end of the Kings Rd, had the gall to open his luxe fine dining restaurant last year without letting me know. I had thought my restaurant antennae were operating pretty well but Bonnyman, whose c.v. Includes the 2 Michelin star Corton in New York, and his head chef Marguerite Keogh, from Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley, managed to slip right under my radar…

The restaurant is named after the 18th century Five Fields area of Chelsea. There aren’t any fields left thanks to Peter Jones et al but the rural link is tenuously sustained as the restaurant is supplied from Bonneyman’s parents’ kitchen garden in East Sussex. They are also Bonneyman’s main backers so let’s hope they can afford someone to do the digging.

The room feels French bourgeois with floral decorative patterns on the walls and suits the comfortably upholstered locals of a certain age who are spending £55 per head for three courses or £80 for a tasting menu. Her Ladyship and I mixed and matched from the tasting menu with some options being vegetarian but including pre-starters you might expect around eleven plates of food.

The pre-starters of a crab tartlet and some quince jelly on a bulgur wheat crisp were both intensely flavoured and very textural, setting a pattern for the meal to come-an impressive start.

A bowl of onion consommé tasted like a pure distillation of onion, simultaneously sweet and savoury.

Shellfish and potatoes-a wonderful seafood cream covered the fregola base.Smooth and rich-perfect for the clientele.

White asparagus is served with yoghurt and dehydrated capers. The flavour of the asparagus is offset by the lemon tang of the yoghurt.

Foie gras with tamarillo and passion fruit foam was described as fantastic by her Ladyship who is notoriously hard to please.

A crumbly goats cheese came with pickled carrot-a mix of crumble and crunch, with the rich flavour of the cheese cut through by the sweet pickled flavour of the carrot.

An apple and green shiso bonbon exploded in the mouth with the burst of citrus acting as a great palate cleanser.

Pigeon, pear and cranberry was very tender and full of flavour.

Falafel with pomegranate was deliciously spicy.

Roasted morels came with some crisp kale and an onion custard-this dish was a surprise, the kind of plate I would expect somewhere like Granary Store.

Translucent Cornish cod was served with shavings of Perigord truffle-a dish that epitomises the restaurant-perfect and precise cooking with great ingredients.

For dessert we had a camarelised banana with a black olive guile-the salt of the olive contrasting with the sweetness of the banana, followed by a great chocolate mousse with a Muscat grape granita.

Our meal at The Five Fields was marked by an emphasis on textures and intensity of flavours, something that is sometimes is lost in the fine dining world. They don’t do a lunch sitting and are booked up 6 weeks in advance. If you are interested in fine dining you should go.

The Worlds End Market – Chelsea

March 3, 2015 by Adrian Leave a Comment

The Worlds End Market Chelsea

Follow @Hedonisttweets

459 Kings Road, SW10 0LR

020 7352 2150/www.theworldsendmarket.com

It’s got to be a good thing that some of London’s finest Victorian pubs are being refurbished and relaunched as eating places. I went to Crocker’s Folly in St John’s Wood before Xmas (see my review) which is quite stunning; and now the The World’s End Distillery, dating from 1897, has been spruced up and become The World’s End Market ‘an innovative culinary concept that genuinely believes in healthy, fresh and flavoursome food.’ Since I genuinely believe all of those things too I’m very happy to have been asked along to review!

The World’s End Market is at the centre of World’s End, a section of the King’s Rd where I spent rather too much of the late 70s and early 80s hanging around in clothes stores; Johnstone’s for new wave jackets and pointy shoes, P.W.Forte for grey 2 piece outfits à la Ultravox and American Classics for …American Classics. Vivian Westwood was a place to gawp and wonder whereas Anthony Price and his Bowie/Ferry suits were totally out of bounds.

It was always a bus ride to World’s End as there is no tube nearby and even with the Overground it’s a 15 minute yomp from West Brompton. This makes it a local restaurant and it was certainly busy with boisterous locals on the chilly Monday night that Catherine and I visited.

The “Market” concept has been tried and tested at the owner’s Crystal Palace location and the Chelsea interior is an attractive mix of classic fittings and contemporary retro. The menu offer is based around (mostly) locally sourced produce with the starters majoring in tartares and carpaccios, and the mains featuring a selection of charcoal-grilled fish, steaks and burgers alongside a few vegetarian dishes and sides.

But we hit the cocktails list first. A gingery Moscow Mule (£8) and classic Negroni (£8) are both straightforward but well blended versions of the classics.

Seafood soup with toasted olive bread (£6.50) had a deep, rich flavour and was clearly based on a proper stock. It wasn’t the most generous of servings and the accompanying bread was too dry and didn’t add anything to the dish.

Sea bass carpaccio with horseradish, lemon, shallots and truffle oil (£7.50) was almost a ceviche and zinged with flavour.

Whole Rainbow Trout (£17.50) was sourced from Hampshire and came with a decent salad and crisp fries. The skin could have been more blistered by the charcoal heat but the fish had good flavour and texture.

Monkfish (£24) from Brixham was delicious. Here the carbon had left its mark on the fish which brought out its sweetness. The parsley sauce that comes with each fish was too dense for me. Some olive oil and lemon would have been perfect. By now I was enjoying a crisp glass of Verdejo (£8.90) that was great with the fish.

A selection of English Cheese (£6) was served way too cold which was a shame.

Chocolate Fondant (£5.50) was warm and gooey and didn’t really need the raspberry sauce.

With a few tweaks World’s End Market should become a firm local favourite-the interior has a lovely feel and the food offer is straightforward and attractive; for a fun evening out with friends or family it would be a perfect option.