The Man Behind The Curtain - Leeds

Now i'm firmly based 'Up North' and finally out of my (admittedly short-sighted) bubble of only keeping an eye on new openings in London, the announcement and buzz late summer around Michael O'Hare opening The Man Behind the Curtain in Leeds city centre certainly captured my attention. Mr O'Hare was an entirely new name to me but having done a bit of research and seeing details of the previous restaurants he'd worked for and menus he'd been responsible for certainty piqued my interest enough to book in. Am I ever glad that I did.

Michael is clearly somewhat outspoken about what he expects from this restaurant, just take a look at the 'thoughts' section on the restaurant website. Amongst the bravado, he talks about the goal for Man Behind the Curtain is "to create a restaurant serving ultra modern food that has its own identity. I like the idea of always having one iconic dish on the menu – not classic but iconic". I love that he's set himself such a high standard and set a mission statement like this on the website for him to be judged by in the future, and one that I look forward to checking back on in a few years to see whether he's succeeded.

One thing I wasn't particularly impressed with was the booking e-mail that requested that I call them to make a £20 deposit per person and a note near the bottom that stated "We kindly request that guests dress smartly for the experience, as such gentleman are requested to wear a jacket for dinner. Sports shoes and leisurewear are not permitted." I like getting dressed up for a nice meal as much as anyone and would've rolled with a suit anyway but I absolutely hate being told what to wear - especially when i'm sat in the restaurant dressed up and see people traipsing in wearing jeans and a scruffy check shirt. Some sort of consistency would be good in this regard, but I appreciate that a newly opened fine dining restaurant in the North can't always be as fussy as they'd like to pretend to be, given the reduced audience in the first place.

As a first impression on arriving at a restaurant, this was certainly one of the odder ones - there was a small sign in the window of Flannels clothing store advising that there was a restaurant on the top floor which I feel like could very easily have been missed, especially after a few drinks. Being greeted by a security guard holding a scrap of paper with reservation names on and then walking through a darkened store early evening was certainly a pretty underwhelming start to things and must be an absolute security nightmare. I did read afterwards that it has been used for a restaurant in the past making me even more surprised that they've never sorted this out with a stairway or some other means of access. It definitely made the restaurant feel secondary to the shop and given the attention to detail that was displayed throughout the restaurant itself (i'll get to this later), this introduction was a real shame.

Spirits were immediately lifted once we got into the lift and the menu was displayed to whet our appetites on the way up to the third floor. The evening menu is made up of one option - the  12 course 'Degustation' menu (dictionary definition of degustation, to save you looking it up is "the action or an instance of tasting especially in a series of small portions").

The wine pairing to match the tasting menu was pitched at a very reasonable £20 which covered 4 glasses in total or 3 courses per glass. 

The small but perfectly formed cocktail menu sounded interesting so it would have been rude not to get started on those.

"Violet Gin and Tonic"

"Tahitian vanilla"

This came encased in a solid ball of ice with the alcohol melting away in the bottom like a boozy slush puppy. The hollow vanilla pod as a straw was a nice touch.

"Antipasti"

A great show-piece to start, served on a silver tray and consisting of olives and anchovies with a drop of oil served within a clear edible bag. They were to be dipped into the glass of vermouth for two seconds to allow the outer casing to begin to break down and then popped it into your mouth to allow the bag to disintegrate leaving a delicious salty snack. A wonderfully imaginative small and perfectly formed introduction.

"Salty Fingers"

Creamy oyster emulsion served with an oyster shell, sat on a bed of flakey salt and surrounded by tart oyster leaf and 'salty fingers' which are a second type of edible leaf and a new one on me - crunchy and pleasantly bitter. The leaves were used to dip into the 'oyster' and the tartness of the leaves combined perfectly with the rich sauce. The sauce was so great it was a proper finger into the shell job to try every last drop.

"Potato"

Served hot, ths consisted of a piece of potato which was light almost like a tiny dumpling and served with a thin sliver of lardo and sprinkled with frieze dried raspberry for some extra crunch and sweetness. The spoon was still slightly warm to the touch and this whole course was like perfect miniaturised comfort food. 

"Pea"

One of those clever dishes that was both hot and cold simultaneously, served with a scoop of pea ice cream as the centre piece and which had hot pea soup poured onto the dish by the chef at the table. Beetroot, red cabbage and carrot sauce where then swirled through the pea to add colour and tartness to the soup. The whole thing tasted of the freshest most flavoursome peas and was incredibly light and enjoyable. 

It came served with a side of fresh bread with a portion of delicious fatty lardo and what was described as bacon crunch, essentially tiny flakes of crispy bacon. I assume the bread was meant to be used to dip into the pea soup but the fatty bacon spread was so good on it's own that it almost completely distracted from the pea. I was so impressed that even a casually introduced side almost took attention away from the stunning pea dish.

"Langoustine"

The crustacean was served in a moules mariniere consumme with drops of parsley oil. At first each spoonful was almost too much like taking a mouthful of salty sea water but as the initial burst of flavour subsided it became much milder, especially once i'd swallowed some of the juice and had the plump langoustine left to savour. The presentation was once again stunning, each spoon could be lifted away from the centrepiece but this was initially barely noticeable. 

"Fish"

The fish course apparently changes daily based on whatever is fresh at the local Kirkgate market which was great to hear from the chef. On this occasion I was served a beautiful looking piece of incredibly delicate cod loin, covered with tiny scraps of crispy potato and served in squid ink with a dose of what must've been vinegar powder sprinkled over the top. It was like fish and chips turned up to 11 and smelt absolutely incredible as it was placed in front of me. A truly stunning plate of food. 

"Veal"

In a change to the menu, the sweetbreads had been replaced with a portion of Lobster tail. Sweetbreads are one of my favourites so I was initially a little disappointed but what better than lobster tail as a replacement? The tail came served on a swirl of black garlic paste and a slice of dried milk skin on top as presentation. The milk and garlic were extremely mild taste wise, more there to add texture to the dish whilst allowing the flavour of the lobster to shine. 

"Ox"

A portion of wonderfully succulent ox cheek, swerved with a foie gras and cherry sauce then decorated with puffed salt and vinegar wild rice. The sherry paired with this course had also been used in the sauce which worked together and complemented each other exceptionally well. The crunchiness of the puffed rice with the ultra soft meat was another fantastic combination, another real highlight.

"Ice" 

Inspired by Tobacco and Vanille scent from the Tom Ford private collection. I'd had a sniff previously but it was a nice touch to have the sample card sprayed with the scent. Hidden inside the tin were two posh mini-milk type lollies flavoured with the rich vanilla and tobacco flavour of the perfume, which were chopped open with the haircutting scissors. A really inventive dish that worked on even more senses at the same time.

As a brief aside, I noticed this morning on a TripAdvistor review of the restaurant that ChesireTraveller80 mentioned "Top Tip... don't take the Tom Ford card you will have to give it back (you will know what we mean when you go)." WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE? 

"Strawberry" 

This was a dessert right up my street - light, refreshing and cleansing after the prior courses. Made up of a couple of fresh compressed strawberries and a scoop of parmesan ice cream, finished with basil snow and pieces of freeze dried strawberry, all served on a base of 'raw crumble' and balsamic gel. What sounded like a lot to fit in flavour wise worked together fantastically, the sweetness of the strawberries toned down with the parmesan and basil and that tiny taste of balsamic at the end the icing on the cake. Wonderful.

"Chocolate"

Left to right in the photo below, these certainly kept the imagination levels high. 

Frieze dried raspberry with saffron encased in milk chocolate. 

I'm not 100% sure on this one, I believe it was cep mushroom in dark chocolate

The highlight was the Campari and grapefruit liquid hidden away in the hard white chocolate outer - a down in one job if there ever was one as the centre was fit to burst with the smallest of pressure.

The final chocolate was a strip of crispy bean curd encased in milk chocolate and rolled in lavender and caraway.

"Fruit"

The final course was an ultra-refreshing portion of compressed fruit. Consisting of watermelon, mango, kiwi, pineapple, pomegranate - like drinking a huge glass of fresh fruit juice. 

Attention to detail in high-end places like this always really impresses me and the presentation throughout the restaurant and meal here was just fantastic, with the yellow coat hanger theme ever present, It was worked into the menu layout, the cutlery boxes, the dishes, the receipt and even down to yellow loo roll in the bathroom. Clearly no expense had been spared on the tableware, with bespoke dishes for most courses, fresh boxes of cutlery appearing regularly and even down to niceties such as the geranium Aesop handwashes and creams as well as 'post-poo' drops (snigger). One particularly impressive highlight was the carefully lit service kitchen at end of dining room which added great showmanship to the occasion. You can see from the low table that absolutely nothing was left hidden.

Massively impressive.

Overall, this was one of the most enjoyable dining surprises of the year for me and it will easily make my top 5 meals of the year, I went in with little to no expectations and came away massively impressed. There was absolutely nothing I could fault, which is rare for me. The service was absolutely impeccable, with a mixture of servers and chefs presenting each course with the usual explanations you come to expect in a restaurant like this. Honestly, it was up there with the best service i've experienced - extremely professional yet at the same time it felt laid back and welcoming rather than stuffy and sterile like fine-dining often becomes. I was full of questions as the food being served was genuinely interesting to me and everyone had answers on the tip of their tongue.

The bill came to approx £200 which covered two of the 'degustation' tasting menus, cocktails before and after dinner, wine pairing throughout, coffees and tip. Excellent value for the quality of food and an extremely enjoyable 3 hours in the restaurant. I wouldn't hesitate to go back and whole-heartedly recommend it.

Antidote - London

Antidote caught my interest in March / April after a lot of very positive reviews and given it's central location (on a side street off Carnaby St) it seemed like an ideal lunch spot during a day trip to London. Carnaby St and Liberty are a great part of London to spend time in anyway, the streets lined with everything from high end boutiques to quirky little one offs but the  majority of places have a strong identity of their own to stand out from the rest. I have to admit setting eyes on Antidote almost immediately put me off the place - The logo is the sort of generic MS Word 95 clip art nonsense that I could knock up myself in 5 minutes and would absolutely make you think twice before heading in. Given the given the competition in London it must be responsible for so many walk people just walking on.  

The impressive blurb on the website states that "[The] kitchen is under the guidance of Mikael Jonsson, Chef/owner of Michelin starred restaurant 'Hedone'". I often wonder what 'under the guidance' actually means in these situations but am aware and appreciate that some of the top chefs have restaurants worldwide that they have to supervise. I'm a big fan of cinema and it always concerns me when a film is 'Presented by' or like that terrible Mama film that had Guillelmo del Toro's name splashed all over it only to have had an 'Executive Producer' roll - It was terrible as a result. Fortunately (bare with me), this meal was absolutely not terrible and the chef Chris Johns will be doing nothing but good things if he continues to produce food of the high standard that awaited me here. 

Aside from the logo, the restaurant itself was a delightful space - a fairly traditional looking dining room with clean, white table clothes, but with large open windows overlooking the back street of Carnaby street and the restaurants on the other side of the street. It was very open, with clean white walls throughout, very well lit (this was helped that it was a perfect spring afternoon) and airy with window boxes stuffed with flowers as the background for the meal. I was eating early but it was worryingly quiet for a lunch time on a Saturday, I'm talking 3 other tables of people within the hour it took for this meal. 

The menu changes daily which can often be a little too Russian roulette for my liking but fortunately it was hit after hit on the day I visited. 

The amouse bouche was a prime example of the risks though, I know fennel definitely has that marmite effect and boasts a flavour and consistency that can completely drive people up the wall but I love love love fennel and so this dish of pickled fennel with fennel sorbet was right up my street.

The freshly baked sourdough had been raved about elsewhere and was reassuringly out of this world, I'm trying to think back to a better in-house baked restaurant bread and only the loaves at St John (naturally) and I had early days Upstairs at Ten Bells (which led to an internal dialogue of "do you think I could get away with buying one of these to snack on afterwards"- I didn't) comes close for me. Sure, your Troves and Baltic Bakes up here do the classics exceptionally but they're from full on bakeries. Suffice to say, the first portion was polished off quickly and the offer of a second bag of bread could not have been snapped up quicker.

Green asparagus, brown shrimp and confit lemon

A very impressive looking plate of food - several large portions of mixed asparagus that were lightly cooked and perfectly tender, the knife needed very little pressure for the veg to give. The brown shrimp were dotted around the veg and herbs alongside pools of a sauce that tasted almost like marie rose sauce, which made for a subtle reminder of a prawn cocktail.

Jersey royal, crispy chicken and wood sorrel

A really special plate of food - hidden away were several variations on the chicken theme including rich balls of chicken liver, chicken liver mousse, and shards of crispy chicken skin and wood sorrel placed over the top which added a real tang to everything. A great mix of textures and the different takes on chicken all retained their own distinct flavours. Great to see some good old fashioned spuds appear on a starter like this, used sparingly they added some nice weight to the opener.

Cornish pollock, artichoke, puettome and mussels

The pollock was a very flavorsome piece of fish, which melted in the mouth. The mussels were well cooked but retained some lovely wet juiceness. Sea purslane was dotted around to add to the presentation but the crispy shoe string potato was the real winner looks and taste wise - a great accompaniment to the tenderness elsewhere. The artichoke had been charred and looked wonderful on the plate but as ever didn't overly impress me with it's lack of real flavour.

Suckling pig, spring cabbage and lovage

The plate here hadn't done the presentation much justice as it was all at one end and the juices looked like they'd slid a fair bit during delivery to the table. The three sections of pig were all excellent, with a lovely fine layer of crackling as shown above. The hasselback style potato added some further crisp to the whole dish and the cabbage and tangy tomato sauce were very good as sides.

Apricot, elderflower and almond meringue

Another serving that looked to have slid around the dish slightly, leaving it looking a little messy. The apricots and chunks of biscuit were sweet and worked really well, the meringue I found to be quite odd - it tasted quite artificial, a really strange end to the meal.

The options are 2 courses for £19, 3 courses for £23 or 4 courses for £40. I skipped cheese and only tried one dessert so the bill for two came to a very reasonable £70 including wine and tip. The starters and mains were certainly very imaginative and felt very fresh flavour wise but the dessert fell a little flat. Despite this I would definitely be tempted to go back and keep an eye on the menu regularly to see what treats i've been missing out on.

Lunya - Liverpool

I decided to leave the confines of Manchester city centre for the evening and took a short train journey to visit Lunya in Liverpool. It sits just on the outskirts of the Liverpool One shopping centre and consists of a deli, restaurant and bar. The deli is absolutely jam packed with cheeses, wines, hams, pates and spanish beers and that's just scratching the surface - i've included a few photos down at the bottom to show off some of the range. The other half of the downstairs area of the restaurant features a bar along with a few smaller tables to enjoy food and upstairs is a large dining room area. It's a pretty much perfect setup and all fits together really well, they even have a seating area outside which is cracking if the rain ever lets up for a moment.  

The owners are clearly not short of ideas to keep the customers coming, hosting a regular series of special event nights such as suckling pig roasts, sherry tasting, ham carving and the 'Tastes of the Sea - Gourmet seafood night' which I attended on this visit. The concept for the evening was "a specially prepared gastronomic menu reflecting the influences of the sea in modern Spanish cuisine" with a "tour of the coastlines of Spain with a take on classics and some wonderful new recipes showcasing fabulous ingredients". They'd certainly set themselves one hell of a high target to hit with that brief.

This evening they had arranged two long banquet style tables against the far wall upstairs to keep everyone close together. This really helped aid the introducing of each course by the chef and owner of Lunya, Peter Kinsella who came across as exceptionally passionate about this style of food and the ingredients he'd hand selected for this menu. It was great to listen to him set the scene and then watch him scurry back into the kitchen to get on with the cooking. Each course was also accompanied by a glass of wine which is always a pleasure, each drink was introduced with a brief history lesson and an explanation as to why it'd be chosen at that stage of the meal and how it would compliment the course to follow.

"Potted Southport bay shrimp, Catalan style" - An excellent starter of potted Southport bay shrimp, main flavours of Paprika and mace. A lovely slightly gritty fatty topping with bread to dig into the potted shrimp with. It was my first taste of mace (to my knowledge) and the comparison to nutmeg definitely made sense, it added a gentle warming sensation to the dish.

"A taste of Galicia; Percebes (Gooseneck barnacles), samphire salad" - Certainly one of the strangest things i've ever eaten and a nightmare to try and describe, it was essentially a tiny stretchy tube stuffed with seawater attached to a piece of rock on one end and what looked like a dinosaur claw at the other. The chef introduced this dish advising that they're one of the most expensive ingredients he buys as human life is literally at risk due to the specific areas they can be harvested and the danger the collectors have to go through. To get into the 'meat' of the dish, I had to twist the rock from the bottom and then separate the mussel from the claw section. The tube had seawater trapped inside meaning I was getting sprayed with seawater by complete strangers, it was completely unavoidable and a lot of fun - a great talking point. The barnacle itself was delicious, a tiny very chewy piece of seafood - the water they were trapped inside had infused them with a rich salty flavour. Almost completely unique, I was left absolutely wanting more. The Percebes were accompanied with an enjoyable little side of samphire, a well seasoned bit of bulk to add to the satisfying but not filling main event.

"King prawn & mussel ravioli with langoustine bisque" - This dish consisted of a single generously sized ravioli, the twist here was that no pasta was involved as it was entirely made of prawn which had been crushed together to form an outer layer which was stuffed with seasoned mussels and a hint of tomato. Another extremely fun course and something i'd not experienced before, the prawn outer was as similarly filling as pasta but with a really meaty prawn texture. Another dish that I could've eaten a tray of and feel like I couldn't possibly have gotten bored. The giant battered langoustine and bisque would have been highlights on many menus but were completely overshadowed by the raviloi. Another fantastic plate of food.

"Crayfish, Palamos prawn and lobster fideua" - Fideua, which was introduced as another traditional Catalan dish, this was essentially paella but in this case made with Angel hair pasta instead of the traditional rice. Crayfish and lobster were cooked through the Fideua in crab stock giving it an exceptionally sweet and rich seafood flavour and it came served with a huge naturally red Palamos prawn, the background story was that these were another rare treat, this time harvested from the ocean shelf 5km off Costa Brava. A huge dollop of Alioi which certainly didn't go easy on the garlic (in a good way) mixed into the pasta to make everything lovely and creamy.

"Chocolate ganache torte with salted caramel sauce" - A delicious dark chocolate ganache torte was served as dessert, when done correctly a tart like this can be a thing of astonishing beauty and this torte was taking no prisoners. I was expecting it to have a salted caramel layer hidden away somewhere but this was actually dotted around the outside of the plate, it pulled no punches on the salt either, very much to my taste and a perfect end to the meal.

I had to rush for the last train back to Manchester so unfortunately didn't get chance to fill a shopping bag in the deli but i'll be back. I've got a dream day in Liverpool starting to line itself up - Baltic Bake, Camp and Furnace, onto Bold Street Coffee and then Lunya for an evening meal and a bag of treats would be one hell of a day. 

They do these nights every few months and they are definitely very highly recommended.

Aumbry - Prestwich, Manchester

I've had such a long list of places to check out in the city that i'd found myself getting a bit lazy and sticking to places I could stumble home from after a big meal and beers / cocktails / wine (delete as appropriate depending upon the dinner i've had that evening). Aumbry has been right near the top of my 'to eat' list even before I moved North so I decided to get it ticked off. 

I'd been hoping to use the trip as an excuse to explore Prestwich a little but it was an absolutely miserable night and none of the pubs on the main street looked particularly appealing. Fortunately turning up early didn't cause any issues at all and we were greeted extremely warmly and were offered a drink in the lounge where we could browse the menu and have a pre-dinner drink. 

From the outside, the restaurant has the appearance of an adorable little house tucked away on an unassuming side street and this homely feel continued upstairs, it all felt very informal and almost like having a gin in your nans front room. I managed to have a quick nose through some of the cookbooks on the window sill upstairs and was impressed that the first one I opened (Momofuku) was actually signed (presumably by David Chang but the signature was indecipherable).

We started sharing a couple of drinks, The first being a gin and sherry cocktail with rose petals and elderflower, fantastic deep warming flavour. The second was a Bellini, which is pretty difficult to make a mess of and was a solid rendition.

Cucumber infused water was served up as a palate cleanser shortly after the drinks. It dawned on me half way through that sipping this and then my cocktail was probably pretty much missing the whole point but it was a refreshing little drink all the same.

A few snacks were also served in the upstairs waiting room. Mini savoury profiteroles were first, extremely delicate pastry still very warm from the oven and filled with liquid consistency melted smoked cheese that immediately burst all over my fingers. 

A small bowl of deep fried peas with salt and vinegar quickly followed, very crunchy battered peas with black bean mousse hidden beneath. The crispy topping was so delicious that i'd scoffed most of it before noticing the dense pea mousse hidden below which had little flavour on it's own, a better explanation of the dish or how to eat would definitely have helped with this one.

(Clockwise from top left; gin and sherry cocktail, profiteroles, palate cleanser, deep fried peas with black bean mousse)

At this point we ordered the food (a choice of 6 or 9 courses) and wine which was a nice touch as it meant no menus were cluttering the table as we were seated downstairs.

The dining room continues the quaint cottage theme (not really a theme as such I suppose as it is a house after all), some of the photos such as giant Dennis Hopper overlooking the room didn't really make any sense to me but definitely gave the place a clear personality of it's own. I was really surprised by how small and cosy the dining room felt - there was only space for around 40 covers with a full view of the kitchen from any of the seats.

First up ahead of the food starting was another palate cleanser - this time it was a wonderful wild flower green tea with honey, served in a delicate china cup from a tiny teapot. A very twee start to proceedings which did it's job well - by this time i'd necked my cocktail so did genuinely need a cleanser before dinner proper began.

The first food course was Bury black pudding scotch egg with tomato sauce and set the scene well for the standard of cooking to come. The scotch egg was stunning, the still tender quails egg finished with a perfect fine crisp outer crust. I bit into the egg expecting the lining to be dense but it was lighter than I thought pudding could possibly be. A whole bowl of these still wouldn't have been enough - a really clever first course to start the meal.

Next up was cured goat ham, accompanied by goats cheese, a sprinkling of fresh sorrel and with a tiny piece of crackling sat on top. I haven't eaten a lot of goat previously and it's a flavour i'm still getting accustomed to, it tasted great here and the mix of the textures was very impressive - the cheese worked so well with the sorrel.

(L-R; Bury black pudding scotch egg, bread, dipping and butters)

A bread course followed, the bread itself was fine but the show here was entirely stolen by a small dish of beef dripping which was just incredible, so dark and rich. Two butter options also appeared with the bread - Bolton salted butter and brown nut butter. I'm a real fan of salted fresh butter and these were both fantastic, like the dripping they both had a really deep flavour but with their own subtle differences.

No extra bread was offered and the butter dishes themselves were left on the table until the first dessert course - we heard other tables offered more bread but not us, this sort of poor service that starts to take the shine off a meal like this.

Smoked mackerel with roast celeriac and rye crisps up next. The mackerel tasted almost raw and was very fresh on the palate, the accompanying taste of mustard obvious but not overpowering with crunchy celeriac and rye crisps adding a rich savoury element to balance everything. Another very impressive dish - flavours, textures and presentation all perfect.

(Clockwise from top left; cured goat, smocked mackerel, hare, scallop ceviche)

At this point things really slowed down and we had to wait approximately 25 minutes for the next course to show up, these things happen when enjoying taster menus and i'd hoped this was down to delays in the kitchen that they would catch up on as things progressed.

Scallop ceviche was an odd one, i'm a huge fan of scallops but here the tender, melt in the mouth scallop together with the bitter crispy vegetable was too different and just didn't work together for me. The small pieces of bread placed around the outside were unusually soft and the consistency made them quite interesting in themselves but just another addition to a dish that further confused it all.

It's quite unusual to see hare on a menu so was really looking forward to this course. The meat was very dark and chewy as you'd expect, almost verging on the taste of kidney with the slightly odd scent it often has. The meat with the tart crisp turnip cubes absolutely wowed me, a much better combination than the previous scallop course.

(Left - cheeses. Top right; suet pudding. Bottom right; goat two ways)

Next up was suet pudding, accompanied by a piece of plaice. I'd had a few glasses of wine by this stage and my notes go slightly askew but i'm sure the waitress mentioned oyster to some regard. The suet pudding itself was extremely rich and heavy, exactly as you'd want but was essentially hollow with what resembled a mussel hidden away in the bottom. This was one of the densest courses I remember on a taster menu and worked well at this stage of the meal. 

Next up was goat two ways with kale and charlotte potatoes, this time the animal appeared to have been slow cooked resulting in an extremely succulent meat which was complimented nicely with the vegetables. 

Cheese – 6 various selections with oatcakes and three chutneys including apple and a traditional onion. The cheese portions were not exactly generous but a thought out mix, all having very different flavours - I was particularly impressed by one of the offerings and had to get the waitress to remind me of the name so I could stock up in the future. 

Grapefruit posset with celery granita and a spoonful of sherbet was the first dessert course. Extremely enjoyable, the first spoonful of the granita with the sherbet and posset was just fantastic - the rich custard base went on to mix with the granita as I continued to eat and it just got better and better. 

There was a further dessert course of rhubarb and broken meringue, again very good.

Sweet black pudding then followed, this time the "black pudding" was made up with black forest gateau - a clever play play on the first course of the menu and took the meal full circle. 

(Clockwise from top left; dessert black pudding, rhubarb meringue, petit fours, grapefruit posset)

By this point the long wait between courses was starting to get unbearable and we were tired of waiting so just asked for the bill without teas or coffees, this seemed to immediately send the staff into meltdown and a couple of petit fours came very quickly.

The petit fours were olive oil biscuits with orange cream, then rhubab and custard jellies with popping candy, which were very cold and finally a hazelnut caramel milk ice lolly, which I was advised to eat quickly before it melted but wasn't very cold.

Final mini dessert snack was a apple kickshaw, a bite sized apple fritter. Very sweet and doughy like a fresh doughnut. 

Overall the food very extremely impressive and very highly recommended. Unfortunately the meal was almost ruined by the pacing which was very poor and not at the level you’d expect for somewhere of this standard. I appreciate that some of the dishes require a lot of preparation but to have the initial 3-4 courses appear very quickly to whet your appetite and then see delays from the kitchen stretched to over 30 minutes between the courses at times. The best example of this is that the cheese course took 20 minutes to appear which for something that takes little to no preparation is staggering and made the choice to add it in completely regrettable however good the cheeses ended up being. 

The 9 courses, plus extras took approximately 4 hours and for such a small restaurant and number of covers it's bizarre that things could be so poorly paced. The only choices on the menu were 6 or 9 so they had on a la carte to deal with. I did spot on the website that they can prepare a 12 course taster with prior notice, presumably this prior notice is needed so they can contact the council and extend their late licence for the extra couple of hours needed to serve the additional courses.

I’m glad to have been and on the whole the food was of a high standard and I would definitely go back at some point in the future and prepare myself for the service. If everything had been smoother it’d take the experience from a 7/10 to a solid 8 or 9.