1 Lombard Street
London
EC3V 9AA
Having shed its Michelin Star in 2009, 1 Lombard Street seems to be rallying to regain its favour with diners. Located in the Square Mile, where dining without an expense account is unthinkable, the restaurant is currently offering a '5 course' menu for £19.50 in its brasserie to win over new custom. Really the menu is 3.5 courses, but I jump ahead of myself.
Bread is served promptly with butter. A selection of wholemeal and white bread with caraway seeds. Chewy and moist, it's good, but not great. Certainly not Michelin great.
The a la
carte menu offers a plethora of dishes, vegetarian and omnivorous alike.
Meals are described in fanciful terms, but the protein/starch/greens
combinatorics underpin an easily recognisable modern-euro menu.
The chef's dishes of the day sound delicious, but from the lengthy selection it seems they don't actually rotate daily. Your reporter could be wrong on this point.
Dinky small portions of flaky sea salt and coarsely crushed pepper are set out on the table. I personally believe that if these are present, they should be served with salt-spoons. Asking diners to grab salt and pepper with their fingers is just asking for an outbreak of something nasty.
First up: potato and young garlic leaf soup with toasted pumpkin seed oil.
The soup is velvety and smooth - the perfect texture. Without a spoon to use, it clung lovingly to the sides of the espresso cup. The flavour was mild with distinctive but mellow hints of garlic, reminiscent of sweet garlic
scapes. The pumpkin seed oil assaults the nose and the palate in a firm, but gentle manner - akin to being marched through the complex flavours without being allowed to stop and savour each element. Less fancifully, it tasted like toasted sesame oil, but with pumpkin instead of sesame.
An interlude to stare at the
decor before the next course: built in a former bank, the brasserie is smartly decorated with friendly lighting and comfortable seating. The tables are not crushed into every space, and there is an opulent 360 degree bar in the centre of the room beneath the
light well for those with serious expense accounts.
Asian seared prime salmon with blah blah blah. As we'd only glanced briefly at the verbose menu, we could only guess at the
accompliments, which made for very interesting conversation. The salmon was grilled and topped with a deep fried leaf of coriander. Served with three sauces that we identified as possibly reduced
teriyaki, pickled
daikon and salsa
verde (from left to right), and a salad of
cerviche topped with baby leaf.
The
cerviche caused the most confusion, as it had the texture of fine fish, but not really the bite: each tiny orb parted on the tooth without any noticeable sign of grain. A thought it might have been
cerviche or tartar of scallop, but lacked the seafood taste. Of course, it was aubergine, which we hadn't figured out till much later.
The sauces were a little superfluous, especially the first and third. The brown, possibly
terikyaki sauce was reduced to a
gloop and by the time it was served, had congealed into thin strands of
gelatin on the plate. It certainly wouldn't spread or dip, so was best tasted by being scraped up with a fork. The minced
daikon added, well,
asian-ness, but not flavour to the fish. The salsa
verde was fine, but this time a little too runny to serve with the fish.
The salmon itself was fantastic - one of the best cooked pieces I had ever eaten. Barring the Fat Duck version of salmon (which I loved except for the licorice gel), this was definitely the best presentation of what is a fantastic but easily overcooked, overused and 'boring' fish.
The meat was juicy and pink, without being raw. Cooked all through yet retaining its flavour and juices really made this dish shine.
Slow cooked
caramelised lamb with
cassoulet of white beans, parsley mash, truffle oil. Well, it pretty much is what it says on the tin.
A thought hers wonderfully cooked; I thought mine a little tough for a slow cooked belly of lamb. Execution is pretty much excellent, with alternating layers of lean and fat tied into a
roulade, the flavours were clean and savoury without an overwhelming smell or taste of lamb, which can dominate cuts with more fat. The white beans were stewed to perfection, with a tiny amount of tooth, but mainly melting starch. The mash, often an easily overlooked component, was buttery and smooth. One shudders to think of the quantity of cream and butter it might contain.
A palate
cleansing granita. Superfluous, and not terribly well made. Possibly rose water, possibly
pomegranate, the flakes of ice were sometimes too large, and slightly watery and unpleasant on the tongue.
By now the light began to fade (as you can see), and dessert and cheese were ordered.
A was delighted by her mulled bilberry with blackberry meringue, with vanilla ice cream.
The meringue was competent, but the
compote of bilberry and blackberries were bright, sweet and flavoursome, and the vanilla ice cream rich and bursting of real vanilla.
My cheese platter was competently chosen, with some rich and full bodied cheeses. Somewhat let down by presentation, we were willing to overlook the rather aged and worn plate due to the quality of the cheese itself.
The damage: two very reasonably priced and excellent dinners, a bottle of wine and a
bottle
of water, with service came to just a tad over £76. The wine list is extensive, but heavy on the wallet. As an aside, they are a member of the
Gourmet Society.
The service is highly competent but with moments of major flaw. A's soup was served in a cup heavily crusted with somebody
else's dinner; apologies were profuse and a replacement was prompt. At times the staff looked confused - we were led to our table via a tour of the restaurant, after the
maitre'd seemed unsure where to seat us. Our initial reservation had been lost, and it was only due to us calling to change the booking that this was discovered. Our food
busser arrived at the table with an enormous tray, but nobody to help serve; it took several minutes of desperate looks from him before a waiter came to relieve him of his burdens. Etc, etc, this was not fine dining, but it could be once they sort out the minor issues.
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