• Added: 21st of May 2007
• Area: Grange Over Sands
• Category: Restaurants

Grange Over Sands LA11 6PZ
01539 536362

chefbarham said
Everyone should eat here..........it should be the law!
Tucked away down a tiny village street in the small Lake District village of Cartmel is L'enclume. An ancient blacksmiths workshop (as you walk through the door you are confronted by an old anvil which has been turned into a bold piece of modern art.....L'eclume is french for anvil) which has been turned into an elegant restaurant with rooms.
The dining room here is fantasic, rustic whitewashed walls and flagstoned floor remind you that this is definately not a 'city' restaurnt, which for some reason seems to relax you instantly. The pristine table settings adorned with Villeroy & Boch crockery and cutlery are beautiful, and give you an indication that this is not likely to be your average village eating experience.
Once you are given the menu, you realise this is not going to be your average eating experience full stop!
The food is offered in four ways, an A la carte menu or three 'Taste & Texture' menus, 8,14 or 20 courses (the later of which must be ordered when making your booking).
Chef Simon Rogan certainly has a good sense of humour when it comes to naming the dishes on his menus, which have to be seen to be believed.
On our visit we opted for the 8 course offering at 55 per head. After very funky canapes (black olive lollipops and tomato medicine) and champange in the lounge, perfect little bread rolls preceeded the starters in flavours such as sea lettuce and walnut. The first dish to appear at our table was announced as 'Flavours On A Whim'....and so it began!

Each course was a bombardment on the senses. Stunningly presented with strange yet ingeniuos combinations of ingedients.
'Razor Roll Reversal' and 'Foie Gras..Realism meets Cubism' were two other dishes we were lucky enough to experience.

I cannot emphasise just how BIG the WOW factor is here, not just the food, but also the theatre that goes on at the table, one of our dishes was finished off at the table by the waiter turning a souffle out onto the plate then drizzling suace over it from a test tube, Very cool!

Becuase of the complexity of the vast array of dishes on offer at L'enclume the waiting staff need to be at the top of their game, and they are. This was some of the best service i have ever been treated to.

I cannot help but think if L'enclume was in London it would receive an awful lot more press attention and no doubt have two or even, dare i say it, three michelin stars. It really is that good!!!

Maybe when Simon Rogan opens his new place in Henley-on-Thames, it will receive the recognition he rightly deserves.

http://www.lenclume.co.uk/

• Added: 18th of May 2007
• Area: Bildeston
• Category: Restaurants

Bildeston IP7 7EB
01449 740510

chefbarham said
Suffolk's Crowning Glory!
This is not really a proper review because this is where i work, and it will undoubtedly be biased, which defeats the whole object of a 'review'.
I urge you to check The Crown Hotel out though as it is a beautiful 10 bedroom hotel with a restaurant serving, what is unquestionably, the best food in Suffolk.
http://www.thebildestoncrown.com

• Added: 18th of May 2007
• Area: Mayfair
• Category: Restaurants

London W1J 6PU
020 7495 7100

chefbarham said
One of the Best!!!
If perfection is your cup of tea, then The Square is definately for you!!

Stylish decor, slick service, precision cooking, lively atmosphere and tempting wines are all on offer in abundance here.

Our booking was for monday lunch and we were lucky enough to arrive 15mins early and be offered apperitifs in the lounge. We ordered two glasses of vintage rose champange, which was one of the finest i've ever tasted. A few minutes later we were shown to our table amonst a sea of suited business types, and although all the talk must have been about profit margins, corporate take-overs, and share holder buy-outs, it gave the full dinning room a good 'buzzy' atmosphere.
The menus arrived, and a bread basket was offered. Now.....in my eyes this is the biggest test for any restaurant, if the chefs take the time to make sure the bread is good (and remember, the customer doesn't pay for the bread), then the rest of the food (which the customer is parting with thier hard earned for) should be even better. This bread was fantastic, well seasoned and beautifully presented.
We were able to choose from four available menus, a la carte, tasting, daily and christmas. I think i would have been happy to order every dish, on every menu, but after much deliberation we plumped for the a la carte, and choose our three courses. however, before our chosen meals arrived we were treated to two delicate 'amuse bouche' to get our juices flowing.
I won't go into too much detail of the meals we ordered, although i do feel compelled to try and convey the skill with wich they were cooked. Every item on every dish was cooked exquisitely. Pasta was al dente, jus was rich yet light, cuissons were spot-on, foie gras was silky and soft and froths held their airyness. Every section in the kitchen was cooking to the highest standard, Philip Howard has definately found the right formula for his brigade of chefs.

Some may say this is one of the most expensive places to eat in town, but our bill, for two with wine, water and the vintage champers came to 200. But when you consider the sheer quality of the experience, i felt like i was ripping them off by only paying my 200 quid!

It is very rare that i leave a restaurant with a feeling of COMPLETE satisfaction, but The Square effortlessly filled me with that feeling, as i'm sure they do to 99.9% of the people who eat there.

• Added: 13th of May 2007
• Area: Bankside
• Category: Bars and Pubs

London SE1 9HA
020 7021 0085

chefbarham said

This is a very cool, intimate bar that serves some of the best cocktails in town. The food is o.k, I recommend the platter to share, to soak up a bit of the alcohol you will undoubtedly consume as you gaze out of the floor to ceiling windows over the thames and the cities skyline beyond(very romantic at dusk)

• Added: 13th of May 2007
• Area: Mayfair
• Category: Restaurants

London W1K 6US
020 7107 0000

chefbarham said

Bloody Fantastic!!!
A cool place to be, with a chic, lively, friendly atmosphere.
Good cocktails, good champers and the food......well.....what can i say.......the grazing menu concept is excellent, no more hard decisions about what to order.....just order one of everything! Here you will experience precision cooking and delicate presentation at its best. My recomendation for dessert is the peanut butter and jam sandwich.....IT RULES!!!

• Added: 13th of May 2007
• Area: Mayfair
• Category: Restaurants

London W1S 2XG
0870 777 4488

chefbarham said
Lunch in the parlour!
As the other reviews will tell you the decor of Sketch is something else, and it's definately worth poping in for coffee and one of the perfectly sculpted pastries (as they should be with the involvement of uber pastry chef Pierre Gagnaire), just to be greeted by the supermodelesque maitre 'd who has the backdrop of a staircase which looks as though it's had a ton of molten chocolate poured down it.
Anyway.....I was there for lunch on a monday, and as the rest of the place is closed that time of week, our only option was to eat in the Parlour. The menu was a choice of four starters, and four mains and dessert courtesy of the extensive array of afore mentioned pastries on display in the glass counter which welcomes you as you enter the room.
Our chosen starters were the marinaded vegetables and the fried duck egg with curry froth, and they did exactly what they said on the tin, no fuss or frills, but very well cooked with punchy, bold flavours. The main courses were equally well cooked, the butter roasted monkfish served beautifully opaque, and my duck with a rich caramelied skin yet moist pink flesh.
Then it was on to the pastry 'bar' for dessert, the only problem here was choosing from the 20 or so pant-wettingly good treats on offer.
The meal for two with a couple of glasses of plonk and bottle of water came to 65, which i would say was pretty good value, and not as hiddously overpriced as some reviews would have you think. My only gripe with Sketch was the two members of waiting staff who dealt with our table. They were abrupt rather than friendly, although that could just have been down to being very busy and having a full restaurant to look after.