Yes, we have no surrealism
Jun. 29th, 2007 09:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustWe finally found an excuse to dine at the new restaurant just up the hill: a birthday treat for Frances, who is great company for any social enterprise, but also a good person to go to restaurants with, as she is a retired catering lecturer, and for years there was no restaurant in the region which didn't employ at least one of her ex-students, so her presence guaranteed you good - if nervous - service. She has now been retired long enough that this is no longer the case, but she still knows her way around a menu: as does ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
desperance, so we invited him along as well.
Short version: an enjoyable evening in good company, with food which is perhaps not quite as exciting as it aspires to be, but hits a very high standard nonetheless.
The Gourmet Spot is a tiny (24 couverts) restaurant tucked into the downstairs of the Farnley Tower hotel (which I remember when it was a nurses' home, but that's another matter). The décor, both in the restaurant, and in the even tinier bar which serves as an antechamber, is all cool greys, wine reds and modernist chandeliers (I'd quote that line about good taste being a kind of aesthetic vegetarianism, but I'm not sure about those chandeliers...) Even the waiters were in dark grey suits and red ties, and looked like mods from the heyday of the Small Faces. But they found us seats, and we ordered drinks, and they brought us menus, printed on some kind of glittery grey sandpaper.
The aspiration is to serve two menus, one a set succession of dishes in the molecular gastronomy style, entitled "Surrealism menu", and a more conventional "Normality" menu. I knew that when the local paper's reviewer was there, the surrealism menu was not yet available, and I wasn't entirely surprised that we were only offered the "Normality" option - and a touch of surreal influence had crept in round the corners, a chocolate cloud here and a liquorice dressing there...
I started with the "hand dived sea scallops, liquorice dressing, cauliflower purée", and it was wonderful: the scallops were thick and sweet and tender, sitting on a row of forks in a satin-smooth cream of cauliflower (I'm very fond of cauliflower, but I don't often describe it as fabulous). The liquorice dressing was three little green spots of something intensely flavoured, but in such discreet quantities that it wasn't out of place.
The main courses were more mixed.durham_rambler seemed entirely happy with his "textures of pork", whatever they may be, but desperance would have been happier if his duck had been as lightly cooked as Frances's venison - and Frances would have preferred her venison to be as well cooked as desperance's duck (though she was surprised how much she enjoyed it cooked so lightly). My salmon steak was maybe a thought overcooked, but no more than that, and the accompanying seafood samosa was blissful, crispy and clean-flavoured. But the Bombay potato (and while potato would not have been my first choice of vegetable with this dish, I do love Bombay potato) was undercooked, with a crude curry-powder flavour, and completely out of keeping with the rest of the meal. I don't know what had happened there.
When there is "chocolate red chilli fondant" for dessert, there's nothing for it but to eat chocolate red chili fondant, and it was perfect: light chocolate crust oozing more chocolate, the chili not too assertive but adding an unmistakable warmth. It was served with a spoonful of coconut water ice - yes, in a spoon - in which the ice crystals were not broken down as they should be, and with a ginger syrup which had nothing to add to the star performer.
The wine list - as I knew from our earlier reconnaissance mission - was good: we had a rather nondescript fizz as an aperitif, and then when we came to our table, the waiter brought us each a glass of pink champagne (because, as winner of their competition, I am a member of their club): it was delicious, and I could have wished they had thought of this earlier, and given us time to enjoy it. Ah, well. But I was entirely content with our choice of still wines (though all I now remember is that the white was a viognier and the red was Moroccan). Presentation was beautiful; a range of white china, glass plates folded into different levels for the different components of a dish, or - for the duck - a rectangle of slate, with a line of red powder laid across one side.
Will we go back? The price is high - the ingredients are good, the cooking and presentation labour intensive, inevitably the price is high - so it isn't somewhere I'd go at all frequently, but if the place can survive until I next have an occasion that merits it, yes, I'd do it again.
desperance, so we invited him along as well.Short version: an enjoyable evening in good company, with food which is perhaps not quite as exciting as it aspires to be, but hits a very high standard nonetheless.
The Gourmet Spot is a tiny (24 couverts) restaurant tucked into the downstairs of the Farnley Tower hotel (which I remember when it was a nurses' home, but that's another matter). The décor, both in the restaurant, and in the even tinier bar which serves as an antechamber, is all cool greys, wine reds and modernist chandeliers (I'd quote that line about good taste being a kind of aesthetic vegetarianism, but I'm not sure about those chandeliers...) Even the waiters were in dark grey suits and red ties, and looked like mods from the heyday of the Small Faces. But they found us seats, and we ordered drinks, and they brought us menus, printed on some kind of glittery grey sandpaper.
The aspiration is to serve two menus, one a set succession of dishes in the molecular gastronomy style, entitled "Surrealism menu", and a more conventional "Normality" menu. I knew that when the local paper's reviewer was there, the surrealism menu was not yet available, and I wasn't entirely surprised that we were only offered the "Normality" option - and a touch of surreal influence had crept in round the corners, a chocolate cloud here and a liquorice dressing there...
I started with the "hand dived sea scallops, liquorice dressing, cauliflower purée", and it was wonderful: the scallops were thick and sweet and tender, sitting on a row of forks in a satin-smooth cream of cauliflower (I'm very fond of cauliflower, but I don't often describe it as fabulous). The liquorice dressing was three little green spots of something intensely flavoured, but in such discreet quantities that it wasn't out of place.The main courses were more mixed.
durham_rambler seemed entirely happy with his "textures of pork", whatever they may be, but desperance would have been happier if his duck had been as lightly cooked as Frances's venison - and Frances would have preferred her venison to be as well cooked as desperance's duck (though she was surprised how much she enjoyed it cooked so lightly). My salmon steak was maybe a thought overcooked, but no more than that, and the accompanying seafood samosa was blissful, crispy and clean-flavoured. But the Bombay potato (and while potato would not have been my first choice of vegetable with this dish, I do love Bombay potato) was undercooked, with a crude curry-powder flavour, and completely out of keeping with the rest of the meal. I don't know what had happened there.When there is "chocolate red chilli fondant" for dessert, there's nothing for it but to eat chocolate red chili fondant, and it was perfect: light chocolate crust oozing more chocolate, the chili not too assertive but adding an unmistakable warmth. It was served with a spoonful of coconut water ice - yes, in a spoon - in which the ice crystals were not broken down as they should be, and with a ginger syrup which had nothing to add to the star performer.
The wine list - as I knew from our earlier reconnaissance mission - was good: we had a rather nondescript fizz as an aperitif, and then when we came to our table, the waiter brought us each a glass of pink champagne (because, as winner of their competition, I am a member of their club): it was delicious, and I could have wished they had thought of this earlier, and given us time to enjoy it. Ah, well. But I was entirely content with our choice of still wines (though all I now remember is that the white was a viognier and the red was Moroccan). Presentation was beautiful; a range of white china, glass plates folded into different levels for the different components of a dish, or - for the duck - a rectangle of slate, with a line of red powder laid across one side.
Will we go back? The price is high - the ingredients are good, the cooking and presentation labour intensive, inevitably the price is high - so it isn't somewhere I'd go at all frequently, but if the place can survive until I next have an occasion that merits it, yes, I'd do it again.
