Lunch(es) at The Ledbury: from excellent to better

(Visited July and August 2012)

The world hardly needs, let alone from us, an additional review of The Ledbury and Brett Graham, a restaurant and a chef that have (justly) received so much attention and accolades already. So here's just a memory, a celebration, of two great meals, ten days apart, that we had there in the Summer.

The first meal was chosen by us a la carte and was entirely fish (well, not the desserts), while the second was put together by the chef and focussed on meat. The dishes here look like the room and feel like the atmosphere, both elegant and unstuffy.




Here they like (for several dishes) the theatre of bringing the just cooked produce at your table before plating, like these roast scallops:



Already these whole chunky beasts on their seaweed bed would have been just fine as they were...But we are not in a barn, what do you think, so you get elegant plating and lovely brassicas as a bonus



Lobster with fennel and elderflower really tickles and surprises as a combination and is poetic to look at:



 The cooking of this salmon was just exemplary, dare we say maybe not supported by the flavour of the salmon, perhaps its quality high but not as stellar as that of the scallops



 By the way, the famous flame grilled mackerel (no picture due to the excess of them on the web) is really as simple as it looks, as good as they say, and a piece of genius as you hope. You cannot not try it.

This fish meal pleased us, made us feel good and happy with the world as an excellent meal should, it made us admire the chef's marvellous skills, but for some reason -probably more to do with us than with the dishes- it did not take our breath away, which is rationally inexplicable by looking back at these dishes.

But the meat meal did it. It almost made us switch to Tripadvisor mode and scream ohmygod this was the best meal of my life...

Seriously, the best or not, and what does the best mean anyway, it had that rare kind of consistently stunning quality and inexorable culinary logic.

Of all the delicacies above, genius is perhaps most apparent in one of the simplest, the fine green beans with powder of foie gras (i.e. frozen and grated), white peach and raw almonds. This is essentially a vegetarian dish with a non-vegetarian garnish. In this 'inversion' lies the greatness of this most suave offering.

Meat lovers will be happy too (excellent the pigeon with cherries) and so those with a sweet tooth: both the chocolate pave' with milk puree' and lovage ice cream, and the brown sugar tart with poached grapes and ginger ice cream looked and were memorable, a triumph of flavour balance.

Service here adds another gear to the already impressive machine that the Ledbury is. Really great and hard working professionals in the front room, with an evident degree of autonomy and capacity for initiative, a well drilled, well oiled, and pleasant team (Sam was in charge on both days, what a nice chap).

Not only were we happy because Graham attains extraordinary combinations of flavours while avoiding any infantile ostentation of techniques and 'molecularity'- the technique is all there, but it is at the service of the dish, it's behind it, it's not the dish: this is what we call mature cooking (in this, we were reminded of L20 in Chicago). We were happy also because this is 2* Michelin eating for the modern era: what a satisfaction to eat in a place whose every aspect, from service to cuisine, is at the pinnacle and yet does not subject you to tedious formalisms, conventions, obligations: hurray!

(Note: the photos are unedited, 'straight from the table', and AS ALWAYS, unlike some fellow bloggers, we paid for these meal)

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Cambio de Tercio: Disappointing return

Just a short update (and photo-less: this meal wasn't meant to lead to a post...) to temper the glowing report on our first visit at Cambio de Tercio. 

It was obviously too good to be true.

The jamon, while having good flavour, was depressingly far from the delicacy the real thing can be (our memories of the real thing, during a recent trip to Spain, still painfully vivid). This was so hard and stringy (and also poorly cut) that we enquired whether maybe it was from a paleta (front leg), which can be a little harder. No, it's jamon, they assured us. So we guess they had just picked the worst bits: thank you.

A John Dory was presented with its flaccid skin and the accompanying squid wasn't properly cleaned.

The waiter made a lot of difficulty with our choice of wine (for information, a Quercus 2005 at £63 selling about £20 retail). 'I'm sorry, we have run out, why don't you get this one which is very similar?'. 'How can it be very similar, it's a 2010 vintage?'. 'Ah OK, how about this one?'. 'It's also 2010...'. 'OK, maybe I have the Quercus, let me see'. And indeed, probably after a search that he hadn't relished, he came back with the bottle...whose content arrived only much much later to our uncomfortable table, after the jamon had already been served.

And so on...

After this experience, when in a 'Spanish mood' we'll try some of the other choices in London. 

Or maybe, we'll use the savings made on wine markups and we'll fly direct to Spain...We noticed a disturbingly excessive £80 price tag on a Crianza Pago de Carraoviejas (a Ribera del Duero), when in Malaga we had the Reserva version of the same for fifty euros (40 pounds)!

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Istanbul: a few restaurant tips

(Visited July 2012)

A work trip to Istanbul, the chance to try a few places in the Taksim square area, and one (which was the best) in the old city. Read on.

First of all, in all cities there's that little joint you go to for basic grub that tastes true and simple and costs little. For us, this was it: 

at the crossing between Cumhryet Cd. and Asker Ocagi Cd., across from the Intercontinental Ceylan and one minute from the Grand Hyatt, though you are more likely to meet the local police force at the end of their shift than the residents of these hotels.

At Meze by Lemon Tree (Mesrutiyet cad No:83) the meze (which you could choose 'by sight') were undoubtedly of superior quality and featured interesting variations on the classics, as well as a nice balance of flavours. But the a la carte starters and the mains we had (aubergine, calamari and meatballs) tasted ordinary and devoid of good ideas.  Given the almost fine dining prices (for Istanbul), it's not more than average for what money can buy in the area. Should we repeat the experience, we would stick to the meze and we would be happy. 

Thoroughly disappointing, in spite of appearing on some newspaper article, was 9 Ece Aksoy (Asmalimescit Oteller Sok. No.9). On this we just want to say that it looks nice but the food is mediocre or worse given the prices. And service far too pushy as well. Avoid. 


Better was Pano Saraphanesi (Hamalbasi Cad. No:12/B Taksim). We went to this simple restaurant on the recommendation of a local friend. As we arrived, we were pointed to a table in the bustling street, but as soon as we (well, ok, our local friend really!) pronounced some secret magic words, we were ushered upstairs with the elevator leading to one of those sweet Istanbul roof terraces, where a few other tables were occupied.

We were told (or our friend was told) that they could buy some fresh fish from the market, and we agreed. They even came back to report on the high day price of the red mullet we had asked for, and offering to buy for us a smaller and cheaper, but still tasty, variety.

And so on...

In sum, we had a great evening of simple fresh food in a very relaxing and pleasant environment, but we cannot vouch for what it is like for unaccompanied tourists (the prices, however, were very reasonable also on the list). 


But the best of them all (and thus the only one deserving photos) was away from Taksim Nar Lokantasi (Nuruosmaniye Caddesi No. 65). 

 (Believe it or not, the above is a wall with plants.) Don't be put off by the fact that it occupies the fifth floor of a shopping centre for the wealthy. The restaurant itself, while elegant (both inside room and terrace) has character. Even more so the food, which featured much attention to details and some classy cooking, yet kept that down to earth quality.

The style of cooking is quite original and different from what one finds in the average lokanta, but without excesses of fancy: to the contrary, the cuisine firmly emphasises traditional methods.



Only one dish we found mediocre, and that was the soup. All the rest made us dream. As Italians, we very much appreciated the quality of the olive oils used.

The sweet department (you can choose for yourself at the display) is...well, sweet: delightful little treats that stick in the memory. 


There is also a pida oven that made us salivate but it appeared not to function on the (ramadan) night we were there. 



Most of the customers were local and were having a standard iftar series of courses.

Service is kind if clumsy, and be prepared to point and mime if you don't speak Turkish, as they don't speak English - but waiters were patient and somehow it worked. Prices will positively surprise you for such an elegant environment and for the level of the produce and the cuisine. 



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