One O One (London): fine seafood

(Visited mid-March 2012)

Well, we finally closed our eyes and ignored all the almost irresistible competition in the vicinities of this restaurant, that we had ignored for so long, and managed to cross the One-O-One entrance for dinner.

Smart room, with those curvy walls that give an eighties feel. We like it.


And the beginning is promising. The bread is very well made (no mean compliment from us...) and comes in several qualities, the seaweed flavoured butter  is a big success, and the amuse, a fennel vichissoise with salmon confit is fresh and delightful and speaks to us with those olive oil drops.

We tried the signature Wild Norwegian Red King Crab, both visually theatrical and and delicious on the palate in both of the versions we chose. Woman went for the cold version, simply accompanied by a mayonnaise sauce (good). 

In truth, this was the best way to appreciate the marvelous flavour of the enormous legs of this beast. It was fun to eat, too, even if not very conducive to conversation.

Man opted for the more elaborate version with sweet chilli and ginger sauce. 



It was a very classy sauce with a pleasant, far from overpowering kick.

These are not cheap items but they would have been worth the full price (£27 apiece) that we didn't pay (courtesy of the usual toptable offer).

Then the seabass (also from the Barents Sea like the crab, according to the waiter) in salt crust, the preparation of it a piece of theatre seen one thousand times but, like cricket, endlessly fascinating (or have we by any chance said this already?). 

Compared to the similarly prepared fish we had had a few days earlier in Seville, we must say this London one was much better cooked: absolutely precise cooking in fact, the flesh delicately moist (however, the flavour of these Northern basses of course never matching that of their best Mediterranean cousins). Well presented too, accompanied as it was by various mollusks in a razor-clam shell, a slim cylinder of potato puree, and an airy shellfish champagne butter sauce with a sea lettuce mash, the protagonist of this dish really had the space to shine, and at the same time the chef had the opportunity to show his finesse. A very very well-judged creation. Again not cheap (£60 for the entire fish), but also very much worth it.



We skipped desserts, we skipped wine (the next day a rustic mega eat and drink at Briciole was on the cards...), and even resisted the petit fours (well, ok, let's say we did not finish them all) but we had the chance to verify that they belong to the ever expanding 'cannot make espresso' club of fine dining restaurants.

Service is sweet once you manage to get their attention, which is not always easy with a rather full room. The cost was less than £100 overall with a 40% Toptable offer, no wine, no desserts, a 1 Litre (much appreciated) water bottle, and a tea and coffee. A price and a treatment that put a smile on your face.

In sum, this was a very accomplished seafood meal, a venue to try again. We feel that the a la carte menu offers the most sumptuous and enjoyable dishes (at the nearby table a Dover sole also looked very enticing), but we also want to try the lunchtime smaller dish sequence, which appears to be good value (a report by stalwart egullet contributor David Goodfellow, with far better pictures to boot, is here), even if you may end up leaving a little perplexed, like David. And then again for dinner, possibly many times. If only Koffman's wasn't so close  


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Egana Ortiza (Seville): finest seafood

 
 (Visited early March 2012)


When you enter the spacious, well appointed conservatory style room past the (luxury) tapas bar area, you may get the impression it's going to be an expensive evening. And when you realise that they have failed to write down your booking and consequently are not ready at the agreed time, you may expect it's not only going to be expensive, but also frustrating.

After this unpromising start, matters rapidly get worse. Even though we are seated at an enormous table, the stiff, sullen personnel starts immediately grating on Man's nerves, much to Woman's worry, and when 'in exchange' for a 2.70 euro cover charge (per person) he is offered a single type of totally ordinary bread and, even more criminal, scandalous bog supermarket quality olives (in Seville! in Seville!), he's already fuming. 

Thinking about leaving but then just wearily resigned to the worst.

 

 Just while he is moaning about the absence of an amuse bouche, these arrive.





Oooh, it's chistorra, typical of Basque countries (the Chef here is Basque), a pork sausage fiercely aromatised with paprika and garlic. Well it's not fine dining, but swithcing into trattoria mode, it's damn good.


One piece of advice: if you want to avoid splattering your crisp clean shirt in red sauce like Man, avoid forking said sausage with too much energy.


Anyway, at least the pathetic sight of Man's shirt after the chistorra treatment had the unbelievable effect of extracting a smile from the mask of suffering that was the waitress, as well as the kind offer of a (magically effective) cleaning serviette.


Perhaps warming to this imbecile who can't even eat a chistorra in a civilised way, the frighteningly serious manager, maybe an out of work torero, advises very well on wine, and without a hint of upselling. So he recommends a bottle half the price of what we would have spontaneously chosen, with which we were very happy.


When he takes orders, we tell him that we are going to share everything. We always do this, but we very rarely get the kind offer that we get here, that the chef is going to plate half portions each.


So it is that our first half starters arrive the Langoustines

As you can see we had four animals each, meaning that a full starter portion of langoustines here includes eight. Eight! Now, we've got to say, when we think back to London, and in particular to the super-refined but miserably solitary langoustine at Alyn Williams, if we had to say where the real joy of eating seafood is, how long do you think we'd hesitate to answer? Obviously HE could not plate half a portion! Here, they were fabulously fresh, perfectly cooked and prepped, the seasoning also good but just this side of too salty, with a good variety of crispy and soft vegetables. And to finish the triumph, the olive oil is also of superior quality.


The second starter is Almejas a la sarten con gambas, gulas y refrito de ajo

The gigantic almejas, the interestingly 'squashed' prawns and the spaghetti of eel form a very, very fine match of once again superbly fragrant, fresh seafood. This is such a  joy, and we even forgive the bit of sand in one almeja in view of the classy, light version of the fried garlic in olive oil with just a hint of chili.

We could not resist the most expensive item on the menu, the Bogavante (lobster) at 42 euro.

The taste was very fine indeed, even superior to our local Scottish variety, the claw was just divine, but a pity for the overcooking of the rest which resulted in a slight rubberiness. The sauce had a nice, complex, lively flavour, but we found it a little heavy.


This Pulpo (octopus)





was a formidabe piece of beast, again striking for its quality, the big thick plump 'leg' , skin on and everything, bursting with flavour, helped by an almost moving tomato sauce with onions. The accompanying red onion was also a sweet delight. This is perhaps not what Michelin wants in exchange for its stars, there isn't enough 'finesse' here, notably in the cooking. This is food for real men and women, and we, Man and Woman, are enjoying it a lot: even if it is not the most meltingly tender octopus we've had, it's just plain good, and luckily we still have teeth we can use.


For the desserts, we learned afterwards that there is a dedicated chef, and it shows. There was real elegance of conception in both of our choices, a Brownie de nueces (walnuts) con crema de cacao y helado de especias (spicy icecream)

 and a Texturas de arroz  con leche, pan de especias con bano de cafe y sorbete de mandarinas (Rice pudding textures, with spice bread soaked in bread with mandarin sorbet):



both really, really classy deconstructions of the classics, even in spite of not gaining full marks for the presentation. The highlights for us were the walnut and the cloves playing with each other in the brownie and the icecream. But how not to admire the heights of complexity and flavour balance attained by the so humble arroz con leche?


So, we entered thoroughly pissed off, and before the bill we are now thoroughly happy, mellowed down by a great seafood dinner and good wine. 

Will we be happy also after the bill?


Let's look...yes, for this enormous quantity of seafood of such monumental quality, just over 180 euros for two is an amazing price. The chef may not be the most refined in the culinary firmament, but he is certainly a great professional who loves and cares about his raw material, and by and large treats it very well and expertly. Well done to him, and we would go back any time. Now, staff, can we have a little cheerful smile?


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Casa Robles (Sevilla)

(Visited early March 2012)


A historical Sevilla upmarket eatery, the luxuriant interior decorated to make you feel the weight of history,

sadly, it has now developed a bit of a reputation as a tourist trap (or so says the voice of democracy.)


Except of course if, like us, you go with a trusted local. Then perfect service, their best produce and most honest advice is guaranteed (seriously, we don't know if you really need a local, but can it harm?).


Our starters were fantastic delicacies from the sea:





These are 'ortiguillas', i.e. sea anemone or sea nettle. They come panfried, and if you haven't tried them yet, think of the texture of soft sweetbreads with the flavour of the sea. Lovely. Lovely lovely.


Next come our almejas





which are also simply delicious, in good olive oil, nothing to add except to remember, like every time we eat properly cooked mollusks, the unforgettably horrible mollusk experience at Hedone.


The ritual of the fish in sea crust, seen so many times, is nevertheless like cricket: repetitive but endlessy fascinating. 
Before:





and after:





To be honest, this red snapper did not quite deliver what it promised, being less succulent and less flavoursome than we had anticipated (cooked too long we guess). Still, we wouldn't run away from that fish if it was served in London. And even here it wasn't bad, let's not be churlish. And the accompanying veggies were greasy, yes, but oh so tasty.


The list of desserts is hard to resists, truly hard.We choose two cakes from the trolley that look at us desperately wanting to be eaten: a "Two Chocolates cubanita" (white and dark chocolate) and a berry cheesecake:

Now, this is definitely not the most refined version of the art of patisserie, but once we've registered this with our brains, moving on to stomach judgement, boy they are good!


It was a very pleasant seafood dinner, in pleasant company, with good wine, in a sweet environment in a sweet late Winter night in Southern Spain - you get the drift. It was just impossible not to like our night at Casa Robles. 

The cost? We don't know as our host footed the bill, but our guess is: make sure your credit card is well supported by your account! And don't forget to bring along your Andalucian mate.


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