Restaurant

June 2, 2011 British

Corrigan’s, Mayfair

Choosing a restaurant in our house always begins in the most random way: Richard Corrigan has been on the telly quite a lot lately, what with Great British Menu and Saturday Kitchen, and the Hubby wondered why we’d never been to his restaurant. He was adamant that he’d never seen Corrigan’s Mayfair on Upper Grosvenor Street, or heard anyone mention it.

To be honest, even though I knew it was there, I’d never actually seen it, and my ‘usual’ black cab chappie gave a me a breakdown of every building in the street but declared he’d never seen a restaurant there… So Corrigan’s is a bit like that building in Harry Potter – invisible to the uninitiated… This makes entering the building even more of a surprise, because the interior is actually enormous, and must span the whole of the block.

There’s a very good bar area, restaurant seating, and a private room off the main restaurant. The room feels very like a ‘posh’ Cecconi’s, except with a great deal less bustle. It was only about 25-30% full during our meal, although there was a function being held in the private room. With a room like this, less bustle almost constitutes less atmosphere. Given that we were asked twice to ensure that we were finished by 9.15, one had to wonder what they were worried about. Did people suddenly hot-foot it all the way over to Upper Grosvenor Street at 10pm?

Thank goodness we were only offered one amuse – hurrah! This was a little ball of mozarella in a sort of doughnutty/brioche in crispy parmesan breadcrumbs, smelled fabulous and pretty tasty.

To start I had a very lovely crispy duck egg, with English asparagus, mustard hollandaise and pea shoots. It was very yummy and the runny yolk obviously worked very well with the asparagus. The Hubby had the terrine of foie gras, which was constructed using layers of foie gras and thin slices of brioche. The Hubby felt this dampened down the flavour of the foie gras somewhat.

As a main course I had the pan-fried john dory with a raw artichoke and apple salad. This was very clean, and the acidity in the apple worked very well with the rest of the dish.

The Hubby had the red mullet with chorizo, salt cod and parsley. The mullet was cooked very well, and the salt cod complemented it, and was well seasoned. However with little salt cod and chorizo on the plate, there wasn’t a great deal of flavour.

Dessert anyone? Yes, we would have quite liked dessert, but after waiting for some time for someone to give us a dessert menu, and then some time for someone to return to us, the urge had completely gone. I had quite fancied the one with the salted caramel (clearly this years’ favourite flavour with chefs), but didn’t fancy waiting for it to arrive.

This highlights the one main drawback to Corrigan’s for us: the room is very good, the food is fine, yummy and seasonal – well done Mr Corrigan. The staff however are pretty haphazard. At one point I asked the Hubby if he felt we were sitting in the trainee section of the restaurant. The older staff were extremely well informed, polite, adept, discreet – everything you would expect. The junior staff were perfunctory. I would recommend going in a slightly larger crowd as you may need to provide your own atmosphere. To be fair, I would assume this place is heaving at lunchtime, and it may be a better first introduction to the restaurant.

2014 UPDATE: So funny to read this back now, I’ve been several times this year and the place has been absolutely buzzing, and we’ve had exceptional food – I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it now, and we’ve taken two of the function spaces for private parties this year, with a great time being had by all. Just shows you, visit somewhere on a quiet day, and you can have a completely different perspective of a joint! Go…. Go now… What are you waiting for?

August 11, 2010 Fish

J Sheekey’s, Covent Garden

Last week we went, yet again, to J Sheekey’s. It’s one of my absolute favourites – the staff are always polite, prompt, if sometimes a little brisk – but I like that…. It’s part of the atmosphere, and means they’re doing their job.

There are a couple of ways into the restaurant – I prefer going through the customary greeting by the doorman, into the tiny lobby – but you could go in through the oyster bar if you wish. There’s a teeny tiny bar which serves all manner of things in old fashioned martini glasses, and every available space is covered in photos of bygone stars…

In fact you’ll invariably spot a photo you hadn’t noticed before, and be whisked away on some reminiscence of the role they were playing, the production or film they were in… The restaurant is made up of a series of interconnected rooms, all crammed with little tables, all crammed with very animated diners. This is why I don’t mind the brisk staff, you get the impression it’s all run on a very tight and strict schedule – there’s no room for dilly-dallying.

The play we had been to see, Prisoner on Second Avenue, had finished phenomenally early, and we wandered up from The Strand, thinking that we could sit in the bar until our table was ready – not a bit of it – there way a queue out of the door… We wandered off to peek into the antique print shops in the next alley, and came back at 10.15… This time we were greeted by name (so they were obviously paying attention earlier – always a good sign), and shown to the end room… I have to say I’ve never noticed the division of Sheekey’s into the Gods and Wasteland you see in places like The Ivy… I’ve eaten at some point in every available table for two, four and six! Naturally the Hubby knew someone on the next table, so it was already quite late by the time we ordered.

Now, food: Sheekey’s is the sister restaurant to Scotts, and so you find most of what they do here too… You can eat oysters, caviar, tons of fresh fish, the odd nod to the meat eaters, and veggies – but fish is why we’re here!

As a starter I had little scallops, with crushed peas, pea shoots and crispy pancetta – absolutely yummy – one of my favourite combinations; the Hubby had devilled whitebait, which came out in a huge portion, with a serving of fresh tartare sauce to the side – he often has this – and says this is the place to eat it.

I can honestly say that I don’t eat fish and chips, never have and ordinarily probably never will – but I eat it at Sheekey’s and at Scotts. The haddock has a casing so crisp it shatters with your fork, and it’s served with crushed minted peas and chips – delicious!

This is what the Hubby chose, and I did gaze in his direction, but he ignored my fluttering eyelashes. No matter, I had one of my other favourites – the sole served off the bone, with really good bernaise sauce. I had my usual herb green salad – can’t go to a Caprice Holdings restaurant without that – and the Hubby had his parmesan courgettes.

The food was perfectly cooked: the bernaise was both unctuous and light, the sole practically melted in the mouth. The Hubby’s fish and chips really did look delicious, and he tucked in with gusto. It’s difficult to say much more about it, really: I have never had a bad meal at Sheekey’s – I have never had any issues with the staff at Sheekey’s – it’s a fabulous restaurant!

If you’re going to go to one of the Caprice Holdings restaurants for the food (!), it has to be Sheekeys! If you’re going to celebrate your wedding anniversary, or significant birthday, it should be Scotts. If you’re taking your easily impressed aunt from Blackpool, and you want to show off – may as well go to the Ivy – I don’t want you cluttering up Sheekeys for the rest of us…