Sharmila on Food

The Ledbury

I had been looking forward to this meal for quite a long time, having read universally fantastic reviews about The Ledbury.  This was also the first “fancyish” meal I’d had since that magic experience at noma.  Both factors combined to make me very excited about this meal.  Was that excitement justified?  Well, I had a lovely evening.  I can safely say though, that I didn’t have some form of religious like experience on this cold Wednesday evening either.

I don’t actually think this has that much to do with how good or bad The Ledbury was (and I can at least say that it is very good).  I think this has a lot more to do with the style of eating out I now enjoy, and the style of eating out I increasingly enjoy less.  You may think this sounds stupid - who doesn’t love being able to try out a ton of dishes on a tasting menu and to be treated to wonderfully attentive service?  Well, I’ve come to realise this just doesn’t do much for me anymore.  The beginning of the end was probably a meal at Sat Bains over a year ago where I was left with the overwhelming feeling of “eh”.  This is not to say that I never enjoy Michelin dining.  I refer, once again, to noma. But maybe that’s the problem.  I think back to that near perfect Saturday lunch on a beautiful bright September day, and I can’t really think much is going to better it.  I also thought The Fat Duck a few years ago was one of the most fun ways to spend a day that I had had  (and I still think the bacon and egg ice cream is a thing of wonder).

Generally speaking though, give me a long, sociable dinner with mates at somewhere like Great Queen Street or The Anchor and Hope any day.  These two in particular have been the settings for some of my most fun and fondly remembered meals that I have had in London.

So, I suppose I’m basically saying, it’s not you, it’s me.

Anyway, I’ll stop blathering and talk about the food.  Stand outs were most definitely the amuse, the bread (who wouldn’t love bread with bacon bits in it?) and the fish course of cod, which was a near perfect marriage of flavours. The rest was nice, but didn’t excite me.  However, the service was wonderful - a great marriage of knowledge and informality.  In particular, the sommelier was great and he contributed a lot to an enjoyable evening.

An amuse bouche of beetroot meringue filled with foie gras arrived first.  This was a lovely little morsel of luxury, with the earthiness of the beetroot really working well with the richness of the foie gras.

The bread, was also wonderful, with particular enthusiasm being directed at the bacon brioche type stuff by the majority of the table.  I think I had at least two.

Next up was a palate cleanser/pre-starter of some combination of tuna and…stuff.  I wish I could remember more about this.  I think I definitely thought it was refreshing.  Ah, I do recall that I liked the inclusion of little flavoured tapioca balls.

Next up was a dish of perfectly seared mackerel fillet paired with some lightly pickled cucumber, along with a cucumbery package of mackerel.  I think there was some horseradish in here too.  This was really nice.  I love all those Northern European flavours of pickles, oily fish and something to heat things up, like mustard or horseradish.

Then along came a squid risotto with pine nuts, finely shaved cauliflower and a parmesan foam.  The visual trick here was that the risotto rice was actually squid.  I have to admit, this didn’t bowl me over.  It was a nice mouthful, but any form of risotto is generally not going to thrill me that much.

We then got to the signature dish of the celeriac baked in ash with a wild boar kromeski (think of it as a deeply savoury porky fritter).  We got to ooh and aah as they brought the whole baked dish to the table and sliced it for us, before whisking it away to be plated up.  I enjoyed this - the depth of flavour in the celeriac was great, and it paired well with the kromeski (well, celeriac and porky stuff just work really).

The fish course was my favourite of the night, consisting of roast cod with leeks, macaroni and truffles.  This was just a delightful dish that all worked wonderfully together.  The leeks in particular were a real highlight, with the caramelised edges being particularly tasty.

The meat course of silka deer with a bambi sausage and assorted bits and pieces was also tasty, though by this point I was getting a bit of food fatigue (the matching wine pairings were also probably taking their toll).

The pre-dessert of some creamy stuff with berries was just nice.  What more can you say about berries and cream?

I had swapped my dessert choice at the start of the meal from the chocolate cremeux with walnut ice cream to the banana galette with salted caramel and peanut ice cream.  I’m not a huge fan of chocolate desserts, but I can safely say I am a very big fan of anything containing caramel and nuts (just watch me go to work on a Reese’s Nutrageous). This was nice, and delivered the hit of caramelly sweetness I was looking for.  We also had a lovely red dessert wine to go with this.  Actually, the wine pairings throughout were great, and really challenged my preconceptions on wine (I definitely need to get out of my Alsace wine obsession).

We decided to go all out on the cheese course.  I don’t actually remember much as I was too busy gabbing to the sommelier about Tayyabs, but I do remember the biscuits being very nice.

And that was that.  An enjoyable evening was had by all, but only a smallish portion of that was to do with the food.  However, as I said at the start of this review, I’m not sure how much of that was to with the meal itself.

I think I’m done with the whole fine dining shebang.  Unless someone wants to buy me lunch at noma.

The details:

The Ledbury

127 Ledbury Road

W11 2AQ

Nearest transport: Westbourne Park tube (Hammersmith and City and Circle lines)

+44 (0) 20 7792 9090

Price: expensive, though relatively reasonable compared to many Michelin starred establishments (tasting menu is £70, and £108 with wine pairings).