Day 8 in London and my diary is clear, so what better way to celebrate than to have an 8 course tasting menu. Ryan – my head chef back home – recommended Pollen Street Social by Jason Atherton, and after looking it up online I knew this had to be on my agenda.
I was fortunate enough to grab a table for tonight at the last minute. It was amazing. Before opening his first restaurant, Jason worked for Gordon Ramsay for 10 years, and since I will do a stage at Restaurant Ramsay later in the trip, it’s good to experience this food – which is bound to be influenced by his experiences in Ramsay’s kitchens.
Pollen Street Social is Jason’s flagship restaurant, and the name characterises the restaurant concept. It is top quality dining, yet in a relaxed atmosphere; they don’t have a dress code – which was a relief – and the food is not sacrificed at all.
The first part of the tasting menu was called “snacks”, delivered in this little shelving unit – blue cheese churros with truffled thyme, pork and black pudding croquettes, salted cod brandade with foccacia, black olive crisps, and a mushroom consommé with parmesan foam. All those tasters were just bang on, and the consommé was just out of this world. I was really hyped up after having that starter, but trust me, the following course did not disappoint!
Next was a Chilled Green Pea Soup – with a voluté base. They served it with a quenelle of pea sorbet, citrus crème fraiche, and gambas (small pieces of cooked lobster and pea shoots). It was a lovely, fresh way to start the meal, and the vibrant colour of the dish matched perfectly.
After that was the Orkney Scallop Carpaccio with black olive crumb and samphire, kohl rabi, liquid nitrogen, frozen pink grapefruit segments (the tiny tiny segments of the fruit), lemon skin puree – this was stunning – perfectly balanced … there’s nothing else to say.
Next was the Full English Breakfast, all encased inside an eggshell – at the bottom was tomato ketchup, mushroom puree, scrambled egg, potato foam, bacon powder – this was such a treat to enjoy, it really did taste like a full English breakfast, and the presentation was great.
Then came the Cornish roasted Turbot with capers and brown butter, poached samphire, almonds, white strawberries and caper gnocchi.
For the main, there was a choice of lamb or pork, so I went with the Roasted Lake District Rack of Lamb – rare, with chantarelle mushrooms, sweetbreads, braised lettuce, pea shoots, girolles and mustard seed, and a small shepherds pie on the side. This was really delicious, the braised lettuce just brought everything together, and the main itself was not too heavy.
On to the sweets, and the pre-dessert of an English Strawberry Soup – served in a glass with a glass straw – with yoghurt foam, cucumber granite. The strawberry soup was poured on top. This was a nice refresher before the dessert.
Which led us to the popcorn dessert – Caramel Popcorn and Sweetcorn Cream. Served in a small martini glass, there was a sweetcorn puree in the bottom with a salted caramel sherbet – dairy added to a sorbet – and then the caramel pop corn.
The final course was a Granny Smith apple parfait with a wafer tuille, blueberries, shiso, eucalyptus, and a muesli crumble. This was delicious, but by the time it had come I was getting really full!
To finish off I ordered a macchiato, and then they dared to bring me even more food! I think they felt bad for me because I was dining by myself. This was Petit Fours of miniature passion ice cream – it was probably done with a melon baller as it was tiny – this was encased in chocolate so the ice cream couldn’t melt, with a liquid nitrogen frozen raspberry chocolate mousse. One bite and I was breathing out cool white air, it was a lot of fun. To top it off, there were also two mini blueberry friands.
I was stuffed to say the least, but the degustation was fantastic and the service equally amazing. I’ve never experienced dining like this before, so I felt very lucky. Definitely a highlight of the trip so far, and I can’t wait for what’s in store next.
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