ARBUTUS

One of the golden rules for waiters is never to outsmart a customer. Even if you are prepared to throw yourself into a boiling vat of pigs trotters to prove your point. People who are paying money can be judiciously advised, gently cajoled or slyly pushed in equal measures towards courage or folly. But if there is one thing I can’t abide it’s being told rubbish about what I can or can’t do with food and drink.

So it wasn’t a great start at Arbutus when I ordered a bottle of relatively indifferent 2004 Margaret River, Cabernet Sauvignon and asked them to decant it for me. The restaurant commandant was summond to inform me that it wasn’t necessary for this wine. Well I am not alone among wine drinkers who like to inject a bit of life into young, tannic reds. Dashing the contents into another vessel can release new flavour after flattening in the bottle. Even if I’m wrong, it’s what I like to do.

The food at Arbutus is clever and simple. I can never resist ordering crab because it’s such a pain to disinter. My companion had a squid and mackerel concoction made into a burger, which tasted as richly fishy as it smelled. Both dishes were fresh like they’d been dumped on the quayside that morning. There was a sharp cucumber and fennel salad to strip the cloy from the dark meat of the crab. We washed it down with a nippy Austrian Reisling. This is a solid wine list from which you can mostly purchase in 1/3 litre pichets. Ideal for pleasing different tastes.

We followed with beef. He a bavette, slow cooked overnight in some sort of bain marie boil-in-the-bag affair a la Blumenthal and served with gratin dauphinois. These were declared to be perfection. Not too much enriching of either garlic or cream. The beef in both dishes was soft as a baby’s elbow. My short rib opened into a big flavour. It was incongrous next to English snails. They’re more butch than escargots and were hanging around the plate like hoodies that bullied with slightly overpowered tubes of gnocchi. A very odd mixture and I’m not sure if it either worked or was necessary. And the whole wanted for something on the plate to cut across the fattiness of the rib.

The puddings being hauled up on huge trays from the kitchen looked a bit textbook but I had a black cherry clafoutis. Now I know that purists recommend leaving the cherry pits in to increase the intensity of the fruit flavour. But after two bottles of wine you need to let me know. My teeth still hurt.

The owner chefs are Michelin awarded here from their previous home at Putney Bridge, so we expected imaginative workings. We got that. The attention and enthusiasm for their ingredients is impressive. It’s a broad and engaging menu and they also price it reasonably. Arbutus has deservedly become a West End mainstay. Check out Wild Honey, the sister restaurant in Mayfair.

TENDER WORDS

Tender (2009) tells the story of Nigel Slater's love affair with his garden in Islington and the many seedlings he has raised in his box-hedged vegetable patches. It’s a magnificent volume, like a medieval knightly treatise with pictures of his Eden, its produce and many of the recipes he has created from them.

23 May, 2010

FOOD FROM THE HEART

Cooking is a basic human instinct. We’ve been eating, chopping, shaping, flavouring, enticing ingredients into something delicious since time began. But as the way many of us live has changed, the basic skills we require to cook, are no longer valued and it’s often easier to let others take control of what we eat.

21 April, 2010

IN A RIGHT FISH STEW

This week we had sustainable fish stew. It’s a quick and easy way to feed a gang of hungries on a Friday night and doesn’t need much else but some good bread and wine. Like all stews, you need balance, rich liquid and a range of potent flavours steaming from your pot.

15 March, 2010