Note: Chefs Massimiliano Blasone and Marco Calenzo have now left the restaurant. Consequently this blog post may not reflect the current state of affairs at Apsleys.

Apsleys, the one Michelin starred Italian restaurant located in the Lanesborough Hotel, kindly invited me back to try their new spring menu. I went to Apsleys about six months ago for what was my second visit and had a glorious meal (for that blog post click here) and it was such an honour to be asked back again. At the helm is Executive chef Massimiliano Blasone, Sous chef Marco Calenzo, and restaurant manager Pasquale Cosmai. Apsleys is the sister restaurant to Heinz Beck’s three Michelin starred La Pergola in Rome.

We kicked the meal off with a wonderful selection of amuse bouches that thrilled. Kingfish sandwiched in sesame ‘waffles’ was a delight, with the wafer-thin texture of the buttery waffles contrasting well with the fish.

Sesame waffle with kingfish

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Hawksmoor Seven Dials is a pretty cool restaurant. The vibe is chilled, the service is relaxed and I loved, loved the plentiful options on the menu. There’s a good range of starters, steaks with optional add-ons, not to mention other ‘stuff’ for non-steak eaters such as chicken, and an array of sides. The cocktails sound great too.

Sitting in the bar meant we had access to the bar menu as well as the main restaurant menu, and for our starter we shared a lobster roll (£25) which was only listed on the bar menu. This dish is based on the lobster roll from a tiny lobster shack in Wiscasset, Maine where a whole lobster is served with garlic and hazelnut butter in a soft toasted bun with béarnaise on the side. It was easy to see why the Hawksmoor has adopted this recipe as it was simply delicious. Chunky pieces of tender lobster claw and tail meat were piled high in a scrumptious, almost brioche-like bun. A touch more seasoning was needed, but the sweetness of the lobster and the nutty flavour of the melted butter running through the soft roll created something of a dreamy delight.

Lobster roll

Hawksmoor steaks uses Longhorn cattle sourced from The Ginger Pig in North Yorkshire and are dry aged for at least 35 days. We were bowled over by the size of a bone-in sirloin (£29 for 600g). The bone was virtually non-existent, and the two of us fed off almost 600g of meat which confirmed to us that it had been a good idea to share. The steak was slightly chewy even though it was cooked to our requested medium rare. But we enjoyed the roasted bone marrow ‘add-on’ (£3) which was soft and gooey and served from the bone with a spoon.

Bone-in sirloin

Bone marrow

I adored the triple cooked chips (£4) which were super, super crunchy, and extremely well made. The bar menu includes an option for a dipping sauce for the chips (not listed on the main restaurant menu), and we selected the stilton hollandaise. The stilton flavour was subtle and helped to produce a fantastic sauce that worked well with the acidity and creaminess of the hollandaise.

For dessert, a delightful cornflake ice cream tasted ‘just’ like cornflakes, and was highly enjoyable. The cornflake flavour was subtle and did not overpower the ice cream.

Cornflake ice cream

Surprisingly, the dish I liked least was the steak. The bone-in sirloin wasn’t bad, but given that the Hawksmoor is a steakhouse, I had expected a piece of meat with a more melt-in-your-mouth effect. But I loved every other aspect of this meal. The lobster roll was divine, the chips were fantastic as was the accompanying stilton hollandaise, and the ice cream was wonderfully clever. The service was pleasant and attentive, and overall the experience was a resounding success. The Hawksmoor Seven Dials is definitely onto a winning formula. I’d happily hop along again.

To read my review of the Hawksmoor on Commercial Road, click here.

Website: http://www.thehawksmoor.co.uk/seven-dials

Summary information

Food rating: 4/5
Service rating: 4/5

Price range: Between £30 – £50 for three courses. Excludes drinks and service.

Bonds Restaurant and Bar opened in 2002 with head chef Barry Tonks taking the helm in 2004. Formerly a bank, the restaurant offers up a blend of American walnut floors, oak fittings and magnificent columns. Classy and chic is what this place is, and its most spectacular feature, a stained glass vault roof, is a sight to behold. Tonks’ CV doesn’t read too badly either, and includes time spent at Michelin starred Chapter One and the now closed Putney Bridge Restaurant with Anthony Demetre. He then became Senior Sous Chef at The Landmark under John Burton-Race, during which time the restaurant earned two Michelin Stars. Finally, as the head chef at McClements, Tonks gained his first Michelin star at the age of 30.

I recently dined at Bonds as part of a bloggers dinner. A hand made ‘native blue’ lobster raviolo was fat and tasty (£16.95). It was too big to be considered elegant, and visually, the dish looked rather dull. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the plumpness of the raviolo as it was generously filled with lobster. It was finished with a heady and creamy Armagnac bisque which worked well with the delicious meaty filling.

‘Native blue’ lobster raviolo

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Yep – somehow I managed to score another reservation at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal. I know I only a few weeks ago (check out that post here), so I debated whether I should go again so soon. But in the interests of research (and for another taste of that meat fruit), I thought why the hell not?

So this blog post will be a little different to the others. I won’t be talking about the things I covered the last time such as the décor. Instead, I’ll focus primarily on the new dishes I tried on this second visit.

But it’s a little hard to past up a mention of the meat fruit (£12.50 – c.1500). It again delivered the ‘wow’ factor to my dining companions who were new to Dinner. The meat fruit looked and tasted great, although it was served a little too cold. This truly has to be one of the most dazzling dishes to grace London tables of late.

JL went for the hay smoked mackerel (£14.50 – c.1730) with lemon salad, gentleman’s relish and olive oil. The mackerel was lovely, and there was a wonderful balance of acidity in this dish, especially from the gentlemen’s relish. (For a copy of this recipe which was published in The Guardian, click here).

Hay smoked mackerel

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Dinner

The most excited I’ve ever been about getting a restaurant reservation was when the people at El Bulli emailed me to say that I had secured a table. The excitement of getting a reservation at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal at the Mandarin Oriental came close, except this time I managed to control my screams of euphoria. The restaurant receives about 6,000 phone calls a day and is now booked out until the end of June. The arrival of Dinner by Heston Blumenthal was highly anticipated and it has to be the hottest opening of 2011. It is so hot that reservations are being traded on ebay.

An Adam Tihany design, the restaurant is beautiful with dark wood panelling and leather furnishings. The previous occupant of this space was Foliage, which Tihany also designed. It’s airy and light, and the high ceilings give it an incredibly spacious feel. It’s also elegant but relaxed, and there’s a touch of mischievousness and fun to the room with the use of some cheeky jelly-mould lights. The kitchen is an open one providing diners with a look-in, but that’s if you don’t find yourself getting distracted by the fabulous views of Hyde Park.

The kitchen at Dinner

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Pierre Koffmann made his permanent return to the London dining scene with his restaurant Koffmann’s at The Berkeley. When Pierre Koffmann appeared during London Restaurant Week 2009 with his pop-up restaurant at Selfridges, Restaurant on the Roof, he became the toast of the town. The ex-three star Michelin chef went into retirement after closing Le Tante Claire in 2004, so his pop-up stint was always going to create some excitement. Restaurant on the Roof was pricey, but it was well worth a visit. The food was very good, and the ambiance was great. And of course there was the opportunity to try his famous pig’s trotter dish.

Koffmann’s at The Berkeley received a fair bit of press during the last couple of weeks as a consequence of Kate Middleton dining there with The Duchess of Cornwall. The restaurant opened last summer, and occupies the space that was previously Gordon Ramsay’s Boxwood Café. The dining room is elegantly furnished and sits on the lower ground floor. As nice as it was, I am not a big fan of this basement eating with no windows. The placement of the toilets is also awkward – you have to up the stairs, go past the reception, and then go down another set of stairs to get to them. Why there is no connecting door between the dining room and the bathrooms is a mystery to me.

A pre-starter of caramelised onions with anchovies and olives on puff pastry was a little salty. The puff pastry wasn’t particularly light.

Caramelised onions with anchovies and olives

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I went to Texture Restaurant and Champagne Bar when it first opened in 2007. While I thought the food was good, I found it unremarkable for a fine dining restaurant. But since then, the word amongst foodie circles is that the food has evolved and is now fantastic. It also won a Michelin star last year, a fact which is also hard to ignore.

The restaurant is a collaborative effort between Icelandic Head Chef Agnar Sverrisson, and sommelier Xavier Rousset who won the UK Sommelier of the Year award at the age of 22. The two met when working at Le Manoir Aux Quat’ Saisons. Sverrisson has also held positions at other notable restaurants such as Pétrus (under Marcus Wareing) and at the Michelin-starred Lea Linster in Luxembourg. With his classic French training, the food at Texture is Modern European with an Icelandic influence. The look of the restaurant is also Icelandic cool, sleek and stylish. Texture also boasts of an impressive 88 bottle champagne collection, the day to day running of which is now maintained by sommelier, Erica, who was runner up in the Young Sommelier of the Year Competition. Xavier is still co-owner of Texture, but now spends more time at his other venture, 28-50 Wine Workshop and Kitchen.

We selected the tasting menu for £68 (although on Texture’s website this is stated as £59). An appetiser of assorted diced vegetables with celery infusion and olive oil was stunning. The flavour of the celery was delicate and light, and the tiny diced vegetables were perfectly cooked. Who knew an infusion made from celery could be so naturally sweet and tasty?

Diced vegetables with celery infusion

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Racine seems to have this mystical reputation as being one of the best non-high end French restaurants in London, and it was because of this reputation that my friend J wanted us to go. I have been once before, a long time ago, and while I didn’t think that the food was bad, I didn’t remember it being particularly memorable either. Racine always seems packed whenever I go past it, and so it felt like time to try it again.

So did Racine live up to its reputation? In the décor stakes, I would say yes. The restaurant is cozy and warm, and the ambience sings a buzzing tune. The moment you walk through the door, you get the sense that you have been transported to some hidden romantic hideaway in rural France.

To start, a foie gras ballotine (£12.75) was rich in flavour and wonderfully creamy in texture, but the accompanying brioche was disappointing. Instead of being soft in the centre, it was dry and a little crusty. It also lacked the requisite sweetness.

Foie gras ballotine

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