New Restaurant Tuesday: The Ledbury

This week’s NRT is a special occasion treat as it’s our anniversary and it only comes around, well, once a year. Even though it’s my week to pick Meg makes a recommendation of The Ledbury and I haven’t thought of anything to top it so we go for it.

For the second week in a row, I get there on time. Even early. I’m not sure the world isn’t coming to an end. They show me immediately to the table and I ask for a vodka gimlet (say that with a soft “g”!) and then Meg gets there too. Unfortunately since we’ve arrived separately we never hear the specials, which is actually ok since the regular menu is hard enough to choose from. It’s prix fixe.

Big open room and on a Tuesday night not completely packed, but the patrons are weirdly congregated around the edges. Lovely recessed lighting punctuated with low spots and weirdly beautiful chandeliers. Lots of windows with heavy luxe drapery (black with blacker embroidery) combine with tables covered in white tablecloths to give the room a real feeling of luxury.

The patrons are an interesting group, mostly our age and older, mostly couples. There’s one younger couple that appear to be on the “let’s get engaged” date but they’re a course or so behind us so I don’t get to see the outcome of that.

Staff is clearly professional – not a lot of “I’m doing this while I work on my degree” here. They all had responsibilities for different parts of the meal/service so I think we saw everyone in the restaurant at our table at some point. The hostess, who was also in charge of close-of-meal stuff (petits fours and bill). The order-taking drinks and lead waitress, who described some of the courses. The sommelier, who described some others of the courses. The bussers and food runners, who described some the rest of the courses. All very good but I do admit I like having someone “in charge” of our table to rely upon.

No pictures tonight as it really didn’t seem the place. I liked that, despite the quantity of food you’ll read about below, I left not completely stuffed, as the portion sizes were very reasonable given the whole of the menu.

On to the food…

The Ledbury, 127 Ledbury Road, Notting Hill, London, W11 2AQ
Date: 16 September 2008

On the table: mini salt and pepper grinders (I think – we never used them as everything was perfectly seasoned) which are even better than last week’s s/p wells.

Drinks: Vodka gimlet with a lime rind garnish – a little sweet for my taste (when I make them at home I use just straight lime juice rather than Rose’s) but I think it’s made to contemporary recipe standard. Hendrick’s martini with (bar) olives – Meg wanted a place like this to serve it with nicer olives instead of the “Oscar Meyer” of olives.

Canapé: spiced flatbread with pate mousse piped on in two long snakes.

Water: we’re the only people in the room drinking tap, as far as I can tell. When we ask for it, our water goblets are removed leading me to fear we’re going to get kiddie cups but eventually the goblets come back filled with icy tap water and a couple of lemon slices, and are kept filled all night from a pitcher also holding lemon slices. Definitely passes the tap water test.

Wine: The list is really a book. Too much to choose from, so we ask for a recommendation. The sommelier knows most of what we’ve ordered and takes Meg’s “we like Cabernet Franc” suggestion and flips through the book. He comes up with three different suggestions, all under £40 – quite a feat when you consider that about a quarter of the book is in that price range. We settle on Domaine de la Chevalerie Busasrdieres Bourgueil (1998 ) which he says is “quite different.” On this we concur, but overall find it to be too fruity for our tastes.

Amuse: Courgette puree w/parmesan creme and sourdough croutons. Delicious.

Bread: a basket of choices: bacon and onion brioche (Meg), sourdough (Megan), brown roll with black pepper (neither). Meg likes the brioche, I find it a bit much. I like the sourdough, especially with the addition of a little butter – served in a cylinder on marble with a small sprinkling of sea salt on top.

Apps:

1. Terrine of Foie Gras and Pain d’ épices with Mango and Cabernet Vinegar Caramel. Again Meg goes for something I don’t like. I try a bite but, nope, still don’t like foie gras. Maybe she’ll tell us about it.
2. Scallops Roasted on Liquorice with Fennel, Cepes and Roasting Juices. Liquorice is used like a skewer to make scallop lollipops. Very meaty and flavourful.

Mains:

1. Confit Suckling Pig with Spiced Peach, Salsify and Ham Beignet, Baby Onions Pickled in White Beer. Again, Meg goes for bacon for dinner. The peach is quite amazing, and the baby onions are really sweet.
2. New Season’s Lamb Roasted in Balsamic with Spinach Purée and Aubergine Glazed with Miso and Garlic. I generally consider aubergine to be a reason not-to-order but the seasonality of lamb win me over. The dish arrives with both the regular bits of the lamb and sweetbreads in the form of pancreas. One of my clients at work is a diabetes product, and they try to be all science-minded so I look at pictures of pancreases (pancreii?) all day so this bit is fascinating. It’s really rich tasting. The juices are definitely a hit. Aubergine is roasted so much I thought it was a banana/plantain, and it’s actually nearly that sweet, so better than expected. Spinach puree is a little flat but with the addition of the juices and/or lamb I’m quite happy.

Pre-dessert: a small glass of passionfruit jelly and diced mango, topped with vanilla cream. YUM.

Dessert:

1. Three Small Brûlées with Ice Cream and Madeleines, and a glass of Tokaji. Arrives with a cocoa brulee with basil ice cream (glad this is a small one, though I think the basil ice cream would serve as a nice palate cleanser); an Earl Grey brulee with an ice cream flavour I can’t remember – Meg’s 2nd favourite; and a brulee I can’t remember (Thai?) with olive oil ice cream. Clear winner. Madeleines are, of course, too chocolatey for Meg but I enjoy one.
2. Terrine of Strawberries with Sour Cream, Hibiscus Consommé and Warm Vanilla Doughnuts, and a glass of Riesling. Very strawberry-flavoured. The hibiscus really adds to the complexity. The vanilla doughnuts are filled with jelly, and a little unnecessary.

Petits fours: a choice of several different things from which we select dark chocolate square with eucalyptus and a banana chocolate macaroon. They get put into a cool off-centre silver bowl filled with chips of something we can’t figure out – looks like dark chocolate but tastes more like toasted wood – obviously we weren’t meant to eat that part but we tried it anyway to figure out what it was.

Damage: £205 inclusive. It would be possible to eat (not drink) well in this restaurant for £112.50 for two if you just ordered the menu and tap water.