Roasted cod and soba noodle salad from Populus – roasted cod loin, soba noodles, marinated mushrooms, lightly pickled vegetables, broad beans, lime and sesame dressing. Whilst the saltily-skinned cod may have gone a tad overboard in its vain efforts to achieve a Kim Kardashian-esque bronze, the soba noodles were intriguingly…
Pan-fried loin of venison with celeriac puree, baby spinach, pine nuts and cranberry jus from The Lokal. The venison was delectably juicy and well-cooked whilst the sweet celeriac puree, which coats your inner lips jealously and only betrays its green origins at the end of your mouthful, would give a…
“Ginger Beer” Pork Collar from Populus – charred ginger beer marinated pork collar, roasted butternut squash with spicy yogurt, honey coriander salsa verde, apple slaw. Essentially rugged, army Encik-esque meat coated in sour veggie camo. In manner of sin-cos-tan matters, quadratic equations and the like, the dish truly perplexes. 3.3/5…
Lemon & White Chocolate Sundae from Populus – Tahitian vanilla ice cream, fresh lemon jelly, white chocolate sauce, meringue kisses, white chocolate crumb, cornflake crumble, citron mascarpone. Essentially a rotund love child of Hokkaido milk and McDonalds’ soft serve. The citrus elements lend a wince-inducingly zesty zing to the proceedings,…
The Lokal lobster roll from The Lokal – slipper lobster tails, gherkin, coleslaw & lemon mayonnaise. A little too much bread for my liking, but the lobster was present and friendly at this party instead of being all standoffish and only sociable with people whom it can manipulate and exploit.…
Seafood Stew from The Lokal – red snapper, venus clams, prawns, squid, fregola sarda and toasted sourdough. Essentially how it would taste if a bajillion clams were strapped to life essence extraction machines and all their flavour distilled into a small pool on your plate. The stew itself was supremely…