The Ledbury Restaurant
Our first meal out for the year, and it’s at the Michelin rated The Ledbury in Westbourne Park in London. The Ledbury is a heavily French influenced restaurant with quite a tasty looking menu, and even before arriving I’d decided I was going to partake in the tasting menu (with accompanying wine) as it had been given a very high recommendation from a close friend.
We’d arrived about 15 minutes early, but the hosts were happy to take our coats and sit us on a lounge while our table was being prepared. We had a glass of champagne while we waited, in addition to a beetroot macaroon which was filled with a foie gras parfait. It was amazing. The macaroon so delicate and light with just a hint of the earthiness of the beetroot, and the parfait silky and smooth.
Before long we were seated, and consulting the menu… now torn as to whether we should just go the à la carte, or whether we should stick to our guns and have the tasting menu. I’m a firm believer that the tasting menu should be a good representation of the chef and the best the restaurant has to offer so we stuck with that.
Unfortunately we didn’t keep the menu and it changes daily so we can’t recall every dish we had (I think there was 8 in total). We can recall that the macaroon we had prior to seating was definitely the highlight though. Don’t get me wrong the food was all quite good, it just wasn’t amazing.
There was squid and cauliflower risotto which was very tasty, but contained no rice. Instead the squid had been cut up into rice-like pieces. Am I too much of a purist to expect the only fundamental ingredient in a risotto is rice? Maybe I just don’t appreciate this nouveau cuisine enough. Another dish was a celeriac, which had been rolled in ash, cooked in hay, coated in something and baked again. An awful lot of production, completed by theatrics at the table of cracking open the crust to smell it. As far as celeriac goes again it was very tasty, but it was the 2nd or 3rd dish of the evening using it as the primary ingredient and I’m just not that fond of it. Chefs in recent years seem to have jumped at the change to use it every place possible as though it’s magically more refined and cultured than potato or swede.
The majority of the other courses just felt a little too rich. Through a few of the dishes there was a five spice or other similar seasoning that was a little on the over powering side, and after being overwhelmed with it once in an evening it suddenly becomes prominent in every other dish it was used it. The accompanying wines were predominantly from Germany and Austria, and for the most part were acceptable although there was one selection which we could only describe as “odd”.
All up an enjoyable meal that was not earthshaking, in terms of experience nor price (£109 per head including wine), but I’ve definitely had more enjoyable meals elsewhere. But what would I know? They received their 2nd Michelin star the night we were there.
