Nahm
Nahm
The Halkin Hotel
Halkin St, London SW1 Tel: 020 7333 1234
Cost: about £50
London’s hotels never used to be so fashion conscious, especially when it came to their restaurant offerings. There are dining rooms where roast beef trundled around on trolleys for decades, although presumably not the same piece of beef. So by this sort of logic, it could have been expected that Stefano Cavallini at the Halkin was going to be a restaurant the Michelin-starred Italian chef could have retired from, if he was so inclined. But the Halkin is deeply fashion conscious and smarting from the success of its sister hotel, the Metropolitan and its wildly successful restaurant, Nobu.
So it was out with Italian, in with Thai (thankfully not combined as they are at the equally fashion conscious Hempel Hotel’s restaurant, I-Thai), orchestrated by Australian chef David Thompson. This Ozzie wunderkind ran one of Sydney’s most renowned restaurants, Darley Street Thai, until he heard the siren song of the gastro-Metropolis. In keeping with its new cuisine, the room has been notionally Orientalised with gold leaf walls (at these prices, the hotel can afford it) and some red rope, tied all-too suggestively to the ceiling. More on that later.
Thompson cooks authentic Thai style and does not compromise for Westerners, something wonderful in principle and usually to be lauded highly. But, as we say of English grammar, the exceptions prove the rule and this is the first time I would have wished for something less authentic because I really did not enjoy my lunch at Nahm. As the restaurant was in its first weeks, there was a sensibly short menu and two set menus. These set lunches indicated a succession of courses, but we were served cold rice noodles, spiced salted beef, steamed egg and green curry of prawn, Thai aubergine and basil all at once, along with an additional pad Thai. Steamed egg, it must be said, is not nearly as exciting as the name might indicate. A cold skein of fine white noodle all strung together is hard to eat with just a fork and spoon. The spiced salted beef is one small-ish square, with silvery sheet of connective tissue in the middle and also difficult to eat, but not great loss as its toughness made it unpalatable anyway. The green prawn curry was so hot the Asian friends I was lunching with broke into a sweat. The pad Thai were classics of their type and worth having again. The very small dessert of sticky rice and mango was very nice, so nice, in fact that one friend asked for a second portion.
While we were dining, Pierre Kauffman (chef of the Michelin two-star La Tante Claire) was also in for lunch. He was served from the more extensive dinner menu and had better items though also had tremendous trouble with the chilli heat of several dishes. But our simple lunch for four, with one bottle of Alsatian riesling, water and coffee came to £200 and this on a set menu of £25. Amazing, isn’t it, what service and cover charges can do to a bill. All in all, an experience I am not keen to repeat.
|
