Embassy
29 Old Burlington St. London W1 Tel: 020 7437 9933
Cost: £25+ lunch (excl. drink)/ £35+ dinner (excl. drink)
Good food on your plate is - in theory - the goal of every restaurant, with décor, service and wine to back it up. While restaurant standards are generally higher now than they ever have been, there are still few chefs who can deliver as authoritatively as Garry Hollihead delivers at Embassy. And, showing how much food fashion has performed a volte-face, Hollihead is serving up mostly unreconstructed classical cooking. Grown up cooking requiring grown up skills that have little to do with prettiness, towers of ingredients, drizzles of sauces, or clever ideas that sound better than they actually taste.
Regular diners-out who recall details of Hollihead's career may remember that he has had occasionally tempestuous relations with restaurant owners, but at Embassy he is one of the owners. Although he does not have his name above the door (having already done that at the long-gone, eponymous Hollihead) his name is proudly displayed on both pages of the menu and rightly so. Getting to this stage has been a long road for Hollihead and customers at Embassy will benefit from his journey.
 To start at the beginning (a very good place to start) there are nine very classical starters. Veal ravioli Piemontese is, in the best sense, quite an over-achiever with almost-fluffy and aptly-seasoned veal between two sheets of flawless pasta in a small puddle of veal demi-glace, with a few good slices of truffle (the Piemontese bit) and a roundel of foie gras for good measure. Roast langoustine thermidor is also a model of classicism - hints of mustard, white wine and shallot perking up the reduced cream - quite rich and not a personal favourite. If I had given more thought, I would have taken the opportunity to become reacquainted with other classics like cocotte eggs chasseur, boudin blanc with creamed cabbage and pressed salmon charlotte.
Main courses (just 12 in number) are divided into meat, fish, lobster, vegetarian and although roast monkfish boulangere (with an oxtail jus) and lobster Americaine are fabulous dishes, on a cold winter?s evening rich, hearty meat dishes won our hearts and minds. And among five meat dishes it was difficult to let go of chicken Rossini, pheasant Archiduc, and saddle of lamb Niçoise. The braised daube of beef Bourguignonne was richly meaty, yielding to the fork (the knife was superfluous) and slightly sticky from the well-reduced sauce - the very essence of a beef stew - properly garnished with bits of bacon, mushroom and baby onions. Fillet of venison Wellington is a tricky item to get just right - the pastry wants to be crisp and flaky, but the meat must be juicy, seasoned by a smear of paté. Hollihead's version is textbook - tender, flavoursome, rare and juicy venison with pastry that made a sound somewhere between a crunch and a rustle and a swish. I shall carry that taste around in my mind's palate for some time to come.
Quality levels are maintained through desserts. A perfect crêpe Suzette, nicely browned with candied strips of orange peel just bathed in Cointreau and a plum pudding anyone would be well pleased to eat at Christmas, served with frothy brandy sabayon were the choices on the night. But these could just as easily have been apple charlotte, Mont Blanc or rice pudding jubilee.
I have not said much about the room, which is pleasant, if slightly cramped for a dining room serving cooking at this level, and with a few decorative touches I do not care for (notably brown, flowered wallpaper - an irony too far for me). Nor have I said much about service, which was particularly good, especially from the female waiting staff. Nor have I said much about the wines, all well chosen by said female waiting staff. But they are all in service to the food on the plate. Just as it should be.
|
