REVIEW
Catalyst samples the imaginative food at Restaurant Twenty-Two, one of the city’s top dining spots
the long seven-course menu to best experience the kitchen’s current thinking, dodging the wine flight on this particular visit, though I can tell you from past experience it is both excellent and interesting; perfect for celebrations – or simply Tuesday evenings. A flawless opener lands on the table: melting béchamel-style pecorino goodness contained in a paper-thin pastry tart case, finished with petals and alliums and best polished off in a single bite. We’re then treated to the (in)famous macaroni cheese: breaded cubes garnished with a heap of truffle shavings of which I could quite happily eat, let’s say... 20 portions. This was followed by two delicate discs of flaky pastry topped with venison tartare and purple-hued oxalis that felt like a small nod to the imminently changing seasons: appropriately autumnal for end-of-summer eating. R22’s bread course arrives in dramatic style, in a table-friendly sized
chest filled with black beans, on which two precise slices of focaccia and two petite buns of stout and treacle bread are resting – accompanied by a pair of the sharpest quenelles of savoury butter, room-warm for instant smearing. It transpires that my dining companion’s pet hate is the term ‘heritage’ as a sweeping description of all non-red/round tomatoes, so when the amuse-bouche arrives and the waiter introduces the dish as including the aforementioned fruits, I watch her face steel – then instantly soften, as each individual variety is knowledgeably identified by name. This little pile of tomatoes is then surrounded with a consommé made with 70-day aged beef: the startling sweetness and depth of flavour drawn out is testament to the skills of head chef Sam Carter and his team. A neat starter of beetroot (also tagged as ‘heritage’; also confidently pinpointed) is accompanied by fresh
oing to eat lunch at one of Cambridge’s best restaurants is not exactly a chore. With
expectations soaring way above the roof of the three-storey townhouse that’s home to this young but perfectly formed establishment, we’re shown to the table for two that sits beneath its signature stained-glass window, gleaming bright against the grey-toned decor throughout the restaurant’s ground floor. Though we’re lunching early, it isn’t long before every table is filled with other guests, giving the room an enjoyable hum that adds to the welcoming atmosphere. We choose
ISSUE 03 56
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