REVIEW
Every dish feels balanced, with different textures and taste experiences to keep you interested with each bite: it's extremely intelligent cooking and is testament to the skills of Sam Carter and his team"
cobnuts, apple and horseradish. The fish course is precision-cooked flaky Cornish sea bass with fennel, courgette and a bed of crispy chicken skin. Then follows the main course of pink-cooked Dingley Dell pork with black pudding, a strip of scratching and sugar-sweet apricot sauces. Every dish feels balanced, with different textures and taste experiences to keep you interested with each bite: it’s extremely intelligent cooking. The pre-dessert arrives, another laser-precise quenelle of white chocolate and truffle topped with a snowfall of truffle shavings, which feels like a clever bookend to the earlier course – followed by the main dessert, a classic summer combination of dark chocolate and raspberry presented in, again, a variety of textures and styles. A few well-judged leaves of tarragon add a modern, herbal quirk to the tastes on the plate and, though this marks the final dish in our experience, we both
clear every last morsel – as do all the other guests around us. The word that springs to mind most frequently – between bites of elegantly engineered morsels – is ‘precision’. There is not a single truffle shaving, edible petal or tiny droplet of sauce that hasn’t been considered and placed with careful thought. Miniature mushrooms raised by Jake’s Seed To Feed Microfarm are arranged just so, atop a perfect roundel of venison tartare: Calixta’s tomatoes from Flourish are delicately balanced to best show off their jewel-like colouring. The tableware is stylish without being obtrusive, and perfectly judged to best present each dish, and the front of house team is friendly and hugely well-informed without tipping into being overbearing, operating effortlessly around the dining room. You’d be forgiven for expecting that cuisine of this level means a formal dining experience, but it couldn’t be
further from the truth. Though the team is appropriately smart, there’s a very come-as-you-are vibe to the guests and the room was abuzz with delighted chatter as plate after plate of exceptional cooking was carried up the stairs from the pocket-sized kitchen. It’s almost as though the patrons couldn’t believe their luck at having stumbled across such a gem. And if nothing else, the experience is an absolute steal: “I would much rather go there ten times,” says my dining companion as we stroll (roll) back across Jesus Green, “than eat at a £500-per-head restaurant once”. This spectacular little restaurant is already soaring high in ‘best restaurant’ lists, and will undoubtedly continue to win national acclaim, making it ever-trickier to get a seat – so we strongly recommend booking in soon. Restaurant 22 is a genuine jewel that we have a duty to treasure. Go, now, before the rest of the UK discovers it.
IMAGES A Restaurant Twenty-Two starter of heritage beetroot, cobnuts, apple and horseradish, and a fish course of Cornish sea bass with fennel, courgette and chicken skin
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ISSUE 03
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