#clipstone

While you can order a la carte, we decided to go the full hog and order the 5-course tasting menu. It starts with an amuse bouche of snapper ceviche (cover photo) on a crispy cracker, which is tart, and bouncy.

The next snack is chicken liver parfait on a sort of ceps-shortbread (photo above), which I found delicious. You are meant to have it in one bite, but it’s a generous mouthful, so perhaps not best for those trying to impress on a first date.

The final little snack is a parmesan gougere (above), which was warming, but doesn’t compare favourably with the comte gougere they are serving at Belon, the only other one I’ve had recently.

Larger dishes arrive with a hamachi crudo (above). The menu doesn’t mention it, but it also comes covered with thin slices of peaches. Normally I’m not a big fan of fruit on my savoury dishes, but this is quite good, and it helps that the slices of hamachi are fatty and obviously of high quality. There is a kefir cream sauce and some caviar, and you do wish they bring out the bread (which should be the next course) earlier, so you can mop it all up.

I’m not crazy about bread (didn’t even take a photo), but the one at Clipstone was so good that Matt tried to persuade them to sell him some leftovers from service. He seemed to find the one here just as good, and Raph, (formerly of Yardbird but doing some consulting work here) told us that the chef is a bit crazy about it, choosing different waters for the dough depending on the weather outside. Last night’s bread was made with Evian.

Next up is a salt-baked celeriac covered with winter truffles, in a caramel dash sauce (above). I loved this though I think for a tasting menu, the celeriac could have been sliced thinner so that the portion size was smaller. The sauce though. Again, I needed a spoon just to finish it.

The main course is the porc noir de Bigorre (above), served two ways: a pink tenderloin, alongside a very smoky and fatty pork belly. They are designed to be eaten together, and it is accurately described by Raph as the wagyu of pork.

Two desserts to finish: the first is hay ice cream (above). I’ve seen this on menus a lot lately and I really don’t get it. Are people now eating hay? Am I supposed to know what hay tastes like? Well, this one just tastes like vanilla, but I like the wild rice on top, as well as the macerated strawberries.

The second dessert was brown butter financier with blueberry jam (above) which was a bit too sweet for my liking.

Wines: Beet works closely with La Cabane so you can expect a good number of their wines on the menu; and I actually preferred the options by the glass than the bottle.