#qre

Anyway, I tried to keep an open mind as I was in the mood for some tapas-style sharing dishes, organic wines and somewhere out of Central. Plus my friend Ed was taking me for an early birthday dinner so it would have been rude to be too picky.

To start, we share a hot appetiser of asparagus with poached egg, jamon, Parmesan and truffle butter (below). I think the combination of asparagus, egg, ham and cheese is pretty fool-proof, as it is here. The only thing I disliked about it is the truffle butter, which is not only unnecessary, but just makes the dish taste so generic. To me, the addition of truffle anything (essence, vinaigrette, oil, etc, sometimes even the actual truffle) is the culinary equivalent of a too-short skirt on girls. It’s just insecurity: not sure if this dish is good enough? Just throw some truffle xx on it.

Our other cold starter is more to my liking: white anchovies which aren’t overly pickled or sour, served with a nice mix of chili and pickled garlic, as well as parsley. (The image is the cover image to this post)

For our main, we share a grilled porcini-rubbed short rib with salad tossed in aged balsamic (below). I was not impressed. I thought the meat had an oddly flaccid texture, and I couldn’t taste either the porcini or any real beef flavour. In fact, I had to first ask for some salt, and then mustard in order to make the dish taste of something.

The only item that I really liked from my dinner was a side of seared broccoli with anchovy vinaigrette and chilli flakes, which was garlicky and flavourful, with the charred edges of the broccoli giving it some extra oomph in flavour. Yes, you are probably getting old when your favourite dish on the menu is a grilled vegetable but sometimes, simplicity is best.

Finally, for dessert, I wanted to try the salted caramel panna cotta, which was only so-so, as I like my panna cotta to be smooth and silky, but this one had an odd grainy texture. It was also rather amusing as we ordered the one dessert to share, and I only had a few bites before pushing it away. Ed had obviously asked them to do a nice dessert plate for my birthday, because then a second panna cotta was brought with a candle and a “Happy Birthday” written in chocolate, so I had to have even more of the second panna cotta, while trying to pretend there wasn’t already half-eaten one still sitting on the table.

On the plus side, the bottle of organic Corsican wine we had was very good, and the setting itself is quite nice and informal, with mostly high tables of two. However, that is until about 11pm, when the “symbiotic relationship” between music and hospitality kicks in, and what was a quiet dinner venue suddenly starts pumping with beats. It all felt a little contrived with what I felt were gimmicky touches such as turntables underneath your dining table, where you can pop in a vinyl from the vinyl library and slip on headphones. Would someone really do that in the middle of a meal? But then again, maybe I’m just not the target audience, since my idea of a great playlist is Taylor Swift’s 1989.