shonky's Profile
The Lake District - L'Enclume
No, it was £240 total + £30 tip. So more detailed breakdown was:
£190 food
£10 water
£30 champagne (2 glasses)
£10 Glass red
Or thereabouts.
The Lake District - L'Enclume
I regularly refer to Chowhound for great restaurant recommendations and it usually doesn't let me down. From the amazing experience Asador Etxebarri last June through to Le Quartier Français last December, all were recommendations from here and all lived up to the hype.
On knowing I was spending a few days in The Lake District I eagerly came on here and searched for recommendations. L'Enclume seemed to be a place which had mixed reviews, some say it is amazing, some say it is pretentious. But maybe the power of the celebrity chef won out for me and Simon Rogan's place lured me in.
We arrived 15 minutes before opening @ 7pm so wandered through the village of Cartmel. Nothing amazing but a nice enough village with a church which seemed slightly too big for its surrounds.
On opening we were the first to arrive and we were seated in their "conservatory", 6 tables in an outdoor, glass covered area. By the end of the night there were only another 3 couples who dined there but there were 2 couples who sat at one table, looked at the menu and then left. The first time it surprised us, the second time made me think that the well-placed table was the Bermuda Triangle. Maybe the 3 set-course options didn't take their fancy? I think one of them went to his sister bistro around the corner for some cheaper fare.
We ended up choosing the largest option, 17 courses in total for £95 per person. The cheapest was around 7 (?) courses and was £55 I believe. The 2nd option of around 13 courses probably would have sufficed but it hardly seemed to make a difference by that stage. But for the record, the 17 courses were:
Tamarillo "martini" fizz
Cones of piquillo peppers
Sausage Sundae
Cod "yolk" crispies
Egg drop hot and sour soup
Surf and Turf
Razor clam, sea greens and asparagus
Hot radish and molasses, fresh curd, pecan
Roast calf sweetbread, violet artichoke, sorrel
Squid ravioli, vodka, frog's legs
Chick'o'Hake in verjus
Hot Pot
Beef Cheeks, Paprika, pistachio
Expearamenthol frappe
Stiffy tacky pudding
Surrealists Nitro Slammer
Black Passion
I won't bore you by going through every course but it was safe to say that some were better than others. The martini looked spectacular and I wish i had taken my camera. The sundae was divine, looked and felt like a sundae but tasted like chorizo (better than it sounds). He did some interesting things with the Hake (had a piece of crisped chicken skin "glued" to it) and the desserts worked a treat. The Nitro Slammer consisted of a salted crisp, a tequila sorbet followed by a lemonish chaser. Lip, sip, suck I guess.
Was it good? Absolutely. It managed to work on most of the courses, making us guess what it was and how he did it. Were there some shockers, absolutely. The Razor Clam was vile, the Surf and Turf boring. But it still took us out of our comfort zone and delivered some amazing taste. The total was £270 for 2 people including 2 glasses of champagne and a glass of red. About on par with what I expected.
So in summary, worth a try for an adventurous foodie. A poor man's Heston maybe? Not quite Asador Etxebarri (the smokey tastes....) or RyuGin (the service there is unbelievably good) but up there with LQF.
If not consider Michelin stars, where are your favorite restaurants?
After going to Ryugin last night, I would have to say it ranks up there with some of the other "modern" global restaurant stars. The service is definitely the best I've ever had and almost all of the many courses was exquisite.
I visited Toraji on this trip, I found it ok but I wouldn't rave about it. I found the heavy smoking in the restaurant (which I know is more socially acceptable in Japan) quite difficult to accept.
