What a fabulously glamorous lunch I had in The Dining Room at Beaverbrook, formerly the newspaper baron’s neo-classical mansion-house near Leatherhead, Surrey!  Fabulous because of the Japanese-oriented light and healthy cuisine and because it was a glorious, sunny day and the Surrey countryside looked magnificent. Glamorous because of the history and sensational luxury of the place and because I was dining with my beautiful friend Miss J.   Miss J was aware of Beaverbrook, as she lives close-by, but it only appeared on my radar recently when I read a review lauding its Japanese-style food.

But first I had to endure the severe irritation of getting to Beaverbrook and parking my car. I don’t use a sat-nav; I’m an old-school map reader. But the map on their website wasn’t printable and I ended up having to stop for directions. One little sign on the required exit off a roundabout on the A24 would have been very helpful. And once you get into the estate grounds signage is very poor: I followed signs to ‘The House’ but when I got to it I was told I had to reverse 150m up hill to a car park because the main entrance was blocked for maintenance, and then I took the wrong drive for the carpark. Apparently there should have been someone on the driveway to tell me where to go, but he’d abandoned his post.  An electric buggy then took me down to the main mansion house.  But Miss J had to walk from the carpark and ended up entering the house through the staff quarters and the kitchen!  Bizarre.

This was indicative of a general air of “we don’t care that much” from the staff I came across, which was a big surprise in a “luxury country house” hotel. From the receptionist aimlessly chatting to a friend on the phone while I waited, to the restaurant waitress not giving us clean plates, and more.  Their website too gives me the impression they’re saying “we’re here, just come and give us your money” (from the “build it and they will come’ school of thought) because it lacks so much detail (it doesn’t even tell you if their bedrooms have showers, and the Spa is “coming soon”).  You access the house by driving through a magnificent looking golf course, but this isn’t mentioned at all on the website.  It’s also odd/concerning that my credit card receipt states “LCC Ltd” and doesn’t mention the word ‘Beaverbrook’.  Something isn’t right.

We had a free choice of tables in the Dining Room (we were the only diners), so we chose one by a window to make the most of the stunning views of the Surrey hills in blazing sunshine.  On being seated we were asked if we wanted Edamame beans, but we declined as neither of us are mad about them.  From the menus available we both chose the £60/person Chef’s selection menu of roughly 9 courses (there was also a £90 menu and a la carte), which began with Edamame, which did nothing to make us fans of these beans – they were rather wet and unseasoned 2/10

The first proper course, called “Crispy Rice”, was cubes of deep fried sticky rice, a soy sauce and a salmon tartare “Masago” which was some sort of lightly spicy mayo binding the raw fish.  It was very pleasant, though the rice element was quite sticky on the tooth. 8/10

This was when it dawned on me that our lunch was going to be “sharing plates” and we would have to divide up the pretty presentations and move our share onto a plate.  That’s fine, but it’s not a style of dining I’ve come across in Japan.

The next two courses came to our table together: “Beaverbrook Garden Salad” and “Yellowtail Tradito”. I’ve no idea why a Spanish term was used, this was not a ceviche, it was ‘modern style sashimi’ fusing Peruvian and Japanese techniques, as pioneered by Nobu Matsuhisa.  I’ve read that Head Chef Taiji Maruyama cites Nobu Matsuhisa as his greatest inspiration, and he’s worked as head sushi chef at Nobu London.  The Yellowtail was superb – better even than several I’ve eaten in Japan – and came with a lovely smoked aubergine puree and a delicious yuzu soy foam 10/10.

The salad was the prettiest menage of home grown leaves and flowers sitting in a ring of finely sliced avocado and topped with crispy shallot rings and a lovely shiso dressing.  This was among the most attractive and delicious collections of salad leaves I’ve ever had. 10/10

Our next course was a bowl of “Popcorn Shrimp” accompanied by a lightly spicy mayo and another lighter and more delicious sauce.  Again I was confused by the terminology; why wasn’t it called a prawn tempura, because that’s what it was.  The prawns were perfectly cooked, being still soft and moist, and the light tempura batter was very good without a spot of grease, and crispy.  I’m also not sure why the chef is so keen on mayos: none that we had were much good.  Miss J didn’t eat all of her half, so I dived in. But I found them a bit much, even boring, after a while. 6.5/10

Our next course was billed as “Beaverbrook Special Nigiri” and when we ordered I asked if our selection could include both O-toro and Chu-toro cuts of tuna, which I saw on the a la carte menu, so Miss J could sample this especially delicious fatty and semi-fatty meat from the fish’s belly.  I offered to pay a supplement if required, as I’m aware these are expensive cuts, but none was added to my bill.  The sushi we got was outstandingly good: There was the O-toro, the Chu-toro which was

topped with shavings of white truffle, Squid topped with an unidentifiable dusting, cured Salmon (also topped with something we couldn’t identify), and Yellowtail topped with ants!  Yes, ants! Miss J wasn’t enamoured with the thought of eating insects, so I had hers, but I managed to persuade her to eat one of the little chaps.  Biting into the (dead) ants released their formic acid, which has a sharp citrus flavour and therefor perfect with seafood. I thought this was an inspired piece of cheffing: it blew my mind, worked very well, and created a great conversation piece.  Miss J isn’t keen on truffle either, which again meant more for me, but I do admit the fungus’ flavour was perhaps too much for the delicate tuna on which it sat.  The quality of the fish was very good and I should note that every piece of sushi was served in the Japanese style of ‘more protein than rice’, which is my preference.  10/10. 

When we were served the nigiri our waitress vanished, but we both felt we needed a fresh, clean plate.  I had to pinch two from the table next to me. But then we ended up eating the sushi in the traditional way, with our hands!

Next up was “Grilled Corn Fed Baby Chicken” accompanied by broccoli and a kimchi mayo (oddly listed as a separate course). The sliced poussin was delicious with its yuzu-terriyaki dressing – sweet, crispy skin and tender, moist meat (I’m guessing it had been brined) and it was topped with more truffle shavings, which Miss J passed to me, but this was her favourite dish if the day.  She didn’t think the broccoli was as good as her own though, as it lacked the sweetness she was expecting!  It came with a kimchi mayo which was quite bland. 9/10

Basil sorbet with yuzu was an interesting palate cleansing pre-dessert course. The

menu described the yuzu element as a foam, but it was more of a sorbet, though somewhat melted so it actually looked like fresh curds. The basil sorbet was vibrant green and packed with flavour. The hand-made earthenware bowl it was served in was very attractive, and we got a bowl and portion each for this course. 8.5/10

 

Dessert was a handful of mango and yuzu ice cream spheres with a thin bean paste coating, cut in half and with small bamboo sticks to eat them with.  I’m not a fan of Japanese desserts because of the bean pastes they use in them, but this paste was very light and worked very well with the smooth and fruity ice cream. Placing a hemisphere of well-frozen ice cream in the mouth induced severe ‘brain freeze’, which we thawed by taking our coffees on the sunny terrace outside!

I was very impressed by my lunch at Beaverbrook. The quality of the produce was excellent and it was an appropriately light and healthy meal for a warm day.  Chef Taiji Maruyama has had top training in the sourcing and preparation of raw fish, which was the best I’ve eaten in the UK, but more work needs to be done on his bland mayonnaises.  And he should make more of his food’s links to Japan and abandon terms like ‘popcorn’ and ‘tradito’.  Maruyama-san produces very good Japanese food, better than I’ve eaten in London, with inspired flavour combinations, which I believe is worthy of a strong Michelin star, if not two.  Overall 9/10

My bill came to £161.78 including water, coffee and service (no wine as we were both driving), which I was perfectly satisfied with.  I will definitely come again soon, with Mr. A, who also loves Japanese food.

But if Beaverbrook and its restaurant are to win and retain awards and customers the management needs to increase the level of training given to its front of house staff, so that they can provide levels of customer service commensurate with the quality of the hotel’s luxurious ‘hard’ product.

One final note: I just loved the wallpaper in the toilets!  And the toiletries were seductively fragrant too.