2nd review; Dinner, 25 April 2017

In my last review of The Restaurant at Drakes a couple of months ago I noted my worry that their newly promoted head chef might not be up to the standard of their previous chef, and it would require monitoring. Well the perfect opportunity for monitoring came up when I was invited one lunchtime to taste a selection of their new menu items. The invitation was because Drakes wanted to promote their restaurant to local hoteliers, which I was at the time, so our customers might be referred onwards.

The selection of samples and wines we received were so good that I booked to come back for dinner that same evening!

Dinner started with an Amuse of a mackerel pate ball encased in a green apple gel. It immediately reminded me of ‘meat fruit’ served at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, which is a ball of chicken parfait eased in a mandarin gel, so it looks like a mandarin orange. Drakes’ version was a very good effort; the apple gel provided a clean sharpness to the pate, without dominating the tastebuds, so the flavour of mackerel shone through. 7/10
But the dish could be greatly improved through better modelling technique, so that the item more resembles a piece of fruit. As an amuse bouche the ‘fruit’ could be a lime or a crab apple. If the dish were upgraded to a starter, the fruit could be a small apple. Either way, a closer resemblance to an actual fruit would make a stronger impression on a diner than a green squash ball shape.

We enjoyed a glass of Bluebell Estate Rose 2011 fizz with the amuse and with the freshly baked breads and home made butter we were brought. The fizz was courtesy of a voucher given to guests of my hotel, Nineteen, which is about 200m from Drakes. (www.nineteenbrighton.com)

My starter proper was ‘cold sliced suckling pork belly strip, crispy pigs ear, homemade pickles and smoked mayonnaise’. This was a prettily presented dish of two slices of delicious, tender and moist pork. Although served cold, the fats had been expertly rendered to offer mouthfuls of light flavoursome pig which weren’t at all greasy or clawing – helped by the lovely pickles and mayo. The pigs ear was in the form of a croquette, and, while nice, was not as good as the smaller, more crispy morsels we had tried at the lunchtime event. 8/10

Mr. A went for the ‘pan fried scallops, jet black puree, sussex lard, pea veloute and scallop roe sabayon. I thought it was great earlier in the day, and Mr. A agreed. The (three) scallops were proper chunky ones, cooked perfectly and presented very well on the plate. I was intrigued that the black puree wasn’t labelled ‘squid ink’, as I assume that’s what it was made from. 8/10

 

 

For my main I had ‘truffle stuffed poached corn fed chicken breast, morels, polenta cakes and sous vide confit egg yolk, white asparagus and a veal jus’. It was a very impressive looking plate of food, which probably took a while to construct at the pass (because it was a little below optimum temperature). The chicken was very tender and moist, but I would have preferred a stronger truffle flavour from the stuffing. The veal jus was terrific – rich, sticky, with just the right level of beef flavouring for a chicken dish.  I would have liked more! The polenta cakes looked exactly like fondant potatoes, and their texture wasn’t dissimilar either. Each of them had a globe of perfect egg yolk on top, which flowed through the polenta when burst. The morels were previously dried, and although nice, would have been much better if fresh.  8/10

With our meal we drank a bottle of Cannonball Chardonnay from California. I liked it a lot, being a fan of a slightly oaked robust chardonnay, I found it had the robustness to accompany pork and truffled chicken. (£35).

We skipped dessert because we were full, and passed on coffees because it was too close to bed time. Total bill, inc tip, was £119.25 for 2 people, which I found to be pretty fair for a meal of the quality we had just enjoyed.  I’m very pleased that, IMHO, The Restaurant at Drakes’ kitchen is in more than competent hands, and it should continue to stand as Brighton’s most awarded restaurant. Front of house, it is easily the most stylish of the fine dining options in the city; it’s now been Brighton’s highest rated restaurant in the Good Food Guide for eight years.  Overall 8/10

 

1st review; lunch 02 December 2016

I do like the restaurant at Drakes. It has always delivered consistently good food in a ‘michelin style’ (white table cloths, smart service, amuse bouches), and has, for the past 7 years, been the highest rated Brighton restaurant in The Good Food Guide.  So, finding myself free one December lunchtime, I took advantage of an  offer in Latest7 magazine, to get 3 course at lunch for the price of 2 (£20 v £25).  I also used a voucher from my guest house, Nineteen, which gave me a free glass of Champagne.

The smart, refined, small dining room was empty when I arrived for my 1pm table, so I had a free choice of tables. My coat was taken by a professional but miserable waitress. Her accent was East European, so I’m guessing her coldness is the social norm in her country, as it is in Russia.

I ordered sparkling water, though they only had large bottles at a very friendly £3.  Then came my Champagne which was very dry, and possibly not from the real origin, as the waiter described it as ‘fizz’.

An amuse (described by the waiter as a ‘pre-appetiser’, which made me think there might be an appetiser coming next) was a salmon ballotine with a dlill mayo. I found the salmon to be watery and lacking in flavour, or at least it didn’t have enough flavour to compete with the dill. 2/10

This arrived with nice warm bread and ‘standard’ butter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My starter was ‘beetroot and vodka poached sea trout with pickled cucumber and dill hollandaise’, which I had expected to be a cold dish. But actually the fish was ‘tepid’, sitting on a warm hollandaise, with a skin formed on it. The hollandaise was not nice, and there was far too much of it. The trout was under-seasoned, not very flavoursome, and a touch undercooked. An overly-enthusiastic scattering of micro herbs (corriander I think) dominated the fish. The pickled cucumber was nice, but it used a different vinegar to that used in the hollandaise, so flavours didn’t match across the dish. 3/10

The main course was ‘glazed Gressingham duck breast with mulled wine poached pears and spring onion pomme puree’. It all looked very nice on the plate, but, while it looked nicely cooked (pink), I found the duck rather chewy and lacking flavour through being under-seasoned. I left half of it because my jaw was getting tired chewing it. Its accompanying jus was pleasant without being memorable. The poached pears were good and worked well on the plate. The potatoes would have been better if the sliced spring onion had been sweated off a little; as it was they left a very strong and unwelcome taste in my mouth at the end. 4/10
With the duck I had a glass of Blaufrankisch, as lightish red from Austria. It was spicy and worked with the duck, but when finishing off later without foood I thought it was too tannic.

I chose ‘Banana toffee brûlée with vanilla raison ice cream’ for dessert. It was a pretty decent dessert, but proved a bit too sweet for (diabetic) me. 6/10 I can’t wait for a fashion for less sugar in desserts to spread.

I finished off with a double espresso (£3.50), which was horribly bitter and not presented at all well (drips down the side of the cup, no froth on top) 1/10

Overall 3.5/10

My bill was £36.57 inc 12.5% service charge. In spite of my low scores, this was actually a pretty good value lunch.  But things were not up to the usual standards of Drakes, and I do hope this is not how things are since the departure of former head chef Andrew McKenzie a few months back. We’ll have to watch and see.