Mr A and I are big fans of the seasonal, often vegetable-focussed dishes served at Roganic and Simon Rogan’s other restaurants.  On our last visit to Roganic in June 2018 I scored it 10/10 – only the second time I’d given top marks to a restaurant at that time, so I was keen to go back to Roganic to see how things have moved on in a year.  I had booked an early dinner at 6.30pm, to follow a surgical procedure to investigate my ongoing stomach problems, which might have been over-ambitious of me!  But I felt well enough to order the full tasting menu (£85) rather than the shorter one available (£65) and we opted for the wine flight at £65 each.

We kicked things off with a Negroni before the first plate was served to us; described on the menu as “blackberry, apple, anise”.  A very fragile, and utterly divine blackberry tartlet was presented on a piece of tree bark. I missed what the ingredients were, but somehow it tasted savoury, not sweet. We also received a glass of apple juice with anise, which was a ‘sophisticated’, grown up glass of pure refreshment. I couldn’t taste the anise, which was good because I’m not keen on aniseed flavouring. 10/10

 

Our next ‘snack’ style plate was a summery dish called “mushroom, yeast oil”, which was a crisp wafer topped with cream cheese and pickled shimeji, and herbs. This was another great snack, full of umami, and, I thought, a taste of well-vinegared chips in a paper cone!   There was also a bowl of mushroom sabayon topped with puffed spelt and shaved cured egg yolk. 10/10

Our next snack was presented on a small, round, flattened stone. There was one trimmed spear of asparagus, cooked in chicken fat and beautifully decorated with tiny elderflowers, beside an elderflower mayonnaise topped with chicken skin crumbs.  I couldn’t detect the chicken fat used in the cooking, and I felt the asparagus flavour overpowered the light elderflower, but it was still very nice. 9/10

Next up we had a skewer of grilled lamb belly and a cube of “lamb fat cake”. It was comforting, gelatinous and ‘very lamby’.  I asked a waitress where the lamb was from, and after checking with the kitchen she told me it was Herdwick lamb from Cumbria.   8.5/10

Our next dish combined celery water and oil with a horseradish cream and lots of foliage. It was very summery and green looking, but it didn’t really sing to me and I found it a bit wishy washy 7/10

“Courgette, goat’s cheese, millet” was a pretty dish, though only half of the plate was dressed. Three cheese dumplings were coated in millet and presented with lightly cooked and raw courgettes and broad beans.  I found it very pleasant, though I thought it was under-seasoned. 7.5/10

Next came a stone bowl containing al dente baked celeriac, a whey cream, malt crumb and celeriac crisps. I liked the flavours, but again I thought it could have done with more salt, and I would have preferred the celeriac to have been cooked longer, to make it softer. 8/10

Our main fish dish was “Cornish cod, tomato, smoked roe” which was exquisite but unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of it! 10/10

The main meat dish was simply called “dry aged cumbrian beef”. We had a thick slice of sirloin, a charred spring onion and griddled shallot and an incredible jus. And on the side was a small serving of beef shoulder ragout topped with onion cream.  I loved all of the onion elements, and the ragout, but my piece of sirloin was unusually tough and very disappointing. 7/10

By this time I was pretty full and my stomach was playing up. It seems my gastroscopy earlier in the day aggravated my problems, and I was in pain and I also developed hiccups (which lasted through the next day).  So I only had a taster of my first dessert of tunworth cheese ice cream, strawberries and thyme.  Being not that sweet, it was the sort of dessert I would normally rave about. 9/10

Our second and final dessert was called “rhubarb, buttermilk, earl grey”. Once agin I had to make do with a small taster and leave the rest for Mr A to finish. We had poached rhubarb with a buttermilk custard, a rhubarb sorbet and tuille biscuit and a roche of earl grey ice cream on the side.  Once again this dessert wasn’t too sweet and it had lovely flavours. 9/10

We skipped the delicious fresh teas served at Roganic, in order to make our train home.  My total bill for two people came to £374.63.  I should note that the wine flight was very enjoyable, with some interesting grapes and styles, and each wine was explained to us by a knowledgeable and friendly sommelier.  Her expertise emphasised the other waiting staff’s lack of knowledge about the menu and the ingredients, which really needs to be addressed – this is a Michelin starred restaurant after all!

Overall, once again we had a good meal at Roganic, but not quite as good as last time.

9/10

We were given a goody bag to take home, containing some cake, some jam, and a couple of teabags, which we enjoyed at home the next day.