Tom Aikens

 

Going out to a restaurant should be about eating food you can't get at home. That's why Indian food was great because, well... it's difficult to make without a spice rack full of exotic pungent dried leaves. These days though, there's been a resurgence in homely English grub and so the molecular food revolution is a real treat. Clever food, cunningly cooked in a way nobody could ever replicate at home. Tom Aiken's Michelin-starred molecular restaurant has won just about every single restaurant award going and, when you go in, you'll see why. The food is, quite simply and without hesitation, sublime. Highly recommended is the tasting menu, which takes you through the entire repertoire with specially selected wines accompanying each dish. From the main menu we opted to start with the Boudin of pheasant and lentils with a truffle and Sauternes foam. On the large white expanse of plate, the small jelly-like chilled Boudin came elaborately laid out but tasted gracefully gamey - not over powering and not under-flavoured - while the truffles and lentils really gave the pheasant a backdrop to display the flavours fully. For main course, the veal sweetbreads (which again came in such tangled decoration it was close to modern art) were delicious - salty and creamily-soft, perfectly partnered with the earthy celeriac milk and mini-veal lasagna. The only downside to this wonderful restaurant is that all black-and-white setting can leave you a little cold. Hardly off-putting. This is a superb restaurant of the very first rank.

NOTE: Tom Aikens restaurant being refurbished, closed as of June 2011, it is set to re-open on 13th January 2012.