Kitchen W8, London

First and foremost, forgive me for my distinct lack of discipline with regards to keeping up to date with this blog. For the first time in almost 3 years (which is surprising really) my PhD clearly took over and began to impact upon my free time as well as my working day. This unfortunately has resulted in a number of delicious meals over the past couple of months but no time to write about any of them. Rest assured though - just because I have had a few months break, it does not mean that I have forgotten to continue my pursuit to find excellent foodie places - in fact, I have a ever increasing list of exciting and unforgettable meals I will now endeavour to start to work my way through.

The first of these meals took place towards the end of March, on a surprisingly mild, and sunny day in London town. I had been on the look out for an excellent value and highly acclaimed restaurant for Sunday lunch and a pre-Royal Albert hall, lunch. After a few weeks of research (my favourite kind of procrastination!) it became clear that I would be booking myself and my mother into Kitchen W8, who as well as offering a set lunch and a la carte menu throughout the week, provide a separate Sunday menu with excellent variety of choice.

Kitchen W8

Just a stones throw away from the Albert Hall itself, W8 made it the perfect place for a late, leisurely lunch, and we were welcomed to a relatively quiet, although nicely bustling restaurant with open arms by the maître d' on duty. The restaurant itself was surprisingly large, with three rooms, laid out in an open plan sort of fashion, with unique pieces of art making the wall decoration, and large mirrors - aiding again to the spacious feel of the place.

We were presented with the Sunday menus; an excellent choice of about 4 or 5 options for starter, main course and dessert (lovely to see on a set menu which can often amount to a rather restricted selection of dining options), all for £32.50. I must apologise again because I did not photograph the menu so the exact dishes we went for are not entirely accurate - it was almost 3 months ago after all - but I have a pretty good memory when it comes to good food, and this meal certainly had plenty of that!

First to arrive was the bread - it was a sort of soda bread, tough crust and soft oily dough in the middle - it was nice, but nothing special when compared to the level of choice often given at other fine dining establishments, it certainly did it's job of wetting our appetite though and luckily we were not left too long to wait for our first courses.

Wild Garlic veloute with herb gnocchi

My mum opted for the vegetarian soup - odd for a family of carnivores, but the presentation was vibrant and the flavours absolutely perfect. The veloute was silky smooth and carried bags of fresh flavour, which complimented the density of the creamy gnocchi - we were both incredibly impressed.

Sweetbreads with crushed pea and Parmesan

I opted for something slightly more adventurous, and in the offal arena with sweetbreads, crushed peas and Parmesan. This sung spring flavours to me, with the sweetbreads offering a textural and rich flavoursome component, but the green crushed vegetables and Parmesan giving the necessary freshness and creaminess.

Poached fish with samphire and brown shrimp

We both opted for the fish dishes on the main courses; my mum with a poached fillet of fish a brown shrimp butter and samphire, and me with sea bream, broccoli and beetroot puree.

My main course was lovely, and again both presentation wise, and in terms of taste really felt seasonally matched with a certain spring in it's step. My fish skin was brilliantly crispy, and the combination of the beetroot puree, broccoli and breadcrumb topping was deliciously unique and balanced faultlessly.

White Chocolate, lemon and muesli

For dessert my mind goes decidedly more blank with regards to my Mums choice, but I can tell you she absolutely loved it. As far as my memory serves me, it was a yoghurt parfait with a white chocolate disc, lemon curd, muesli shards and meringue. She was certainly pulling all of the right faces you would expect from a standout dessert and the components were all certainly well thought both individually, and as a combination of flavours.

Soaked strawberries, cream, basil sorbet and honeycomb

My dessert was equally successful - an absolutely divine interpretation of strawberries and cream, unlike anything I have ever tasted before (and I have lived on a strawberry farm my entire life!). The sweetness of the honeycomb added an additional textural and sweet element to cut through the lime green herb sorbet, but the standout component (and rightfully so) was these boozy strawberries which I still talk about with fondness to this day.

We also opted for a cheese plate to share as an additional course (which is starting to become a bit of a necessary feature of our meals together!) and it was lovely. Three cheeses - a blue, a hard comte style cheese and a creamy goat cheese, with apricot and walnut bread and crackers.

The meal came to a close with homemade truffles and a coffee each, but it certainly left a good taste in our mouths. We were incredibly impressed, not only by the variety of choice on this 'set menu' but also the quality of the food, the vibrancy of the flavours and the attention to seasonal detail which seemed to run through the courses effortlessly. For around £50 a head including the extra cheese course, coffee and a large glass of wine each I have to say I was incredibly impressed and will certainly be recommending, and hopefully returning at a later date.

http://www.kitchenw8.com/