A month ago I spent a few days down in Devon for work and decided to visit a few of the finer restaurants in the area for dinner instead of sitting cooped up in my hotel bedroom. You may have read the blog... or fallen asleep halfway through it!
If you'll remember, I was a little disappointed in
The Brasserie at The Elephant following my first visit. Well, Saturday night was the rematch, the opportunity for The Elephant to impose itself upon me and turn the tables. Sheila and I had travelled to Devon to visit Andy and Emma, a couple we met whilst on honeymoon in Cambodia, and during the discussions around what to do over the weekend, I had expressed an interest in re-visiting The Elephant. Emma was obliging and booked us a table in
The Room, the Michelin starred restaurant at The Elephant.
We arrived and were duly escorted upstairs to our table. I had planned to order the taster menu, but noticed that it had increased in price since my last visit to £70, which I think is still reasonable for a taster menu. However, you need to order a taster menu for everyone on the table and I didn't wish to impose the cost on our friends, so we went for a traditional a la carte 3 course meal.
The bread basket arrived just after we placed our order and it was a pleasant surprise to see a couple of additions to the usual. On our bread board we had Ceps mushroom bread sticks, olive bread, pickled olives, homemade houmous and a duck something (not quite pate, maybe a confit?) with crispy onion (I think). All standard stuff really... the houmous as good, but possibly a little lighter in flavour than I'm used to. The duck was lovely and I enjoyed the addition of the crispiness on top. I enjoyed the image of the bread stick in the basket and the crunch when eating it was good, but not sure how much flavour, if any, of the mushroom came through.
The amuse bouche arrived shortly after and I had to laugh at Andy. He sat looking at the bowl for a short while, then tasted it, pulled a face and pushed the bowl away from himself. It is fair to say that Emma is the foodie in their relationship. I also discovered what amuse bouche translated means... I always knew it as a taster from the chef to tingle the taste buds, but translated from french it means 'mouth amuser'. I love it!
What we received to amuse our mouth was definitely that. It was basically an upgraded vichyssoise. In my opinion, cold soups can be an acquired taste and are sometimes quite cloying on the palate. This one was definitely not. Light, fresh and sweet are all words to describe this dish. I loved the clean taste of the leek and potato and just loved the crunch of the walnut and the sweetness of the apple. A taste of things to come...
Sheila's starter just looked gorgeous so I had to take a pic and show it off. It was simply called Beef and Oyster, yet consisted of a tartare of beef and rock oyster, sweetbread beignets, oyster mayonnaise and confit of quails egg.
My starter was the Scallops. It consisted of two parts, one cold plate followed by a hot scallop dish. The cold scallop was a very light, clean dish of ceviche of scallop with pickled beets, crisp julienne apple and a sorrel gel. Eaten individually, each element on the plate was light, and dare I say it, a tad boring. However, when adding it all together in a single mouthful, the crunchy apple brought it all together and it was quite delightful. Very pretty plate too.
Much bolder flavours in the hot scallop dish and by far my favourite of the two. The scallop was beautifully cooked, still slightly opaque and when combined with the Crown Prince Puree (a squash and brown sugar puree) it was delectable! The caramelised seeds added a needed crunch to the dish.
My main course was simply called Pork. It was a tad more than that of course and on the plate was pork loin and pork cheek, morcilla and pistachio croquette, pickled turnip, carrots and celeriac with sage oil. The pork loin was disappointingly tough, but only just. It was cooked slightly rare, as I like it, and I was expecting it to melt in my mouth. Unfortunately not... there was to my mind just a bit too much effort needed to chew the loin. The cheek on the other hand was just lovely. Beautifully braised, moist, rich in flavour and just pure yum. I loved the crackling 'pop corn' served with it too. Morcilla is a Latin American version of blood sausage and it was to die for. The rich flavours of the morcilla and pistachio croquette just burst into life in my mouth and a few 'Mmmm...' moments with closed eyes ensued. The celeriac mash with flavourful and creamy and the turnip and carrots added the obligatory vegetables. The heroes on this plate for me was the pork cheek and the morcilla croquette. More please?
Sheila's dessert was very pretty and full of lemony flavour. Very selfishly, she hogged the meringue stick all to her self...
My dessert on the other hand was a revelation on the one hand and a little disappointing on the other. The look was cute and I liked the theatre of the waiter pouring the strawberry sauce at the table. The strawberry and lemon mascarpone sphere was a touch lighter in flavour than I expected. My palate was wanting lashings of sweet strawberry countered with sour lemon and it got none of that. What it did get was popping candy! Loads of fun and quite unexpected. I was a child again and savoured the dessert purely for the little explosions in my mouth. I did like the strawberry sauce which was fruity, sweet and clean and the light Elderflower creme was pleasant and creamy.
Whilst there are negative statements coursing through this blog, I am honestly nit picking. Overall, everything was good, the food was presented beautifully and tasted clean and fresh. The chef obviously likes to keep the flavours of the individual ingredients and not play with them too much. It's all about combinations here and how the various elements on a plate work together. Overall, I'd say they got it right. I really enjoyed the evening at The Room and would definitely go back, but only after the menu has changed next season.
The next day, Andy and Emma took us out for Tea and Scones. How can you not when in clotted cream country? We were taken to the very quaint
Angels Tea Rooms with its beautiful veiws over the ocaen.
Can you get more English than that? I ordered a mini tea which consisted of one ginger scone and one cherry scone. I don't think I need to say much more really... An eclectic mix of china, fresh leaf tea, freshly cooked, very light and fruity scones with a selection of interesting local homemade fruit jams?
Mmmmmm...
Devon is definitely a food haven and I can't wait for my next trip down to do a little more exploring!
