Trivet
Billeted as a rising star (got its 2nd Michelin star this year), this eatery fits a stereotypical modern high-end restaurant well.
It has clean lines, stone bar and elegant water decanters.
Minimalist wooden furniture. Open kitchen. Young well groomed staff in aprons. For a restaurant that only opened in 2019, to attain the rarified 2 stars (taking into account the Covid years) is quite an achievement. I am suitabiliy impressed. Let’s see if this impression holds up with the food.
Starters
Coombeshead Farm sourdough and Trivet focaccia with Kefit cultured salted butter. The bread was excellent. The sourdough was bouncy and moist with a lingering note of sourness. The focaccia was kind of like eating savoury cake based on its cakiness texture. The downside was that this had to be ordered as a separate dish and did not come complimentary.
Goat’s cheese goujons. An amuse bouche. It has been a while since I’ve been offered something for free that I haven’t ordered (perhaps a sign of the times of tightening pures strings) so this was welcomely received. Firm exterior, soft cheese inside, interplay of sour, carb and umami was great.
Crispy chicken wings with honey mayonnaise and herby panko. Deboned, so as not to require you to make a mess of yourself and topped with panko these hit the notes of meatiness (good skin to flesh ratio), crunchiness (panko on top) and light sauce on the side. Great.
Hot tongue bun, anchovy mayo, pickled and sweet and sour blackcurrant. The highlight of the meal as it was a sandwich of ox tongue. I first developed a taste for tongue when I was living in Japan. Gyutan (ox tongue) was one of my favourites in yakitori (grilled meat) restaurants in Tokyo. It was simply something I couldn’t get enough of, it was succulent, firm and radiated strength just as the original organ would do.
This sandwich brought me back to heady (and younger) days in Tokyo where I would lurch from ramen joint to yakitori bar ending up at a combini. Now that was the life. Don’t think my body could take it nowadays though. I can pack things away like I used to, at least without consequence.
Mains
Cornish plaice, sauce “Jean Vignard”, crab meat, courgette and agretti. Creamy and fulsome. Delicious. The delicate plaice was set off by a heavier tomato and cream sauce layered with crab meat with interesting stalks of agretti (a salty plant). Excellent.
Homemade French fries with onion ketchup. In other reviews I have read, these were billed as the bee’s knees. Sadly these were rather ordinary, could have gone without these as they were not particularly crispy and the onion ketchup just tasted too close to regluar tomato ketchup.
Coq au vin blanc. Tasting rather good but nothing really exceptional. In comparison to the plaice, this was somewhat wanting. Although the mash was creamy and smooth, it does not compare to that which I had when The Wigmore was in its prime. The chicken was not bad but nothing to really crow about.
Desserts
Hokkaido potato, baked potato mille-feuille, sake and white chocolate mousse, butter and sake gelato. A very pretty dessert, it was interesting to eat. The very hard and crispy mille-feuille interacted with a slightly bitter aftertaste of the potato/sake. However, the crispness of the tart was slightly overdone as it was a bit too crispy (broke apart into tiny flakes too easily) and almost burnt which sadly overshadowed the mousse.
Poached Yorkshire rhubarb, pistachio, yoghurt and mint. The better dessert, the sometimes sharpiness of the rhubarb was tempered by the yoghurt and mint. Smoothness of the icecream and yoghurt paired well with crunchy biscuit base underneath.
As the book end to the amuse bouche were some petite fours. Macroons and jelly. Gone in a bite as the creamy macaroon was a great contrast to the more sweet and sour jelly. A pleasant way to end.
Wrap up
Does this place deserve its metaphorical rise? The ox tongue sandwich was the superstar of the show, the chicken wings and plaice coming in a distant (on account of the ox tongue) second but the rest was good but not exceptional. So although a nice meal out, I probably won’t be back soon. Often I find myself talking to myself (probably because my friends have abandoned me for justifable reasons), so to answer my own question, probably not.
Score
A quiet eating 8.5/10.
Lunch (3 courses) was GBP65 excluding drinks and service.
Trivet. 36 Snowsfields,
London SE1 3SU