There has been a lot of hype about Pierre Koffman's pop-up restauranton the roof of Selfridges and I was delighted to secure a Saturday night reservation after a tip on Twitter. I can't remember who it was from, but thank you whoever you were!
The restaurant is one of the highlights of London Restaurant Week and demand has been so high that they've extended the restaurant's opening until the end of October.
My sense of expectation was raised even further after reading Kavey's review (check out Kavey's photos as they are a lot better than mine!) and I went along on Saturday evening expecting good things. I'm pleased to report I wasn't disappointed.
Entrance to the restaurant was via an exclusive lift that took you up to the roof. You walked out the lift into a impressive all-white grotto and a warm welcome from the hostess - who I'm led to believe is Pierre's partner Claire. Our coats were taken and we were escorted into the huge marquee that has been erected on the roof and offered an aperitif at the bar.
Whilst seated there we got chatting to a lovely couple from Australia who were just finishing their drinks from lunch (at 6.30pm!) and they said what a wonderful meal they had, which increased our excitement even further.
We were escorted to our window seats which looked out over Mayfair and West London (which sadly isn't the greatest view of the city), but the sun was just going down and it was still an impressive setting.
We were given menus and informed that the guest chef was Tom Kitchin and the specials were a pig's head & scallop starter and beef wellington main (as featured on 'Great British Menu' on BBC2). On most menus I can usually narrow down my choices to two or three items quite quickly, but I can honestly say that I would have had happily had all the starters and all the meat main courses. *Note this isn't a place for vegetarians and there wasn't a veggie option on the menu.
Now, Koffman's signature dish are his pigs trotters stuffed with veal sweetbreads and morel mushrooms and I went fully intending to try this. However, Grace didn't really fancy it and as we both love veal and beef wellington we decided to order these and go 50/50. To make up for my lack of trotter I went for the pig's head special to start and Grace went for the lobster cocktail.
Excellent bread was brought (six choices, three warm) and we were offered two slices and happily accepted. I went for a roll with bacon (not quite as nice as it sounds) and a wonderfully crusty piece of granary.
Whilst waiting for our starters the hostess came over and had a quick chat, which I thought was a lovely touch. She said she'd been really surprised at how young a crowd the restaurant had attracted and hadn't anticipated that so many people would have heard of it via blogs and Twitter (she estimated about half the people had). To make me feel even luckier about getting the reservation she said they'd had to turn loads of people away including Andrew Lloyd Webber!
Now, on to the food...
The amuse bouche was excellent duck rillettes that were served on melba toast. It boded well for what was to come.
The pig's head starter was beautiful and the flavours went perfectly together. The melt in the mouth meat of the head was wrapped in it's own fatty skin, was topped with some crushed tomato and came with two huge, perfectly cooked scallops. A lattice of crunchy crackling was also thrown in for good measure. It just all worked together perfectly and it's hard to do justice to just how good it was. Undoubtedly one of the best starters i've ever had.
In comparison, the cocktail of Scottish lobster, avocado and lime jelly was good, but not outstanding. Grace found it a little bland (compared with the pig) and thought it could do with a little more seasoning. Overall though, it was a very promising start.
As you can see, the beef wellington looked fantastic and i'm pleased to say it tasted pretty good too. The pastry was crispy, the beef perfectly cooked and the stuffing of chicken mousse and spinach lovely - you can find the Great British Menu recipe here. All in all an excellent beef wellington, which was enhanced by the accompanying mushrooms, rich beef sauce and insanely buttery horseradish mash.
Grace had already declared the veal the best she'd ever had and so at 'half time' I was looking forward to swapping dishes, as i'm a huge fan of veal. For me, it wasn't quite the best i've had (that honour still remains with the Waterside Inn) but it was still excellent. The accompanying sauce wasn't as rich or satisfying as the beef wellington one, but it was still a very good plate of food.
On to dessert and unlike the starters and mains there wasn't too much that appealed, as I don't like pistachio or grand marnier and wasn't in the mood for cheese. Almost by Hobson's choice I went for the Gascon Apple Pie (as did Grace).
Wow. It was sensational.
It wouldn't normally be the kind of dessert I go for. I'm normally a chocoholic or go for something creamy, so I was slightly shocked at just how much I loved it. The pastry lid was sugary sweet, the apple had a hint of cinnamon which went well with the caramel sauce and there was a small pot of slightly sour cream that helped combat all the sweetness. All in all a triumph.
Petits fours were served and the entire bill came to under £200, which I thought was very reasonable given the quality of food on offer.
A quick word about the service. It was far from perfect and not what you'd get in a Michelin quality restaurant normally. I spoke to the restaurant manager when she brought over the bill and asked how everything was. We had a quick chat and she told us that she'd opened nine restaurants and this by far the toughest given the level of expectation and other challenges.
Apparently the staff all normally worked at events and a large number of them had never worked in a restaurant before! Personally I think the whole experience benefited from the informal atmosphere and I was impressed by the staff's friendly attitude and willingness to engage with everyone. They were chatty, attentive and although they may not have served from the left and removed from the right, the experience was none the worse for it.
Overall, a great night, with some excellent food in a wonderful location. On the way out we put our name down for the cancellations list and would happily go again before the month is out - mainly because I still want to try the trotters! If you get a chance to go, take it....
