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Our waiter must have realised he was in for a long night. Barely had he
left that table for two by the window to settle in with an aperitif
when a terrible smell spread through the dining room.
 Leaning down for a rummage in my handbag, my hair had landed in a candle, with the resulting inferno by my right ear forcing a temporary distraction from the intensely flavoured, beautifully light espresso cup of cauliflower and truffle soup.
Head sommelier Mickey Narea skilfully got the meal back on track. Recoiling almost imperceptibly from the scorched stench hanging over our table, he volunteered to save us from the additional trauma of decision making by taking care of the wines for each stage of the six course, £60-per-head tasting menu.
A self-confessed hispanophile, Narea’s selection of a 2008 Albariño from Terras Gauda was a natural and spot-on match for the scallop. Far more than just a refreshing seafood quaffer, it was one of those wines where your hand automatically moves back towards the glass for a second sip, just to make sure your tastebuds didn’t miss anything first time round.
Next up came what was undoubtedly the pairing of the evening: venison tartare with walnuts, bittercress and a quail egg, accompanied by the 2006 Cuvée Laurène from Domaine Drouhin, the Burgundian producer’s Oregon arm.
Just as the walnut kicked in at the end to give extra texture and depth to the dish, so too the combined flavours on the plate brought out a surprising Old World earthiness in the wine. However unpretentious you try to be about wine and food pairings, there are occasions when a match is so spot-on that it merits an interruption to the more serious dinnertime business of scurrilous gossip exchange.
The rest of the evening passed in a mouthwatering succession of dishes, which balanced impeccable execution with a creativity that occasionally bordered on just the right side of humorous.
Hot smoked halibut with a glass of well-matched Guigal St Joseph was followed by a palate-cleansing take on the Waldorf salad. You have to admire the chef for a sorbet which managed to make celery taste like a treat.
It’s generally advisable to skirt round loo breaks in any write up, but as a brief aside for the benefit of those who take an interest in such an English preoccupation, the temples of convenience at Launceston Place are a veritable vampire’s boudoir.
Suitably refreshed, we dived into the salt marsh lamb with a young but very pleasantly refreshing 2007 Nebbiolo. It’s quite ballsy to serve something as simple as a baked potato in a separate goodie bag on the side, but fair to say that by this stage we were putty in the chef’s hands and played along with the stunt like three-year-olds at a tea party.
On the final strait now, but far from flagging, we polished off a tasty selection of cheese, washed down with a glass of Dow’s 20 Year Old Tawny Port.
A brief stepping stone then appeared in the form of a clementine sorbet with dark chocolate mousse before the meal climaxed with a delicious rice pudding soufflé supporting a scoop of raspberry ripple ice cream. It combined all the comfort factor and nostalgia of this boarding school staple with a lightness which left you feeling you could have gone back to the cauliflower soup and started all over again.
The accompanying late harvest Bacchus “Nectar” from Chapel Down may have lacked a little acidity but nevertheless provided an equally light, refreshing close to a meal which somehow lasted four hours.
It’s difficult to understand why Launceston Place has yet to be awarded a Michelin star. Tristan Welch and his team, which TV junkies may recall includes Masterchef 2009 champion Steve Groves, are really giving significance to the increasingly clichéd “British with a twist” manifesto. Just go easy on the hairspray and flammable materials when you visit.
Launceston Place
1a Launceston Place
London W8 5RL
Tel: +44 (0)207 937 6912
Web: www.danddlondon.com/restaurants/launceston_place
Gabriel Savage, 23.02.2010
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