Medlar, London

We kicked things off during a recent trip to London with a visit to one Michelin star restaurant Medlar for Saturday lunch.  A steal at 2 courses for £25 or 3 courses for £30. We noticed a good mix of meat and seafood dishes on the menu.  Mr Nom found it quite hard to decide between the duck egg tart with red wine sauce, turnip puree, lardons and sautéed duck heart or the sea bream carpaccio with sauce vierge, tempura prawn, seaweed and cucumber. In the end settling for the bream he loved the delicate dish, it was a very light starter and the crunch from the cucumber was great, the added bit of texture to the dish. The tempura prawn had a very light batter and complimented the dish very well. Each element of the dish was beautifully matched.

I was slightly jealous I didn’t pick the sea bream but my starter was lovely too. I ordered the crab ravioli with samphire, brown shrimps, fondue of leeks and bisque sauce. The ravioli starter was very appetising and there was a lot of crab filling which is always a bonus! The bisque sauce was full of flavour; I was mopping up the excess sauce with the bread.

For mains, Mr Nom selected the saddle and leg of rabbit with potato terrine, swiss chard and sauce nicoise. He loved the potato terrine! I found a really cheesy smell coming from his dish which was slightly off putting for me. I dislike strong smelling cheeses.

As for my main course I chose the under blade fillet with café de Paris snails, salad, triple cooked chips and béarnaise. I was informed the fillet would be served medium rare which is how I love my steak cooked anyways. The steak was cooked exactly how I wanted it, tender and juicy! The chips were great too and I was happily dipping them in the béarnaise sauce.

We were starting to feel rather stuffed from the 2 courses so we shared a buttermilk panna cotta with black figs, pistachio and financier. The dessert was light, a lovely end to the meal. I think the star of the dish were the financiers, they were simply bliss!