The 6th choice by Annette was the 2 Michelin star restaurant Kitchen Table, which only got 20 seats in a U-form around the Kitchen – so was very exciting about getting a table at this restaurant.
The restaurant is hidden behind the bar Bubbledogs – so when we arrived early as usual we just got asked to stand in the middle of the Bubbledogs with a glass of water until someone was ready to take us through to the restaurant – which felt a bit awkward. Would have liked to either be offered a proper drink or to be taken through to our seats straight away. Eventually we got taken through to the room in the back, which was basically the restaurant – so very tiny and quite unique where you definitely feel you are part of the whole cooking experience. The chairs are of course all next to each other – so we were pleased when we got 4 seats at the corner, which made it easier to have a conversation.
Basically we had the choice of going for 12 courses for £150 or 15 courses for £190 – all decided each day by the chef. However we thought the 12 courses and the price for them were enough – so we all 4 went for the standard menu. No doubt the focus was on the food here – so did feel a bit like the whole matching drink experience was missing. Took a while before we got a chance to ask for a Gin & Tonic as an aperitif – but then we ended up basically getting our Gin & Tonic with the first course which was not really the idea. The wine menu was also a bit limited and although we did get some recommendation – it was clear that wine was not really the main thing here, which I hope they will try and improve in the future.
The highlight of the night was definitely the atmosphere being so close to the kitchen and also the master chef James Knappett, who you could follow closely doing the cooking and who was also happy to chat to you in between the courses. Additional the food was a true delight – I was a huge fan of the Sardine dish and the Brill with the foie gras, which I thought both had so many flavours – whereas Carlos really loved the Bigusto Ravioli.
Their web-site was saying to allocate 3 ½ hours for the dinner, which we even thought would be slightly rushes as we normally spend between 4-5 hours at a Michelin restaurant. Unfortunately they cut the time down to just below 3 hours – so honestly we felt very rushes and at one point they even started serving the next dish before Ingrid finished the previous one – so we were not happy about that part as they could clearly see she was still eating. Ended up that we took part of the service charge off the bill – as we didn’t feel the service was up to the standards we normally get. Also if they haven’t rushed us so much – we would have bought more to drink – but they missed out on that opportunity.
We had a nice evening – but I was so much looking forward to try this restaurant – so have to admit that except for the food I thought everything else was lacking and was actually quite disappointed.
