Texture

Lunch with Yumchia has been in both my and the Pretty Lady's diaries for a few weeks, but I hadn't actually written down the name of the restaurant we were going to. I figured the Pretty Lady had, and it's one of the perks of being married to rely on your wife's memory. Anyway, we pitched up at Texture, which vaguely stirred some strands of memory - there was some sort of connection with Iceland. I trust Yumchia's recommendations - she's an inverterate foodie, same as me, so she knows what she likes, and very well too. Don't just trust my opinion though, go over to her blog and see for yourself.

Texture is a venture by Aggi Sverrison and Xavier Rousset, formerly head chef and sommelier respectively at Le Manoir Aux Quat' Saisons, Raymond Blanc's restaurant in Oxfordshire. Sverrison has also worked with Marcus Wareing, at Petrus. He started his career in Reykjavik, where he rose to be head chef at the Grill Room. His current restaurant has a minimalist feel without being quite minimalist - white walls, wooden floors, comfy leather chairs, and feature hangings in the restaurant, which sits behind a champagne bar (adjacent image from Bloomberg News). It is located in the centre of the West End, at:

Texture
34 Portman Street
W1H 7BY
020 7224 0028

Yumchia and PY were late, so the Pretty Lady and I started with Texture's signature crisps. They came on a black ceramic board, piled up, with a wasabi emulsion and a dip version of tzatziki. There are several varieties - cod skin, fried and sprinkled with nori powder, parmesan cheese sliced thin and crisped (I think probably in the oven), and dry-baked thin-sliced crostini with black pepper. Despite the greasy sounding description, they were all light and airy, and were quite tasty, although the flavours were a little muted - the cod skin didn't taste much of cod, the cheese was not really cheesy, and so on. But that's all right - it was finger food to accompany conversation, but not likely to be the basis of conversation on its own.

We had a second round of crisps when Yumchia and PY arrived, and I ordered the wine. I asked for a Stellenbosch chardonnay on the wine list, but they didn't have it, so I deferred to the sommelier's recommendation for something light and refreshing. He recommended a Greek wine, Malagousia 2006, eponymous to the grape, by a winemaker called Gerovassiliou, in Macedonia province. The sommelier was kind enough to save the label of the wine for me, and I will be blogging about it in a separate post. Here's a teaser though - the wine was fresh and created impressions of springtime, with an array of herbal and floral scents. I could detect jasmine, lemon, thyme, rose and lemongrass among others. Very tasty indeed.

For lunch, one can either opt for the lunch menu, which consists of about 12 dishes to mix and match (all dishes are starter sized), or one can go for the fish tasting menu or the regular tasting menu. We had the lunch menu. From the restaurant's website, it appears that the dinner menu consists of thematic variations on the lunch menu, and more substantial portions (probably). We opted for 3 courses off the lunch menu, and chatted until the starters arrived. Yumchia whipped out her camera and started taking pictures - for her blog, naturally. This is perfectly normal behaviour for bloggers. I have ceased feeling embarrassed when I whip out my Blackberry to capture whisky tasting notes, a restaurant's phone number, or just an idea for a blog post.

I had Jerusalem artichoke soup, foamed a little, poured over a poached egg (from Hoads Farm, the organic egg producers), with shaved perigord truffle on top. The Pretty Lady and PY had Icelandic cod (naturally), with a slice of chorizo, braised squid, black olive bread and piquillo pepper. Yumchia had Mediterranean tuna, but I couldn't take notes quickly enough to record what it came with. Texture does live up to its name - my artichoke soup was unctuous and smooth, herby, earthy and pleasantly eggy from the poachie, and with the truffles, wonderfully fragrant. The Pretty Lady's cod was soft but firm, with the chorizo adding a gamey tang, and the olive bread a crispy counterpoint.

The mains came eventually, after we had finished swooning over the wine and the starters. I had roast Icelandic lamb from Skagafjordur, Iceland's main agricultural region, with fregola (Sardinian semolina grains) and beetroot. The ladies all opted for the same thing, Lancashire Old Spot pork belly, braised, accompanied with squid. My lamb was interesting - it tasted almost exactly like Welsh salt marsh lamb, right down to the slightly salty tang. Now this could have come from what looked like samphire, but I couldn't be sure - the description of the dish on the menu didn't include samphire. I didn't manage to taste the Pretty Lady's squid, but she says it was "nice, and it went well with the pork".

Desserts were also textural, more than flavourful - my gingerbread parfait came with pumpkin carpaccio and caramelised pumpkin seeds (a very good idea!), and passionfruit sauce. The Pretty Lady had coconut cream on a caramelised coconut biscuit, accompanied by what I believe to be coconut foam (again, I couldn't take notes quickly enough). The coconut biscuit was delicious, warm and crispy - I don't normally like warm coconut, but this dessert was better than my gingerbread parfait.

Texture works. The decor suggests Scandinavian, and the food is very interesting, working off many different textures to enhance flavours. I am going to visit again, as a meal here is a tour-de-force of skilled cooking. The service was impeccable, and the staff recommendations very very good. Messrs Sverisson and Rousset have got things right.

Scores:

12 Feb 2008: TFQ = 25, CS = 28, S = 18, AD = 6, VfM = 6. Total = 83 points.

What does this mean?