Friday, January 8, 2010

Launceston Place, just a hair/hare out of place

Launceston Place, Kensington

Launceston Place is one of those places which seems to have been on "that list" forever. You know, the one of the places I had always wanted to go to but never got round to and probably never will. The first time I was meant to go here, my companions were ill, and even though it was tempting enough to go on my own, I restrained myself and waited for another opportunity. The second time, I was ill. When my sister had arranged a family meal only for the parents to pull out, I made damn sure that this was going to be third time lucky and substituted my parents for @foodbymark and @almacarina.

Launceston Place, Kensington

Head Chef, Tristan Welch, is another one of those chefs who I discovered through watching the Great British Menu. Incorporating modern spin on British classics, I was drawn in by his style of cooking and Launceston Place was firmly on "the list". I arrived early and was welcomed enthusiastically, and when the rest of my rabble arrived, we were shown to our table in the compact dining room and brought over some devilled parsnip crisps to nibble as we perused the menu.

Launceston Place, Kensington

As we were lunching, we had to choose between the dinner (much wider choice and £45) or the lunch menu (limited to 3 choices for each course, £20). As tempting as the dinner menu was, the lunch menu had seemingly good choices and for a mere £20, is extremely good value. Choices ordered, we were brought an amuse of a hot and cold leek soup, with the contrasting heats of the liquids adding an interesting touch to a very tasty palate livener.

Launceston Place, Kensington

Starter
- Cep Risotto, Spenwood Cheese
Simply presented and packed with flavour. The flavour of the ceps permeated deep within the risotto, each bite was luxurious. This was liberally shared around, with the copper vessel deceivingly large, and every single mouthful came with a murmur of agreement, swiftly followed by a request for another bite. Other starters of lobster soup and scallops off the dinner menu also met with a seal of approval. Good start.

Launceston Place, Kensington

Mains
- Braised Wild hare, pistachio butter, chicory and pear salad
This is was very disappointing. Having never eaten hare before, but partial to a bit of Bugs, I was excited to try this and paired with pistachios, one of my favourite ingredients, this should have been an exciting new taste experience. Instead, what I got was an overwhelming taste of salt. The dish had been heavily overseasoned and although the few slices of pear help dilute the assault on my tastebuds, the dish was a write-off. To top it off, my sisters hare had a different type of hair in it, one of the human kind. The staff were quite gracious and handled it very professionally, offering to replace her main, and then allowing her to choose 2 desserts instead. They also proceded to comp her meal for this indiscretion, but it still left a bad taste in the mouth.

Launceston Place, Kensington

After a very Christmassy and refreshing palate cleanser of mulled wine mousse, pear sorbet and candied orange, we embarked upon our miscellaneous assortment of desserts.

Launceston Place, Kensington

Dessert - Apple tart, home made clotted cream
One of LP's signature dishes, the tart arrives in a massive copper bottomed pan and is individually dished out to each lucky recipient. Each slice has crisp pastry with a sweet, caramelised apple topping. Served with homemade clotted cream, this was seriously good...but not perfect. I would much rather have had an ice cream and found myself dunking my spoon into Mark's raspberry ripple ice cream. This accompanied a superlative rice pudding souffle, which was one of the best souffles I have tasted. Other desserts of poached pear and banana sticky toffee pudding were also accomplished, if not quite in the same league as the two afforementioned sweets.

On reflection, this meal was very good apart from two things. The main was a disaster. No matter how good the rest of the meal was, all I can think about how my hare was totally ruined by the over liberal use of salt. The added hair was also a black mark on LP but was handled very professionally by the staff.

Which brings me to my next black mark. Although on the whole, the service was exceptional, we were told by a member of staff (who wasn't serving us) that we had already been informed that we weren't allowed to take photos. Now, nothing annoys a food blogger more than being told that they aren't allowed to take photos of their food. And to top it off, I am pretty sure that isn't the policy of the restaurant, having had our waiter proudly pose with a decadent white alba truffle.

These little annoyances shouldn't detract from the fact that this is a very good restaurant. We had one awful dish but the rest of the food should not be overlooked. And that £20 set menu is insane value. Make sure it's on your list.

Launceston Place (Website) - 1a Launceston Place, London W8 5RL

Launceston Place on Urbanspoon

8 comments:

Hollow Legs said...

What a shame about your main course. I'd have complained, but after the hair incident it could be awkward. I had a fantastic meal there in 2008, I should return for comparative purposes.

Anonymous said...

Delighted your main was a flop. Your hare was one of the lucky ones - 30,000 wounded escape to an uncertain fate annually. And because hares now breed throughout the year owing to climate change at least 37,000 orphaned leverets die of starvation.
Suggest you think before you eat next time.

Anonymous said...

I don't get it. The main was salt with a side of hair and they told you off. Was the waitress hot or something?

Anonymous said...

That's strange they told you no photos allowed! I went there a month ago for lunch and the waiters were very accommodating of my gigantic DSLR. I had the same main as you and found it similarly over-seasoned, but the rest of the meal was wonderful. Of course, we couldn't finish the tarte tartin, our bellies were stuffed to the brim.

20 pounds for the set lunch is indeed amazing. I will return when the menu options change!

tehbus said...

@lizzie and littlespooneats - A few issues, but I still want to try it when the set menu changes!

Anon - I appreciate your concerns for the poor babies but I like meat and the caveman in me demands it. If you have issues about my eating habits, then please email me. Commenting on blogs is not the right sounding board.

LexEat! said...

Glad to hear your lunch was good for the most part! As you know, we had a brilliant dinner here on NYE - thought the service was really great, but I'm only brave enough to take photos with my iphone whilst pretending to be obnoxiously texting people throughout dinner!

Wild Boar said...

That's odd, they didn't seem to mind me snapping away with my DSLR last month. I also thought the hare was too rich and salty.

Kavey said...

I just went, a few days ago...
I only had my point and shoot with me, but I simply said, not long after being seated: "I assume it's fine to take a few photos as long as I don't use flash or disturb other guests?" and they nodded, muttered "of course" and wandered off to fetch bread!

Enjoyed the meal itself immensely!