There are two things about Daniel Humm that I now know – he likes circles; and (almost certainly as a consequence) he likes radishes.
Don’t believe me? Scroll down and you’ll see what I mean.
So, we went for lunch at Davies and Brook – our first proper outing since lockdown eased. This new restaurant by Daniel Humm at Claridges occupies the old space of Fera, and already acts the part and more. This is hardly surprising. Afterall, Humm also owns Eleven Madison Park, the Michelin 3 star restaurant voted the best in the world in 2017. I’d be damned if he decides to go Jamie Oliver and use Claridges as a sacrifice.
While I was expecting the dining room to smell of money like Fera did, it is relatively simplistic (well, slightly) and elegantly decorated. We were seated on one of the smaller tables close to the bar, which seemed a bit odd given that they have shifted a lot of 4-person tables to cater for 2. But then I guess your table allocation in a restaurant is always a matter of luck (or maybe a matter of how important you are which, admittedly, we are not regardless of how we view ourselves). I didn’t mind either way – the 2 tables next to us remained empty and thus perfect for social distancing, which was all that I cared about.
You can choose between a 4 course a la carte or a 7 course tasting. We went for the latter because, well, how can you resist this:
To start things off – we had an amuse bouche of chawanmushi, or Japanese egg custard, followed by freshly baked danish-style pastry accompanied by liver butter and cranberry jam. Chawanmushi appears to have become a thing lately – The Dining Room at Whatley Manor also served it but to less accomplishment. It had an intense flavour, helped by a topping of truffle (which I obviously don’t mind). The star, however, was the bread – warm, flakey, crisp and represented everything nice. The liver butter (essentially a whipped up pate) and jam went really well with it. I only wished there were more.
Then came their caviar dish – which they describe as imperial osietra caviar with white sweet potato, smoked shellfish and Naan. I’ve never really appreciated caviar. It is a spoonful of salty goodness, but never good enough to justify the price tag. I get truffle, or foie gras, or lobsters, or wagyu beef – because they are distinctly delicious in their own right. With caviar, you can get a similar taste for a lot less. A “taste of the sea” can be better obtained from oysters or sea urchins; whereas the saltiness can easily be found in salmon roes. The most disappointing thing about high end caviar is that it doesn’t even have the pop that you get from salmon/trout roes, like eating a pack of crisps with no crunch. All too often caviar is used like gold leaves: to make something smell of money (and costing the part too), but adds very little to the flavour.
That aside, the entire dish was fantastic – the naans were warm, pillowy circles, and the accompaniment – a sort of creme fraiche and pickled apple (in circular dishes) – went well with it. Saltiness from the caviar was welcoming but best was the sweet potato that carried it – it was baked soft in a soy glaze – and had a crispy skin. We weren’t sure whether we should eat the whole thing but we did anyway. We had no regret. But but to my point – I wasn’t fussed about the caviar which, by itself, would have added at least £30 to the bill (note: if you wanted to order that as part of your a la carte – it is a £35 supplement)
Next came the turnip – a variety of pickled turnip scattered around the plate with apple, mustard seeds and yuzu. It encapsulated the chef’s love for roundness – it was circle discs upon circle discs to make a bigger circular plate of food. It was fine – gave some freshness to the palette, but in a way that I wouldn’t shout home about.
And then the black cod. I mean, you can’t really go wrong with black cods – and this one did deliver. It was melt-in-your-mouth, with a crunchy cabbage topping to give it some texture. It could rival Nobu’s version.
The following fish course – butter-poached lobster with squash, mushroom and kale – was also fantastic. Everything was perfectly cooked despite being a bit small in portion. For me a perfect lobster dish should always feature a whole tail – and this one only had half of it. As expected – it was hidden under a thin slice of pickled round radish – but yellow this time (variation!).
The meat course – grilled venison with smoked yellow beetroot, caramelised onion and juniper – had me worrying because at this point I was only half full and not sure whether I’d be sufficiently fed. This worry was unsubstantiated since they also brought on two sides of brussel sprouts and potato rostis. Both were presented in, surprise surprise, circle, but they were circles that I’d like to eat over and over again.
Restaurants love to put in an optional cheese course for a supplement which, as I’ve learned from past experience, is always worth ordering and, also from my past experience, only one portion is sufficient. This was different from your normal cheese course though – basically a raclette cheese fondue in half a sphere (see? round again) of squash, accompanied by salad, quince, mustard jam, and pretzel. Almost unfairly, it is often difficult to compare cheese courses by the cheese alone (they all tend to be excellent in their own way unless you see them coming from a Tesco bag), and so the differentiation usually comes down to the accompaniment. The ones here were good – but not particularly memorable.
Then, praise be, came the desserts. We had a Milk & Honey ice cream tart, and a chocolate delice. Both were simply excellent – mostly down to their ability to use salt. Not many places can achieve a great balance between salt & sweetness, and they did it perfectly in unexpected places. I have not had a memorable dessert for a while (yes, I am hard to please when it comes to dessert), and I will certainly remember these.
The meal ended up with some chocolate mint, and pack of granola to take away (so you can remember us the morning after? Aw). All nice touches
All in all, fantastic meal (or as a certain Jay Rayner might say – “it should be at this price”). It wasn’t without its rough patches, however. As much as the bread at the start was great, they didn’t really offer you any for the rest of the meal (trust me, you wouldn’t want to miss out on opportunities to sweep up that lobster sauce. Licking the plate would likely have raised some eyebrows). Similarly, no coffee or tea was offered at the end which was very much needed in a cold winterly month like this. Service was attentive but took time to warm up – we waited for around 10 minutes for someone to come take our order despite having a handful of staff standing around to, for a better word, look pretty.
Either way, I am already planning to return for their a la carte menu. I’d definitely want to try out their duck dish which Eleven Madison Park is famous for. By that time I suspect this would already have at least 1 star under its belt.
8/10
Website and reservation: https://www.claridges.co.uk/restaurants-bars/davies-and-brook/
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