5 stars in Surbiton

We’re off to Surbiton looking at houses. After wandering around for a while we fetch up at the Queen’s Promenade by the river, and then pop into Hart’s Boatyard for a drink. The menu here looks quite interesting, but we are booked into The French Table, so we just have a glass of wine.

Our table is booked for 1.30pm, because they couldn’t offer us anything earlier, and when we arrive the place is packed. Maybe it’s because it is a Saturday, though we couldn’t book a table at all on Friday. They must be doing something right.

We look at the menus - £23.50 for two courses, £28.50 for 3.  We normally discount the tasting menu, but as it is just £32 for 5 courses and it looks very interesting we decide to plump for it. We also order a bottle of Sicilian Grillo at £23, rather than go for the paired wines, which would have been £23 each.

The wine comes at once, closely followed by an amuse bouche of deep-fried eel on spiced pumpkin. Quite fishy, but very good.  The first of the 5 courses arrives soon after – scallops in a shell, topped with chorizo crust, with cauliflower and seaweed chutney. This is amazing. The crust is crumbly with a kick, the scallops (2) just right and the seaweed a novel taste. Maybe you could argue that the crust overpowered the scallops, but that would be being picky.

 The second course is a change from that advertised – we had been warned in advance.  Described as a “ballotine” of foie gras, it was a round slice of paté wrapped in crushed mushrooms, and supported by roast fig and piccalilli, with a streak of port sauce. This replaced a rabbit terrine with foie gras and ham hock, which may have had more interesting textures, but was more than acceptable.

 We’re relaxing into the atmosphere now, confident that the coming dishes will also be tasty. There’s a good satisfied buzz around the busy room and, despite the table being quite close together, no overly loud guests.  There is some background music, but playing so softly as to be hard to identify.

 Next up is hake on coco beans (nope, me neither) with crispy fried samphire and a lobster sauce. The sauce smells gorgeous, the hake is nicely judged with a slightly crispy top and the samphire really fun. It’s not a big portion, as you might expect in a tasting menu, but very good indeed.

 We order another bottle, and the friendly waitress stops for a little chat, asking whether we’d been before. Apparently they have been going for 18 years, and you can tell why. The owner Eric Guignard still runs the kitchen and has resisted opening up other branches.

 Our conversation is cut short when the beef course arrives.  Three pieces of medium rare beef come with some creamy, cheese and garlic  mash (pomme aligot), girolles and a madeira sauce. The beef is simply excellent, tender and so full of flavour.

 Desserts arrive at the table to one side of us, one of them accompanied with a candle, and  “Happy Birthday, Dean” piped in chocolate around the rim of the plate.  Later we see similar plates arrive at other tables – it’s certainly a good place for a celebration – and the table on our other side pays partially with a £50 gift voucher, a lovely gift I would imagine.

 Our final course is chocolate soufflé with vanilla parfait (you could order an extra course of cheese for £12, but we don’t do that).  Normally I’m not that bothered with chocolate desserts, but this is stunning. The soufflé has a lovely crust and a melting interior; the parfait is covered in nutty chocolate. Nothing to fault at all – parfait indeed.

 Although outside the restaurant had looked very attractive, surrounded in greenery, inside it is much more restrained. The décor is a pale grey, with a number of fairly unremarkable pictures, and basically it is simply a long rectangular room. The back of the restaurant is made lighter by skylights, and the bar doesn’t intrude. So you don’t go for the decoration – but with food this good, you don’t need any distraction.

 With a bottle of sparkling water (!) and service, the bill is £128. It has been one of the top meals of our year, up with Chez Bruce, our favourite.  It regularly features in OpenTable’s list of top 10 London restaurants, and in their “best service” listings.  We’d highly recommend it, and it certainly helped B become happier with the idea of moving to Surbiton!