A treat: Midsummers House

As an extremely late birthday treat, me and a friend took ourselves to the only Michelin starred (2!) within easy traveling distance: Midsummers house. They offer 3 menus there; the “classic”, which we had, which has the option  of 3,4 or 5 courses for £40, £50 and £60 respectively. They also have two set menus: the taste of the market: £75 and taste of midsummers: £95 which is the restaurant’s tasting menu. My analysis may sound extremely harsh, and it is. It was an exceptionally delicious meal, I just feel like the weaknesses are something to point out.

The meal ran as such:

Appetizers: consisted of cheese-cream filled, warm profiterole-type things, the nicest green olives I’ve ever had and a small glass of foamed gazpacho with a few small chunks of coriander ice within, I plan to copy this at some point. There were a fair number of the olives and profiterole things, making me think the set had been designed for a full table worth of people. If I’d eaten half of the profiterole things, I would never have finished my menu, let alone the tasting menu! They also served bread with the meal, and although the first impression was of great, crusty, warm artisan bread it quickly faded to the strong taste of something marmite-y rather than special.

Course 1: Smoked haddock, lentil puree, quails egg.

Course 1: The “Bonus” course: Smoked haddock, quails egg, lentil puree, some sort of sauce. This course was not on the menu, a fact that confused us a little when the 4th savory course that was laid out, however I believe it was served to all the patrons after appetizers. The play between the egg yolk, haddock (classic combination) and the lentil puree (which was the best use of lentils I’ve ever tasted) was delicious, and the sauce (which I cannot, unfortunately remember) was delicious. A few negative notes: With just the provided spoon the dish was a little hard to eat, also (and more critically) the quails egg had clearly been boiled in such hot water that the outside was like rubber and the middle pretty raw, so that it took real effort to break into the thing, and the whites were not that pleasant in the mouth.

Course 2: Salmon, pickled vegetables and lemon grass sorbet.

Course 2: Salmon: Lightly sous-vided salmon with pickled vegetables and a lemon grass sorbet. The beautiful presentation gave way to an instant disappointment: the sweet pickle overtook the whole dish, burying any flavor the salmon might have had. The vegetables were crunchy, but I couldn’t tell what they had been. The only rest-bite from the sweet tang was that of the lemon grass sorbet, which was beautiful on its own, once again largely buried. The vegetables’ pickling seemed to have seeped into the salmon so that, on its own, its taste was vinegar. My immediate thought was either: put some olive brine/puree in with the salmon to give it an umami kick or to majorly cut back on the amount of vinegar swimming around the dish, and let the salmon shine. Its luke-warm buttery-ness would be beautifully complimented by the cold, smooth sorbet and a little hint of spicy, tangy, crunchy pickled vegetable could have really been delicious. We agreed this was the worst of the courses.

Course 3: Sea bass, roast fennel, spinach, squid ink fluid gel, tomato puree and candied fennel.

Course 3: Sea bass: Pan fried sea bass stuffed with squid and … with roast fennel, spinach, candied fennel, tomato puree and squid ink gel sheet. At this point in the menu, the quantity of fish was beginning to drag us down,  however this dish was really pretty nice. The sea bass was nothing amazing, very tasty but the stuffing didn’t lift it as much as it could have. The roast fennel and spinach were nice volume adders in the otherwise carb-free meal. I had problems cutting the fennel with the fish knife we had been given, especially the more hard stem area. The candied fennel, puree and squid ink sheet made together a sort of fancy ketchup, as far as I could see and they went well with the fish. The tomato puree, inevitably, was salty and too strong in flavor (masking the fish) and I felt that having some of that flavor in the squid ink would have bought it into relevance: it didn’t really taste of anything.

Course 4: BBQ’d lamb, courgette, basil puree, pepper puree, confit pepper, feta, raita.

Course 4: Lamb: BBQ’d-sous-vided lamb with basil puree, red pepper puree, confit red pepper, seared courgette, feta and raita. The lamb was complete perfection: a show stopper. Real proof that sous-vide works. Buttery soft with an intense smoky flavor lent from the barbecue. This coupled with the courgettes and bits and pieces was just so intensely delicious that I had to clean my plate, a struggle considering we were both completely full. This to me was the best dish of the night and really showed me the (soon to be talked about) sous vide -> BBQ technique really works. I would eat this dish at any time. I’d love to be able to deliver something like this repeatably, the flavor punch was just incredible.

Course 4: Themes on a toffee apple

Course 5: Apple and caramel: Carameled granny-smith balls, caramel biscuit, cinnamon ice-cream, apple mousse, salted caramel sauce balls and sliced apple. The two of us, extremely full, were delighted by the look of this play on a toffee apple. All the components were lovely and fitted together with one exception: the apple mousse, which I felt stood out from the others as a cleaner, subtler taste than the caramel really allowed, and so was rather lost. This would have been perfect on a subtler, more apple themed dish, rather than one which left the impression of caramel. The balls of apple stood out to me particularly: they had a remarkable texture: slightly rubbery/crunchy yet soft, which was gorgeous. I thought the sheets of apple with the salted caramel sauce-balls were delicious and looked stunning. The cinnamon ice-cream bought the whole dish together really well and gave the cold, yet strong flavor a really good application of ice-cream should.

Service and restaurant: The night started with being ushered into a conservatory with 8ish tables, manned by 8ish staff. Service was very attentive and we had quickly ordered and had received our appetizers within 10 minutes.  The first course came a little too soon, not allowing us to fully enjoy the appetizers, however this was probably a good thing, due to the shear quantity of food we would be served. As the night progressed, service slowed significantly, with a 10 minute wait between course 3 being cleared and 4 being served (a welcome break) and a 20 minute one between 4 and 5, a little long. However, once the last course was eaten, we waited for a full 20 minutes before I could catch the maitre d’s attention and ask to see the kitchen (which he obliged, willingly, giving us a full tour of the kitchens). At this point it was getting to be 10:30, 3 hours after the start of the meal! We finally got away, full and satisfied with the lovely meal.

Conclusion: Midsummer house served delicious food, well presented and in a lovely atmosphere. It didn’t feel too formal, yet kept the feeling of a destination. I am planning to visit for the full tasting menu as soon as my pockets find themselves well lined, which I hope is soon. It was lovely seeing several dishes from the chef’s Great British Menu success served to the tasting menu diners. A solid 8.

Salmon with bouillabaisse foam, vegetables

The finished dish

Another dish from the recent event: this one was served as the main. The dish consisted of pan fried Salmon, bouillabaisse foam, lemon fluid gel, fennel, kale, carrots and mashed potatoes. Although this dish was very edible, it needs a little more refinement before it has really “wow”-factor, a condition a large proportion of mains seem to suffer, perhaps the approach should be to go for a starter made bigger – I’ll have an experiment with that idea.