Roganic

"Amazing tasting menu, creative and healthy. Wonderful !"

"The dining room was somewhat on the basic side, but we were soon put at our ease by the warmth of the welcome and we felt quite at home with the Hampshire pink fizz we selected from the wine list, the fizz going very well with the starter mouthful of pumpkin tart, the excellent light pastry married with a pear and pumpkin filling and fragrant bay leaf and accompanied by a refreshing pear and pumpkin juice, and the imaginative mushroom zabaglione with cured egg yolk and puffed rice which made a surprising change from run-of-the-mill snacks. The lead-in to the meal continued with a delightfully simple and really moreish dish of spelt crackers and sweet pickled mushrooms which set us up perfectly for chicken with crispy skin, pickled carrot and superb creamy smoked cod’s roe. A surprising creation of lamb pudding, super tasty crispy lamb belly with a hint of liquorice in the black garlic gel which had us licking our lips, and the excellent artichoke broth with quail egg yolk and swede that followed was accompanied by some top-notch home-made bread, which was not presented as an extra course unlike a certain two-star outfit we had recently dined in. Pork belly and pickled crackling with beetroot, kale and pine nuts might not come across as an exquisite exercise in striking visual and gustatory counterpoint, but this was just that, and the next dish of salt-baked celeriac, whey foam, and caramelised celeriac purée and crisps provided a surprising and perfectly conceived balance between the pork and the mackerel which came next, as well as being just the sort of course that would rank high on a veggie menu. The perfect mackerel, covered in a red cabbage cloak, had a wonderful sauce concocted from sea-fresh mussels and tapioca and was completed by a well-judged portion of kohlrabi. Beef came next, dry-aged local (Cumbrian) meat with an onion purée and beef cheek with luscious potato foam and spring onion giving a light and tasty contrast. The cheese course was Tunworth ice cream with a trompette mushroom powder dusting, a caviar topping and cranberry sauce making the difference between a good dish and an outstanding one. The dessert was a chamomile cream, the full taste of which subtly crept up on the palate and was reinforced by a verjus gel and some poached pear and pine nut praline crumble. The one slight negative came right at the end of the meal in the form of a less than generous serving of mint tea which was not fully compensated for by the delightful petits fours of smoked juniper fudge and pine nut gel. Having been to all Simon Rogan’s previous establishments on a number of occasions, we felt that we had a pretty good idea of what style of food to expect here. We were quite wrong. This was a move in a new and even more exciting direction with the deft development of curing and pickling techniques making for a plethora of superb and unexpected new combinations of tastes and textures. There is now no need to trek all the way to Cumbria for a full hit of Roganic excellence."

"The food is undoubtedly Michelin quality the venue less so. The toilets are quite basic with cheap fittings and poor decor and a pile of used towels. Access to the toilets is via a steep spiral staircase, not good if you opt for the wine flight. The food itself is almost as good as L'enclume, it's big brother. Some of the courses were quite exceptional, who knew cheese ice cream cranberry and caviar could be a "thing" but wow it was! A couple of the 11 courses were less thrilling, like the celeriac, but hey most were sensational. My 59th Michelin star, it didn't disappoint"