333. Summer Rain (5. Opheem).

 

  For the rain it raineth every day.

  As the damp month begins to expire, some gastronomic sunshine brought out by a trip to Opheem, where the food is so good that it is surprising that the Good Food Guide, which seems to have got rather too hooked up to the hipster scene of vaguely scruffy establishments with very limited menus and negroni-soaked diners, fails to label it as ‘Outstanding’ and where, surely, if this restaurant were in London it would be a proud possessor of two Michelin stars.

  The food is exceptional. It is flawless. It has been gradually honed to a point of perfection. Most important of all, everything that is presented to the diner is delicious.

  My dining companion and I had reservations which would bring us the five course lunch but that was a very much an understatement. Sitting in the lounge preprandially, amuses gueules followed one after another. Quite sublime but this is my only reservation about our lunch - we felt we spent far too long in the lounge prior to being taken to the dining room, long enough for us to feel vaguely irritated and close to bored. Not that the amuses were not enjoyable, even mesmering, from the little vials of zingy green fluid with its own heat and punch, which made me feel I was like Alice, drinking the shrinking fluid which would put me in the right proportions to enable me to fit in the dining room, a modern day Wonderland, to the little treats dressed in gold leaf which brought a sense of lordliness to us.

  And so to the dining room. Chef was there at the pass. The kitchen was in a state of perfect orderliness. The dishes were coming out. The service was irreproachable.

    This lunch was sold as a five course meal but it became apparent that it was much more than that as the amuses gueules continued to be delivered to us now very comfortably seated at our table. These included the old favourite bhutta, grilled corn now, very agreeably, served with little cones filled with corn flavoured ice cream. Then the first course actually on the menu - bharta, a full flavoured heritage tomato dish, refreshing and palate cleaning. Then an unheralded scallop ceviche-style dish, light and tasty, and then the preannounced aloo tuk, familiar but stupendous - rarely is potato so immaculately presented matched with the vibrancy of tamarind.

  Another familiar face - Pao, fresh sweet milk loaf with a lamb dip to spread on the bread and deliver more delightful flavour. And so to the main course, a delicious play on Chicken korma - beautifully cooked, moist, tasty chicken - it’s hard to recall any better cooked chicken than this was - and a gentle, virginal white korma sauce and a Michelin macaron-shaped piece of mooli.

  

  Sadly, I forgot to photograph the pretty dessert - Seb - a light and soothing apple samosa partnered with berries. 

  We departed with the rain still falling, comfortably replete and convinced that Opheem still yet deserves even greater recognition by those who are influential and claim to know about- and are paid to know about - matters gastronomic.

Rating:- 🌞🌞🌞