In feverish anticipation I turned up at The Wilderness with my dining companion at dead on 7 o’clock, the gastronomic witching hour. The night was dry and mild, the Jewellery Quarter was quiet though the traffic getting there was in a state of near-mayhem and the atmosphere was just right for a little seasonal hubble bubble toil and trouble. The Wilderness, the welcome was even warmer and the restaurant’s uniqueness established itself once more in my consciousness.
Drinks, then the perfect hors d’oeuvre for this Christmas extravaganza - three plump oysters, flavours awash with sea, enhanced in the case of two of them by a champagne sauce and the other with the umami of miso. Happy Christmas everybody!
And on. There were firm, perfectly cooked ratte potatoes exaltingly cooked in beef fat and luscious with egg yolk. Then the Christmas main course itself - not for The Wilderness the Christmas cliché of dining on dinde or eyeing up oie; no, this was the rough and tumble of Ye roast beef of Englande - dry aged rib eye, beautifully cooked and tasty though perhaps slightly chewier than might have been viewed as optimal - with, as the menu emphasised, all the trimmings - cauliflower with rarebit, Yorkshire pudding, excellent roast potatoes (achieving a perfect or near perfect roast potato is an art in itself) and parsnips with a lovely sweet glazed carrot, greens and the appropriate condiments. At this stage, we needed Tiny Tim to jump up and declare, “God bless us, everyone!”
Instead of Tiny Tim, a slightly runny but nonetheless delicious pot of mince pie ice cream popped up and afterwards a shockingly brilliant sticky truffle pudding which would have sent Scrooge into paroxysms of miserly horror wafted on to the table like the joyous Ghost of Christmas Present - all luxury and hedonism and none the worse for that. Could this be the number 1 dessert of 2023?
The Muppets’ Christmas Carol again came to mind as a pair of Wilderness frogs, not quite the colour of Kermit, rounded off this grand Wilderness Christmas party and that was as much fun as you could hope for as Christmas closed in on us.
God bless us, everyone!
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