While staying in Broadway, it seemed like a good idea to try another Broadway restaurant which I had not visited previously. Just about one minutes walk away from the Lygon Arms, where Lucy the Labrador and I were in residence for a couple of nights, is the Broadway Hotel, another fine-looking, grand building built from gorgeous butter-coloured Cotswold stone, the main restaurant of which is Tattersalls, which promisingly holds 2 AA Guide rosettes and is pleasant and spacious and light and has numerous photographs on the walls which stake a claim to the restaurant being a champion of country sports - there are lots of pictures of foxhounds for instance - and not related to horse racing which I expected to see given the restaurant’s name (Tattersalls is the leading racing horse auctioneering organisation in the UK).
I was impressed by the mostly young and patient and polite front of house of staff, all of which they needed to be given what was emerging from the kitchen. I chose the starter of tandoori scallops with mint roasted chickpeas, carrot and ginger purée, and tiny cubes of compressed cucumber and pancetta. This was an exciting starter at least on paper which promised some technically accomplished cooking but what arrived at the table was wholly unaccomplished, indeed it was disastrous and given the price of it was £19.50 I was almost struck dumb by it. The scallops were, er, tiny and there were three of them. They reminded me of something which had emerged from a freezer cabinet in Iceland (the shop not the country) but what was most offensive was that these poor creatures which, though tiny, had once rejoiced in the under ending water of the sea had died pointlessly because they had been rendered horribly inedible by the most stupendous example of overcooking I have ever witnessed with the result that their texture had been reduced to that of pieces of chicken which itself had been mercilessly overcooked and the poor dead scallop had become tough strands of unappealing, flavourless fibres. Whoever cooked them clearly had no idea of how to cook scallops.The purée was odd but the chickpeas at least were edible. I pointed out the horror of it all to the understanding front of house staff and when the bill came at the end of the meal the price of the starter had been removed.
For my main I chose a half lobster which was mostly satisfactorily cooked though still I think a little over. The accompanying samphire had been rendered limp and was, like the preceding scallops, flavourless but the chips were actually very satisfactory, a culinary port in the storm of a seafood storm.
For dessert, a ‘fig leaf’ mousse which was tasty enough but had the texture of a parfait rather than a mousse. The accompanying slices of fresh figs were alright and the cardomon ice cream was tasty and pleasant but there was too much honey in the dish making the whole of it too sweet with nothing to damp down the sweetness.
Oh dear! It’s hard to understand what was happening that evening. Perhaps the Head Chef had the Saturday evening off and someone not quite up to it had had to step up to the plate. Not what I would have expected from a two rosette restaurant. A pity - I liked the place itself and the front of house staff were very good.
Rating:- 🌛.
No comments:
Post a Comment