488. ADC’s First Birthday.

  I have not visited Albatross Death Cult (ADC) for some time simply because I had dined there so many times that I felt that I needed a rest from its seafood menu and abundance of sake. In the meantime Grace Dent had dined there and pronounced it to be one of the five best seafood restaurants in Britain and the highly talented and ebullient Senior Chef, Piotr Szpak, who led the ADC team, is no longer in his post there having worked at The Wilderness and ADC for six years. 

Piotr Szpak

  

Leading the service at ADC therefore was Oliver Grieve who had been working alongside Piotr Szpak while studying for his degree in Culinary Arts Management at University College Birmingham and being recently awarded it asa  First Class degree with Honours. In his Linked in page Grieve noted his role as Senior Sous Chef at ADC, to which role he was appointed in January 2025, and described the restaurant as, “a brutalist Japanese-inspired restaurant” 

Oliver Grieve.

  But ADC has now reached its first birthday and this seemed like the right time to renew my acquaintance with this remarkable dining establishment and so I made a reservation for lunch there. The day started sunny and mildly humid but thunder was threatened in the late afternoon; was this the weather forecast or the fine dining forecast? In the end there was no thunder in the skies but there was a thunderously spectacular display of culinary brilliance inside the lovely old factory which is home to ADC. Quite simply, much of the food served, if not all of it, was quite fabulous. And the drinks on offer made this restaurant very unique and a sort of miniature Wonderland and I, very much, was the man who disappeared down the rabbit hole in pursuit of the white rabbit of gastronomic superlativeness.

  Entering and then sitting in the anteroom to sip a fine cocktail, one immediately appreciates that ADC is no ordinary restaurant. In the restaurant proper, Ollie Grieve and his assistant are busy preparing the first dishes of the meal  - some are reassuringly familiar and warmly welcoming while others are new and promising. The menu, handed over at the end of the meal to the diners as they prepare to pay the bill and head off back on to the mean streets, provides a resumé of the pleasures which have been delivered over a joyous three hours or so. None, absolutely none, have failed to delight.

‘Oyster’

   There’s the remarkable ‘oyster’, an old friend to tickle up the tastebuds and reignite the sea in the mouth of the diner. And then the lovely trout tartare with crémeux fraiche and wasabi croustade served alongside a brutally tasty prawn and nam jim tartlet. The dishes are illustrated below - some familiar, some new - the crispy cod skin with taramasalata was perfectly balanced by the rhubarb gel piped on to it.

‘Trout, Crémeux fraiche wasabi’ croustade & ‘Prawn/Nam jim tartlet’

‘Cod skin/Taramasalata/Rhubarb’

Mackerel/Seabuckthorn

‘

Oily mackeral is always a challenge to my aging digestive system but the fish’s strong flavour was matched by the strong hit of sea buckthorn and then a new dish - tuna nigiri - in the form of faux nigiri whereby the boat of rice was substituted for by a pleasing little beignet. A clever little soupçon.

‘Tuna ‘nigiri’’

  The following ‘cox crab - apple - sorrel’ dish was an old faithful but very toothsome for all that and the new dish of supremely beautifully cooked cod with an onion broth was lovely.

‘Cox crab/Apple/Sorrel’

‘Cod/Onion/Tallow’

‘
Mussel/Black pepper/Iberico’

  It seemed to me that ADC’s signature mussel/black pepper/Iberico has reached a new punchy level of flavour and the plump mussels were much to be admired but the little bits of Iberico and tang of pepper are the secret to the pleasure that the dish brings to the diner. A new monkfish dish was certainly the most tender use of this ingredient I have experienced in many a moon and the subsequent chalk stream trout with trout roe and sesame was simply beautiful.

‘Monkfish/Seaweed’

‘Chalkstream trout/Roe/Sesame’

‘Sushi rice ice cream/“Umami”’

  Another ADC signature arrived as the sole dessert - the gorgeous sushi rice icecream with crisps of nori and a nice punchily fruity pate de fruit rounded everything off. ADC remains at the top of its game and indeed may have reached new heights.

 

‘Petit four’ pate de fruit.

  A lovely touch by the charming staff as I left - a gift bag for my new Labrador puppy.

Rating:- 🌞🌞🌞

13 June 2025.

450. The Wilderness Christmas Party.

  Who could resist what was promoted as The Wilderness Christmas party? Not me, obviously. My dining companion and I dined at the beginning of service and so a party atmosphere had not really bubbled up by then. But then again, I was there for the food and every gourmand knows that the best dishes come out of the kitchen at the start of service. And the presence of Sonal Clare invariably brings a party atmosphere all by himself. 

  So, six courses, the Wilderness music throbbing in the background, the chefs busying themselves with their meticulous work, steam and smoke, what better way to party in the run up to Nöel? And rather good food it was, much of it, admittedly variants on familiar themes but at the centre a fine beef dish ‘aged sirloin’ (tender as butter to use a cliche and immaculately tasty, accompanied by fine roast potatoes, a remarkable carrot and the ‘trimmings’, or the Alex Claridge version of them, at least. 

  Before the beef, there was a lustily flavoured red prawn ‘tostada’ with a pleasing cap of Oscietra caviar though it may be argued that the punch from the prawn negated any other flavour present in the dish, This was no calm, gently embracing drawing into the meal but a powerful and forceful dragging one into the meal to come and the forcefulness of it was not unwelcome. Next there was the calm after the storm - the familiar Cornish blue fin tuna with a pleasingly pungent slice of olive and a razzamatazz jalapeño sorbet. Then, a hopelessly immaculate edition of The Wilderness’ iconic Big Mac, say no more.

  I derived least pleasure from the rather nice flatbread served with celeriac shawarma. This, I’m sure, was less to do with the work of the chef than my less than tepid admiration for celeriac. Well, you can’t please all the people all the time as any chef would quite reasonably tell you.

  After the sirloin, there was the deceptivel named mince pie - Claridge’s brilliant white chocolate banana with flavours of Christmas (Claridge’s banana antedated Tom Shepherd's version by two or three years). And to wind up the party there was Claridge’s again familiar (in a pleasing way) version of sticky toffee pudding with a soothing ice cream. 

  Not a bad start to Christmas.

Rating:- 🌞🌞.

  Following allegations of unacceptable behaviour being made about one of the presenters of the BBC’s Masterchef programmes, the frequently irritating Gregg Wallace, after his withdrawal from appearing on the programme, it was announced on 18 December 2024 that the restaurant critic of The Guardian, the not-one-to-hold-back Grace Dent, will take over the co-hosting role with John Torode. This will see her first appearance in the next series of Celebrity Masterchef which is often quite ghastly but is certainly ripe with potential with its new hostess. I shall certainly watch to see what happens.