Drakes Restaurant, A Fine Lunch in Ripley

So time for another blog post and yes again it’s about a meal out, now I have been to Steve Drakes restaurant once before but that was 5 years ago before the refit and it was a very good meal in fact my wife still talks about the seabass dish see had. I choose Drakes as I was taking a friend and his two brothers out and they had booked petersham nursery the day before and I wanted to show them a different style.

Steve’s food was never heavy but he has refined and in my opinion relaxed the amount he puts on the plate, which creates a light, unfussy but above all incredibly tasty plates of food. The dining room has had a makeover and is all on one level now and is much lighter than before, it’s a very nice place to sit enjoy great food and good company. Ok on to the food then we went for the  surprise six course flavour journey menu which for £45 at lunch is fantastic value, so if I have got any of these descriptions wrong Steve I’m sorry.

We started with venison scratching, home cured venison. Light, crunchy and thoughly delightful first bite and its shows the way Steve thinks about food, playful yet very clever.

Next up was red mullet, pearl barley risotto, mushroom soil & charred spring onion. The fish was cooked to absolute perfection and two of the group I ate with that day declared this their favourite dish.

 Quail, foie gras, rhubarb & broccoli. My favourite dish of the meal, beautiful quail and full flavoured rhubarb done a couple of ways with a little roasted foie gras a death row dish if ever I need one. To go with this we were served a sweetcorn soup, packed full of flavour.

 Turbot, beetroot & grilled fennel, two little pieces of turbot that had been fused together to create a thicker piece easier to cook and nicer to eat, three different beetroots candy, golden and garden beet together with grilled fennel.

 Bitter sweet beef, bacon powder, carrot puree, duck fat carrot & blood orange. Our main course the beef had been marinade and slow cooked this produced beef that was fork tender and packed full of flavour, the carrot cooked in duck fat had a wonderful meaty taste and the blood orange helped clean the palate.

 Roasted figs, goats cheese sorbet; this was explained to us as the transitional dish to cross from savoury to sweet. Roasted figs are very nice but the goats cheese sorbet was mind blowing, this dish got talked about for the rest of the day.

 Parsnip parfait, sorrel ice, blackberries & natural yogurt foam, dessert and not what I was expecting at all but again brilliantly executed, clean parsnip flavour, tasty blackberries & fresh sorrel ice.

To go with lunch we ordered a bottle of sauvignon Blanc form New Zealand and a melbec from Argentina, both good value and very tasty.

Remember live to eat don’t eat to live