Designer Dining: Sharrow Bay's Market Menu At Harvey Nics

To celebrate British Food Fortnight, three of the UK’s top country house hotels loaned their chefs to Harvey Nichols. This year, Cliveden’s Chris Horridge moved from Berkshire to the Second Floor Restaurant in Bristol; while Kenny Atkinson served his Great British Menu starter for diners at the Fourth Floor Café in Leeds.

For the second year running, Mark Teasdale joined Jonas Karlsson at the Fifth Floor Restaurant in London. He is assistant head chef at the prestigious Sharrow Bay Hotel in the Lake District, where the restaurant has held its Michelin star for over thirteen years. It’s an incredible hotel, set on the shore of the beautiful Lake Ullswater, and as you might expect, a weekend stay doesn’t come cheap.

Luckily for us, Teasdale put together some appetising and affordable menus for his week at Harvey Nichols which ends this Thursday (1st October). In the evening, the six-course tasting menu is priced at £55 but the lunchtime ‘Market’ menu is a real bargain at £19.50 for two courses and £24.50 for three. With this in mind, we popped in for lunch last week and settled into Fifth Floor dining room – a light and airy space draped in crisp white linen and full of well-to-do diners, dripping designer labels and sipping the (rather lovely) house fizz.

The poached pear salad and chicken liver starters didn’t appeal so we both chose the soup. In some restaurants, the soup of the day is a woefully under-seasoned mulch of leftover veg with, if you’re lucky, some dusty parmesan shavings and croutons you could chip a tooth on. Not here. The rich, earthy aroma of roasted butternut squash hit us before we lifted our spoons and promised only good things to follow. Piping hot and with a spoonful of spiced apple compote slowly sinking in the centre; it was a triumph – full of comforting Autumnal flavours. The texture was unreal – velvety smooth, as if sieved and sieved again through designer fishnet stockings. (Available on the third floor).

   

Now worried that we might not manage three courses, we overlooked the assiette of pork in favour of the lighter fish and vegetarian options. The fricassee of monkfish – while not a huge portion or a particularly pretty one – was perfectly cooked and prepared with a remarkable lightness of touch. The braised lettuce and saffron cream sauce were flawless, though on reflection the side of pomme puree was a bad choice. Although technically faultless, whipped into creamy submission with plenty of butter, the soft textures of the fish dish demanded something closer to sautéed potatoes or even (god forbid) French fries.

My companion eyed me nervously when the risotto arrived. I am moderately obsessed with the dish, in all its forms, and have been known to throw tantrums when restaurants inevitably fail to get it right. We needn’t have worried, though, as it was very good. The rocket was unnecessary and I prefer the rice to have a little more bite, but those are minor quibbles. It’s amazing what a few girolles and some good quality parmesan can do to lift a dish.

For dessert, it would have been rude not to order the sticky toffee pudding, seeing as Sharrow Bay claims to have invented it. Whether they did or not, it was delightful. Light, moist and drizzled with a sticky-sweet sauce – a far cry from the pucks of stodge we have been served elsewhere. The chocolate and ginger pudding was less interesting – in all honesty, I couldn’t taste the ginger – but both were served with a generous scoop of excellent ice-cream, flecked with real vanilla.

If our praise seems a little too earnest, it’s because it seems unfair to criticise the minor flaws when everything else was so good. If we’re honest, we’ve never felt the need to eat at the Fifth Floor before - if only because we don't spend a lot of time in Knightsbridge – but assuming our lunch wasn’t just beginner’s luck, we would happily go back. The uber-attentive service and slightly pushy Champagne trolley trick might not be to everyone’s taste, but we couldn’t fault the food, the wine or the price. The only danger is that after an hour or two, you start believing you are as wealthy as the restaurant’s other patrons and end up spending £50 on gourmet fripperies in the food hall.

Comments

[Angela Astwood]

An old school friend and I meet every few months for lunch. I normally choose where we are going to lunch as I am an avid reader of City Eating Reviews. Having had a super meal in HN a few years ago I thought we would give it a whirl. We were not disappointed. We had the Sharrow Bay's Market Menu and enjoyed it all. What a bargain at just under £20 a head. The service was attentive, although I found the wine waiter rather condescending in his attitude to us. Yes we are two 60 year old women but we do know what we like and the wine we chose was delicious. Well done to the chef for such an imaginative menu.