For my birthday yesterday I was lucky enough to be taken to Pollen Street Social for a treat of a lunch. Jason Atherton opened his new restaurant just a few months ago, but it was packed with people, and had a great atmosphere, so it really lived up to its (social) name!
The food (as I was expecting after my mum told me that Jason had worked for the legendary, if slightly bonkers, Ferran Adrià at his restaurant elBulli in Spain which won The World's 50 Best three years running before Noma) was exceptional.
To start, I had a very interesting dish, which was like a reversal of a squid risotto. The squid has been prepared into rice-sized cuts, and combined with a cauliflower sauce as the rice base. Meanwhile, the squid was replaced with deceptive crispy clusters of rice, which were coated in squid ink, for a great crunch. Even the cauliflower was reminiscent of squid with its florets stretching out like tentacles. The brown sauce which accompanied the 'risotto' was an intense juice of roasted squid which, combined with the salty samphire, really painted a picture of the sea in my mouth.
Sticking with the seafood theme, for my mains I opted for some black bream, which is a beautifully flavoursome fish, and was wonderfully cooked with a crispy skin and moist flesh. It was quite possibly the most delicious fish I've ever had ... a taste difficult to describe but hard to forget. With the gambas, and prawn froth, alongside an earthy sauce (not sure what it was, but it tasted like mushrooms, possibly chestnut mushrooms), and tender asparagus, it was a perfect main.
Before dessert, we went to sit up at the dessert bar, where we could see our puds being impeccably prepared, from painting plates with one slick swish of a brush to pumping delicate foams from a thermo whip and topping with various herbs and sauces. Well, I chose the odd-sounding tomato and strawberry gazpacho with black olive ice cream and sweetbread. The sweet gazpacho and crispy bread contrasted well with the more salty ice cream, which tasted so strongly of olive that I could hardly believe it! Accompanied by the unbeatable fraises de bois (wild strawberries), this was a fantastic dessert.
A combination of a lively atmosphere, interesting modern art, chatty chefs, and of course scrumptious food make Pollen Street Social somewhere I hope to go back to!
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