Hedone (London)

[BradFord]

10-course Carte Blanche menu and wines was maybe a bit too much for my first lunch after arriving in London…but there were some great bites. The Devon crab and the Scottish hand-dived scallops were truly great, probably the best dishes of my brief trip. Only one dish (the John Dory with green olive sauce) didn’t work, and the venison itself wasn’t as tender as I prefer. Wines were pretty smart and interestingly paired - e.g. an aged and slightly chenin blanc to match the hay hollandaise and Australian truffles vegetable dish.

Bluefin tuna tartlette, with avocado-lime cream

Foie gras dusted with beetroot, date puree - really nicely done

Dorset oyster with apple gelee, finger lime, fresh wasabi, and butterfly sorrel - the apple gelee looked like the oyster water, so you could eat this with a single spoonful

Hand-dived Scottish scallops (grilled indirectly in shell but with an almost sashimi texture), chef’s soy-sauce, kinome leaf, purple shiso - incredible product

Signature plankton royale with smoked eel gelee and ossetra caviar - like the warm ocean essence

Devonshire crab with velvet crab bouillon, apples, cress oil, lemon mayonnaise - incredible texture on the crab meat and great depth of the bouillon, best dish of the trip

Australian truffle supplement

Spring vegetables with hay hollandaise

Lobster with cauliflower cream, coconut emulsion, mitsuba, sesame

John Dory with green olive sauce, artichoke, pckled fennel - I quite disliked the sauce…

Sweetbreads with spring peas and woodear mushrooms - nicely done

Venison with jus, beets, and komatsuna

Saffron ice cream, matcha cake, grapefruit center on a freezing bowl

Caramel millefuille with cinnamon ice cream and quince curd - lovely but i was way too full by now

[J_L]

Love Hedone.

[MyAnnoyingOpinions]

i really liked my lunch at hedone almost exactly two years ago, though there was some oddness with dessert ( (all written up in detail here). had hoped to go back with the missus during our longer stay in london last year but it never came to pass.

[BradFord]

Thanks for your review. No service flaws for me, though I didn’t care much for the freezing matcha cake with saffron ice cream - too cold, and a little too bitter. The caramel millefuille was good but 10 courses for lunch is seriously too much and I was done at this point. Wine pairing was quite on point, but I’m less familiar with Germany and Austria apart from rieslings so I missed some of the blind pairings.

They have great product, though - that Devonshire crab was incredible. I’ll return, though there’s always great new places in London as well (and not much else to do in Chiswick I reckon).

[MyAnnoyingOpinions]

la trompette, also in chiswick, has a very good reputation too–have not been myself.

[BradFord]

Thanks - will keep La Trompette in mind.

My next London itinerary, which is quickly changing as I hear about new places!

lunch:
Golden Union
Core by Clare Smyth
Hide Above
The Sportsman (if I can get a reservation)
The Fat Duck
Kyseri
St. John

dinner:
Noble Rot
BRAT
Blacklock (for Sunday roast)
Peckham Bazaar
Otto’s
Maos
Dinner by Heston Blummenthal (if it reopens, otherwise, Angler)

[MyAnnoyingOpinions]

if your next trip is in grouse season and they’re not serving it for lunch you have to go to st. john for dinner.

clove club worth a look too. not interested in any of the high-end indian places?

[BradFord]

@MyAnnoyingOpinions

not interested in any of the high-end indian places?

I went to and enjoyed Gymkhana, if that qualifies as high-end Indian. I can go to Indian Accent in New York. Open to many others; I just don’t know that much about Indian food. But, there are lots of places I want to go but can’t quite fit - some may have to be substituted out.

[Sgee]

Araki?

[BradFord]

I had forgotten about that one. Next time.

[Google_Gourmet]

@BradFord

Open to many others; I just don’t know that much about Indian food.

I’ll come out as an Indian food ignorant. Although we have 5 Indian restaurants within easy walking distance (15 minutes) at home, we’ve yet to learn an appreciation of the cuisine.

A recent trip to London has changed my ambivalence. We had lunch at Tayyabs, an admittedly tourist place. No liquor license, so I was happy to walk a couple minutes and grab a couple of Peroni at the local Tesco. We had tried to eat at this very same eatery last year, but at dinnertime. It was a mob scene of younger NON-Indians, passed.

Lunch this time was a nice introduction to scratch the surface of this new-to-us cuisine (50/50 locals to tourist). Lamb Chops, lamb shanks, vegetable combo, rice pilaf, plain naan, papadum, complemented with three sauces. Looking forward to trying more in London, and elsewhere.

Very affordable.

[catholiver]

I SO appreciate posters giving prices. It seems sometime that I’m the only one for whom price can be an object.

[MyAnnoyingOpinions]

high end indian would be more like quilon, benares or even the cinnamon club. but if your exposure to indian food is low you might want to spend your big ticket dollars elsewhere and instead explore london’s hip indian/south asian offerings: gunpowder, hoppers, tandoor chop house. (i’d avoid talli joe’s). or maybe do the set lunch at the cinnamon club.

tayyabs is enjoyable indeed. but at the same price point i recommend the nearby lahore kebab house over them.

i’ve reviewed both:

tayyabs
lahore kebab house

(my reviews always mention the price.)

[catholiver]

@MyAnnoyingOpinions

spend your big ticket dollars

Is that really part of everyone’s travel plans/budget?

[MyAnnoyingOpinions]

to a limited degree it’s part of mine–when traveling to places where it makes sense. but you can eat very well in london (and especially eat very well in indian restaurants) before spending a lot of money (relatively speaking).

[catholiver]

I’ve been thinking about starting a thread about this so I won’t reply here