Gavin Gregg Restaurant

We had been looking to try Gregg's restaurant for some time now. I had looked into it for a couple of years but had always been put off by the negative feedback. However things have really made a turn for the better. They have hired a new head chef who has brought in his own brigade. This head chef, Andrew Wilson, had worked at the michelin starred Capital restaurant in London. He was a finalist in the Roux scholarship in 2007 (making the last 5). We ate upstairs in the fine dining section. You can have either a 3 course set menu priced at £32.50 per person, or for the whole table you can go for the tasting menu, which is 7 courses at £42.00 per person. We tried the latter. Firstly you are brought some amuse bouches, which were very nice but not quite up to the standard of a top restaurant in London. Then the courses started to flow. This is very technical cooking, and the chef looks to 'deconstruct' dishes and break them down to their elements. He really plays on your taste buds, with ice creams and sorbets balancing the savoury flavours. There are various foams, purees and sauces all packed with flavour and complimenting each other. My favourite dish was without doubt the duck, which is the one dish I wasn't really looking forward to. We finished the meal off with some petit fours and coffee which added an extra £2.50 to the bill per person. There is a good wine list and 3 bottled beers available should you wish. We had 3 bottles of wine between 4, and the bill came to £311.00 inc a 10% service charge. Excellent value for the very good food you receive. There certainly isn't another restaurant in the area with this level of cooking. You can still have a very good meal out at the Vine but it will cost about the same and won't be up to this standard. Michelin star level? Not far off, I'm not sure the front of house is as slick as it would need to be just yet, but the food certainly is on it's way there. We will certainly be dining here very often!
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Caruppy
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Monday, March 16, 2009