Trinity

David T. (Over 60, Male, United Kingdom)

We arrived about 10 minutes late, having booked for 7.30pm, to a warm welcome from one of the long-serving staff and an unusually empty restaurant. We have been coming here since it first opened and so the staff know what we like to start the meal, with the result that a latte, cranberry juice, tap water and salad appeared for my wife, and I got a bottle of sparkling water, all within minutes of sitting down and without asking. I asked for a glass of Alpha Zeta chardonnay, a pleasant Italian version, at £5.20 a glass. Note that the website shows it at £4.50 a glass which suggests that a little up-dating would not go amiss.

The room is modern, mostly white, with some abstract art on the walls. There is a bar in one corner, at which one can sit before the meal. There is also a partly secluded alcove with a large table seating 8 comfortably and possibly a few more at a squeeze – this has a window into the kitchen, which can be interesting. In summer, the large windows at one end of the room are often opened, effectively bringing the room into the open air. However, on the October Tuesday of our visit, the weather was not conducive to this. Given that my wife recently had a knee operation and my back was playing up, we were both rather happy that the loos are on the same floor, so very disabled friendly. The tables are fairly close, but not unusually so for a London restaurant and certainly not as close as in Racine or the Neal St Restaurant.

The format of the menu has changed slightly, and we were told that they now make slight changes often, even daily, which has not always been the case, in order to accommodate the varying availability of game. On this evening, there were two choices of game, red legged partridge and hare. I love partridge, but rarely see hare on a menu, and so I chose that, as did my wife. Nothing much of the starters appealed, and so my wife, bravely, chose to start with the beef cottage pie from the main courses, while I asked if I could have a small portion of risotto, also from the main courses. However, for both starters and mains there is a decent choice of fish or meat and at least one vegetarian selection.

The style of cooking is Modern European, with possibly more emphasis than usual on fiddly bits, so that there is usually a lot going on on the plate, with doubtless equally a lot to be done in the kitchen. Like it or not, this style of cooking is an excellent argument for eating out, as I can imagine very few of us having the patience and ingredients to do it at home – I certainly would not.

The cottage pie seems to be a fixture on the menu, possibly because it is so spectacular. It comes as a mixture of beef and sundry veg in a cast iron casserole dish about 7-8 inches in diameter, topped with mashed potato. In the middle is a marrow… More