Having wanted to go to Restaurant Tristan for lunch on Valentine's Day and found it was fully booked (both then and in the evening) we went for our fourth visit on a Wednesday lunchtime instead. We arrived at 1pm and there were nine people seated. Within half an hour the resataurant was almost full, which gave it a great atmosphere. After being brought bread and wine we were served a small cup with an artichoke foam and a small spoon of olive tapanade. This amuse bouche always comes before the meal and is incredibly good and I scraped every last little bit out of the cup and took my wife's too.
The Chef has put on a special ‘Credit Crunch’ menu which is unbelievable value for money, you must try it. I had Mackerel escabeche to start. A really lovely and perfectly cooked fillet of mackerel with pickled carrot slices etc. Delicious. The main course I had was Bouillabaise with gurnard, mullet & pollock. The fish was perfectly cooked, just to the point. Again it was great.
Dessert was Lemon souffle with lemon grass granite. The souffle was staggeringly good but very very sweet. The lemon grass granite was wonderfully powerful.
The previous meal I had there was beef and consisted of three small pieces of beef, which seemed to be from the shin and was quite gelatinous, very flavoursome and melted in the mouth. Along with them were small onions/shallots and an incredibly reduced dark sauce with a wonderfully intense flavour. Vegatables were cold (deliberately) sliced beans and a foamed/moussed potato with a superb flavour. If they have that on the menu do try it as it is truly wonderful.
Previously I have written about the service, which was not as good as it could have been. That has now improved dramatically and the service was excellent, friendly and very knowledgeable about the items on the manu. Frankly, it may have been that we went before when they had a huge group of businessmen causing mayhem. I'm sure that didn't help matters. Anyway there is nothing to complain about now.
Chef Tristan is going the right way towards a Michelin Star and I have given Restaurant Tristan an overall rating of 9.
By the way, it cost us around £44, which included a service charge that was already added. My wife had a glass of house white and I had a bottle of fizzy water.
