Jayne's review of The Square

Wow, just wow. The Square really does tick all the right boxes. From the fabulous canapes to start with all the way through to the puds, I don’t think there was a thing they could improve on with the food. The black rice crisps with taramasalata as a canape was a winning combination. I will never go back to the glaring pink stuff that we normally get (and, by the way, can I please have that recipe???). The other 3 canapes were also excellent, and this was followed by an amuse bouche of mushroom with a pumpkin veloute (well, I think that’s what the waiter said), which was delicious. Then onto the menu proper !

All of us had the lasagne of dorset crab, and I fully understand why this is one of the dishes that they are renowned for. Seriously, if I’d had that plate at home I would’ve picked it up and licked it clean it was that good. We did all contemplate doing so anyway ! My husband and I had the grouse as a main. He loves game, I’m not a convert but decided that if ever I was going to try it, this should be the restaurant to do so. Needless to say, I might give it a bit more of a try in future. The beef also looked excellent. This was followed up by a pre-dessert of tiny beignets on a shot glass of something. Really, by this time I’d stopped listening to the descriptions the waiter was trying to tell me, far to busy with the spoon, ready to dive in……

Onto the dessert – again, hubby and I both had the same the – chocolate caramel pavé with chocolate sorbet, rock salt, olive oil and espresso. (I was beginning to suspect by this time that we were both ordering the same dishes so we didn’t have to share). Whilst I couldn’t taste the olive oil in the dessert, maybe it was one of those things that you would have missed if it wasn’t there. However, the salt worked really well with the chocolate and caramel. Yum.

About the only slight hitch for the evening was the service. They were obviously training a brand new member of staff, who did make a couple of small errors. However, this was very quickly rectified along with profuse apologies. I’ll forgive them that.

The best indication of how good this was ? 2 of our party are going back again this week for the tasting menu. Sadly, I’m not invited to that one !