With so many fine-dining heavyweights vying for your attention, how do you stand out from the pack? Frog has an idea, and it’s a good one: come out swinging.
Barely have you sat down, exchanged pleasantries with the charming server, when a full-blown snack parade hits the table. Not a couple of dainty amuse-bouches, but an all-out assault of precision-engineered, sculptural bites. There are plump gougeres oozing warm mornay sauce; delicate crab and green chilli cigars; tuna tartare tucked into croustades and topped with cornflower petals. Dinky ceramic eggs cradle a silky, chawanmushi-like steamed egg and chicken. Then, as if that weren’t enough, your server sweeps back in, unleashing a dry ice mist that rolls dramatically across the table. Say what you want - this Frog knows how to make an entrance.
Adam Handling’s cooking rarely drops the tempo. Aside from the brief respite of a palate-cleansing cucumber tea, the menu deals in brash, unapologetic flavours. Lobster cooked in Wagyu fat? Sure. Topped with a generous spoonful of caviar? Naturally. It sounds like pure excess, but this is indulgence with purpose, and it’s absolutely sublime.
That lobster, mind you, is a £35 supplement. Pricey, yes, but worth the price of admission if you’re chasing a genuine ‘wow’ moment. While the tasting menu’s £199 tag isn’t for the faint of wallet, Frog delivers serious bang for your buck. Classic British flavours get the luxe, modern European treatment: cheese and caramelised onion tortellini; cured sea bream in a seaweed and spruce sauce; and a smart play on tea and biscuits with Earl Grey sorbet, verbena and peach. Even the bread course is made into a star - a glossy Parker House roll comes with Handling’s now-famous chicken skin butter, concealing a puck of chicken liver parfait. It’s the most extra bread service in town.
Proprietor and head chef Cleverson Cordeiro orchestrates the show from behind a sleek white marble counter, where the kitchen team moves with zen-like precision. Tables are generously spaced, service is slick and informed, and you leave with a sweet parting gift: warm olive oil madeleines.
If you’re celebrating something special and you want a meal that delivers memorable moments, this Frog is your prince.