Ormer Mayfair at Flemings Mayfair

The dining room is in the classic hotel style and the welcome properly matched this. Shaun Rankin’s tempting tasting menu offered an interesting mix of four starters, a fish course and a meat course, plus a pre-dessert and dessert, and the wine list was certainly up to Mayfair standard, with some very good wines by the glass and in half bottles. The obligatory sourdough bread came with nice herb butter, and our first taster was some delightful smoked haddock foam with cubes of potato. We found the first starter very refreshing, the super olive sorbet delightfully matching several varieties of beetroot and a goat’s cheese topped with truffle honey. What was entitled tuna sashimi was notable for a brilliant scallop ceviche, a lovely avocado sorbet and an all-round mixture of flavours. The beef tartare was not quite as convincing, having a vinegary side which took a while to die down and allow the smoked oyster mayo to come through. Somehow the crunchy toast element did not work either. We were struck immediately by the lovely aroma from the rabbit loin wrapped in pancetta, and the flavoursome meat was enhanced by some delicate truffle oil along with herb gnocchi, interesting coco beans and tasty girolles. Our fish course was the king of fish, perfect turbot with a superb nut crust accompanied by a variety of sea herbs and different textures of cauliflower, but we were not convinced by the pickled cockles. The main was Scottish venison, which was nice and tender but not medium rare as promised, along with sweet parsnip, dates and a chocolate smear. The delightful pre-dessert came in the form of dehydrated strawberry crunch, watermelon and a creamy foam, and this was swiftly followed by coconut mousse in white chocolate as well as a coconut sorbet with pineapple and mango providing a nice counterbalance. Generally an enjoyable experience and one that we would hope to repeat.