Grain Store is a concept restaurant. I believe it was opened by a French Chef who was frustrated by how classical cooking focuses on the meat elements of the dish and doesn't put the vegetables first. I get this. I think that Western cooking is always trying to put a big slab of meat at the heart of each dish. Not such a problem but perplexing when you're cooking for vegetarians as they quite often seem to get a meat substitute like 'a mushroom', which I think is weird!
This was a late night visit, maybe after a few drinks so the memories and the photos are maybe a little fuzzy. I believe this place does actually take bookings but we turned up and chanced it and waited about 45 minutes for the table. Whilst we waited we both decided we'd like a classic margaritas. It wasn't on the list but we were assured it was fine. What turned up was a very small and deeply average margarita which was £1.50 more expensive than the margarita variation they had on the menu. I suppose that's just a lesson to not go off list. If someone isn't confident to make you a margarita you probably shouldn't let them. It's a classic but easy to fuck up.
When we were seated, the food was much better. The menu was a little confusing, because they really do 'put the veg first'. By that I mean that they list all the vegetable components of the dish first in the menu and the meat last. In my half cut state this was, to say the least, a little confusing. I'm terrible for skim reading anyway and by 9pm, in a dark restaurant, starving hungry and semi inebriated, I wasn't paying that much attention.
Once we'd ordered the food turned up quickly and the service was friendly and attentive. Glen had a pea mouse tartlet which was light and flavoursome but a little bland for my liking. My salmon, peach and fennel salad was interesting, zingy, light and flavoursome.
We both had the same main which was Corn & millet tamale, apricot barbecue sauce, chilli braised pork belly. Tamales are little Mexican bundles which comprise of a dried corn husk wrapped around a maize dough and filled with all sorts of deliciousness, in this case corn and millet (i think there was some red pepper in there too). This was definitely the highlight of the dish. The piece of pork belly that accompanied it was nicely cooked and tasty but hey, pork belly is pork belly.
We managed to resist pudding because it much have gone 11pm at that point and after a week at at a new job I needed my bed.
My verdict on this place is... the veg first thing is a bit of a gimmick, I was underwhelmed by my cocktail and the bill hit the wallet fairly hard considering we were there for a quick bite. However to be fair, I don't often have starters. On the plus side, the locale is very nice and there's space to sit outside which would be magic on a warm evening. The service was good and the flavours were all interesting. I'd go back if I was looking for a nice meal in the area.
6.5/10
This was a late night visit, maybe after a few drinks so the memories and the photos are maybe a little fuzzy. I believe this place does actually take bookings but we turned up and chanced it and waited about 45 minutes for the table. Whilst we waited we both decided we'd like a classic margaritas. It wasn't on the list but we were assured it was fine. What turned up was a very small and deeply average margarita which was £1.50 more expensive than the margarita variation they had on the menu. I suppose that's just a lesson to not go off list. If someone isn't confident to make you a margarita you probably shouldn't let them. It's a classic but easy to fuck up.
When we were seated, the food was much better. The menu was a little confusing, because they really do 'put the veg first'. By that I mean that they list all the vegetable components of the dish first in the menu and the meat last. In my half cut state this was, to say the least, a little confusing. I'm terrible for skim reading anyway and by 9pm, in a dark restaurant, starving hungry and semi inebriated, I wasn't paying that much attention.
Once we'd ordered the food turned up quickly and the service was friendly and attentive. Glen had a pea mouse tartlet which was light and flavoursome but a little bland for my liking. My salmon, peach and fennel salad was interesting, zingy, light and flavoursome.
We both had the same main which was Corn & millet tamale, apricot barbecue sauce, chilli braised pork belly. Tamales are little Mexican bundles which comprise of a dried corn husk wrapped around a maize dough and filled with all sorts of deliciousness, in this case corn and millet (i think there was some red pepper in there too). This was definitely the highlight of the dish. The piece of pork belly that accompanied it was nicely cooked and tasty but hey, pork belly is pork belly.
We managed to resist pudding because it much have gone 11pm at that point and after a week at at a new job I needed my bed.
My verdict on this place is... the veg first thing is a bit of a gimmick, I was underwhelmed by my cocktail and the bill hit the wallet fairly hard considering we were there for a quick bite. However to be fair, I don't often have starters. On the plus side, the locale is very nice and there's space to sit outside which would be magic on a warm evening. The service was good and the flavours were all interesting. I'd go back if I was looking for a nice meal in the area.
6.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment