G oing out to restaurants is so expensive these days that
I'm surprised people ever think of going to places they don't know. So much safer to stick to old favourites where you know what you're getting and, presumably, know that you'll like it. Still, people do go to new res- taurants (or what am I doing writing this column?). One place where they won't be disappointed is Clarke's.
Sally Clarke, who has worked a bit all over the place, most recently setting up a restaurant in Los Angeles, opened just a week before Christmas; now you have to book at least a couple of days in advance to get a table for dinner.
Clarke's is about halfway up Kensington Church Street, number 124. From the outside — racing green and gold — it looks as if it might be just that tiny bit chi-chi, but neither its interior nor its menu con- firms that first impression. Some might call the decor austere; it is certainly a shade too tasteful for my liking.
The Cherwell Boathouse in Oxford is the only other restaurant I've ever been to which operates along the same principle of a firmly set menu. Sally Clarke offers a different four-course menu each night, but there is no choice within that menu. Imagine you're at a dinner party, though without the other guests (being presented with a bill at the end of it seems a more than fair exchange, and one I'd often gladly make). The menu is drawn up a week in advance so you can find out what's on when booking.
The night I went, we kicked off with salmon which had been marinated in dill and was served with a honeyed mustard and dill sauce (the flavours were subtler than it perhaps sounds, and faintly Scan- dinavian), followed by chunks of succulent and tender lamb en brochette char-grilled with aubergine, which came with the smal- lest, sweetest new potatoes (my first of the season), french beans, broccoli and julien- nes of courgettes. Next came deep-fried brie on a salad of mixed garden lettuces. I prefer my cheese uncooked, and was sorry to miss their Hamwood Farm cheddar, Alston and baby goat cheeses which were advertised for other evenings. Still, their salad of crisp young lettuce, lamb's lettuce and frisee with its light walnut oil dressing was a real treat.
If you like your puddings sweet, com- forting and substantial this is the place for you. I was given a glossy, sticky wedge of almond and hazelnut tart (of the pecan pie type) with a dollop of thick, thick cream. Coffee (and lots of it: a 12-cup cafetiere is parked on the table) comes with biscotti, those almond-shaped, almond-studded bis- cuits Italians like to dip into glasses of heavy, eggy marsala and which' dunked, perhaps less elegantly, in your coffee, taste just as delicious.
For £13.50, I think Sally Clarke's four course menu is remarkably good value. The price is all-inclusive — no leapfrogging extras for vegetables (a practice becoming increasingly common in restaurants), ser- vice, VAT or coffee. The benefit of this is that you can know exactly how much you're going to spend. Their wine list is short but good: £5 will buy you their more than respectable house wine, a 1982 C6tes de Ventoux, and the mark-up on other wines is not excessive. I drank a 1983 Julienas at £10, which was excellent.
Among other things on the menu during the week I went, and which I thought looked particularly tempting, were hot cream of lemon soup served with wild rice; homemade ravioli filled with three cheeses with fresh thyme cream; corn-fed chicken, boned and marinated in walnut oil, served with a sauce of walnuts and fresh corian- der; duck, boned and marinated in fresh herbs, char-grilled and served with Jeru- salem artichokes and potato baked together with cream; baked apple stuffed with raisins and dates with whipped cream and biscotti; caramelised pear tart, served warm; and hazelnut meringue layered with cranberries. Ingredients are fresh and sim- ple; menus are informed rather than corrupted by nouvelle cuisine.
If you are are worried or unsure about the tastes of your dinner companion, this isn't perhaps the right menu for you. But Sally Clarke is tolerant of genuine prob- lems. If you're allergic to or cannot eat something on the menu you will be given an alternative; the merely faddy will not, however, be welcome. Still, if the idea of Clarke's set menu intimidates or appals you, go at lunch (weekdays only at pre- sent) when there is more choice (0.50 for a two-course, £9 for a three-course lunch) or Saturday dinner, when for the usual £13.50 you have a choice of three plats per course.
Nigella Lawson
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