Restaurant Review: 21212

I've been wanting to go to 21212 for some months now, and earlier this year it gained it's Michelin star. The concept of a restaurant which offers only a choice of 2 starters, mains and desserts, with 1 soup and cheese in between is, I admit, slightly scary for a somewhat fussy eater like myself. However I had looked at sample menus before, and almost every dish appealed to me.

Atmosphere

The dining room is small and intimate. It reminded me of a 21st century Witchery in style - plush and opulent but at the same time light, modern and airy. Not at all oppressive.

Wine List

The wine list is not particularly extensive, but very well chosen. To start we had 2 glasses of Henriot NV, followed by a bottle of Dry River Syrah 2004 (one of our favourite NZ syrahs, and not that easy to get in the UK).

Food

With a limited choice it's not surprising that we both ate the same meal from start to finish. Each dish had about 10 to 15 ingredients, most of which I have forgotten. Even the bread (saffron with spice) was complex.

To start we had a new zealand lamb curry. This, we agreed, was delicious. Each of the many flavours was perfectly and delicately balanced. The lentil dahl was delicious. Easily the best curry I've eaten and an excellent start to the meal.

Then came the soup. This was a celeriac cream (or froth) with puréed vegetables. Again delicious, but more of an amuse bouche in size rather than a soup.

For the main we chose duck - smoked and breast, with a custard tart and, bizarrely, a spicy sausage. Overall the dish was nice, but a bit disjointed as the flavours didn't all mesh with each other. The sausage in particular seemed at odds with the rest of the dish.

Cheese next: a lovely blue cheese which went particularly well with the sweet biscuits; a soft, brie-like cheese from champagne; a couple of harder cheeses. The array of biscuits that came with the platter was fantastic and ranged from sweet wafer like ones through to thick oatmeal. What surprised me most about this course was the size of it - unlike the soup this was a big serving.

Finally the sweet. But before that a small palate cleansing porridge milk - delicious. We spurned the lemon curd and instead selected apple crumble. Both desserts came in glasses. A tokaji and a sweet shiraz accompanied this course. The crumble was delicious - a layered glass of creamy heaven.

Overall Rating

We retired upstairs for coffee in the drawing room afterwards - a relaxing way to end a great meal. If I had to be picky I would say that the main course didn't live up to the other 4 courses, and the balance of the meal was slightly skewed by the size of the soup and the cheese. Overall though - fantastic restaurant, great service, especially from the sommelier, great atmosphere, and fab company! I'll definitely be going again.