Review: Notting Grill

Tonight was my monthy dinner date with borusa. Although we occasionally make a change for variety's sake, we tend towards the "plate with a big lump of meat" style of restaurant, and tonight was not one of the exceptions. We went to Notting Grill, and were not disappointed in our big lumps of meat.

This was one of those meals where, but for one exception*, everything was at least good, and there were quite a few moments of "Oh yes, this is why I love food." For a starter I had steak tartare, which was done extremely well. Robert thought they'd used a bit too much pepper which overpowered the beef, but I thought it was perfect, so we'll put that down to a personal taste thing. He had a black pudding salad to start, but I'll come to that later.

For our mains, he had a sirloin steak, which was good, but we've had better**. I made a much better choice, going for the pork taster - this was four small portions of sucking pig, belly of pork, black pudding, and pork sausage. A couple of weeks ago I had a taste of robert_jones's crocodile steak, and commented that this was what pork would be like, if pork were nice. Actually, I was wrong - the suckling pig I had tonight is what pork would be like if pork were nice. Oodles of flavour, juicy, with just enough salt, and with enough strength of texture to last, but not become a test of endurance. The belly was a tiny piece of meat, wrapped in a thick layer of fat and crackling, and that's just the way it should be. It was the crackling that really brought this dish into it's own. It was course and visceral and delicious.

Rather sadly, I'm not sure I'll ever be able to enjoy black pudding in a greasy spoon ever again. This was superb. Rich, deep, meaty flavour, and a gloriously smooth texture perfectly punctuated by the lumps, in sharp contrast to the slightly wishy-washy crumbliness you often find. The sausage was very good - again, not quite the best I've ever had flavour wise***, but very very good, and absolutely superlative in texture - light, almost fluffy. The best thing about the sausage though, which I foolishly forgot to add until I'd eaten nearly half of it, was the apple and chilli jelly. It had the texture of clear honey that's been left until it starts to form crystals, but hasn't fully set, and was sweet and sharp to start, with the heat of the chilli hiding creeping up on you just as you're about to swallow.

I had the cheese to follow, which was probably better than I had appetite for, and again, good, but not spectacular. Robert had the creme brule, which he didn't comment on, but given the speed with which it vanished after a very large meal, must have been quite something.

All in all, not one of my top ten, but definitely somewhere I'd be happy to recommend, with one caveat - have the pig, the tasty tasty pig!

*the parsnips were too soft and grainy, with no crispy coating
**Griegs, in Mayfair, and the Sloane Gaucho
***wild boar sausages at the Pembury