Dinner at The Dining Room – Whatley Manor

 

We first saw Niall Keating on Great British Menu and enjoyed him even more when he competed on the Christmas Special - Great British Menu Christmas 2020. We liked both the look of his food and the way he brought unusual flavours, especially Japanese flavours, to the food and, as long term fans of Lisa Goodwin-Allen and regular visitors to Northcote we also liked the fun interactions between the two. 

Well, I can tell you, with that great build up, we were not disappointed!

Drew ready for dinner in the lounge

We began with drinks in the lounge, while there we were able to enjoy the first two courses.

First came the very simply described ‘Charcuterie from the manor’ – the simplicity was only in the name as the rich flavours which were here to compliment the dried meat were truly sublime. A light hint of red wine vinegar and oregano ran through the meat. 

The Charcuterie was accompanied by what the menu called ‘Cherry tomato, vanilla, garden herbs’. This little basket of delight was crisp and, to my mind, best eaten as one bite, the little herbs and flowers, all picked fresh from the garden as the waiter was pleased to tell us, were full of little hits of flavour, the vanilla was a background flavour but the star of the show, the little marinated tomato was rich with tastes of tomato and a subtle sweetness from the marinade. I love tomatoes but hats off to a chef who can make tomatoes even tastier that they usually are. 

Our next delight, and an unexpected treat, was to be invited to the kitchen for a few little delightful tastes. The kitchen is well designed and laid out and Chef Niall greeted us on arrival and moved on to orchestrate the brigade in a personal and quite way – no shouting chefs in this kitchen.

Strangely, and I assume deliberately, the kitchen was cool and well ventilated. The air-conditioning provided cool air, so though busy the temperature for us guests, but also, I assume for the chefs, was very comfortable.

While at out kitchen table we were treated to a Citrus tea, miso and citrus tonic served from an old Asian style tea or coffee pot. I have said in the past that what makes a great chef is taking simple ingredients and getting new and appetising flavours out of them, and this tea was another example of this as the citrusy rush of lemon seemed to dance on the tongue and was immensely refreshing.

We were next served with an oyster each this was flavoured with a tangy whipped vinegar; little pearls of caviar and small spring onion leaves along with nori across the top. The sloppiness that oysters [co-pilot's note: Bogies in a shell!] are sometimes associated was not existent and the oyster flavour provided a sealike taste to hold the associated condiments.

The next little morsal in the kitchen was a real showstopper. It was a squid ink star, yes black with the colour of squid ink, but crisp like a cracker shaped ever so delicately and decorously into a star and topped with little pieces of razor clam nashi pear and yet more tasty garden herbs and flowers. 

We could almost dance with joy at the flavour, but instead we restrained ourselves and went on to the next little treat. beef tongue in tempura. This was Drew’s first taste of tongue, he doesn’t really do offal, but he was happy to taste this and really enjoyed it. I, who had grown up with cheap cuts of meat as my Mam eked out the value from her weekly ‘housekeeping’ always like tongue. My Mam had the ability to convince us children that the cheapest bits of meat were the best ones, so for years I’d have turned up my nose at a steak compared to some delicious brawn, tongue or liver!!

[Co-pilot's note: I found eating in front of a two Michelin star chef a little nerve wracking - what would I do if I hadn't liked bogies in a shell or beef tongue when the man had access to a vast array of sharp knives - luckily I liked them both!]

The kitchen treats over we said farewell to Chef Niall and followed the wait staff to our table.

Embossed Table Linen is a lovely touch

At the table we were served first with a sourdough loaf (each) and with some cultured decorated butter the loaf, unlike the hearty Rye and Wholemeal versions I have at home, was delicate and fluffy. I suspect there was milk involved in its production as the taste was subtle. The butter on the other hand was not subtle at all, but full flavoured. A 3% salt butter with onion ash and garden herbs on top and tiny marigolds, it was rich and tasty. It had been layered so delicately on the plate it seemed a pity to mess it up, but we ended up with most of it gone on one or other of our loaves. 

Yes, this is butter, but still a work of art - it didn't stay that way long!

Alongside the bread, though to be honest we liked the bread and butter so much we didn’t get on to it until we had finished the bread was a tiny tofu and white miso terrine, with a shitake mushroom gel on top in a light trout roe infused sauce on the side. I sometimes find tofu rubbery and find it takes quite a while to infuse flavour into it – this tofu was anything but rubbery, soft and delicate, almost like a cream jell in texture, the mushroom and trout roe had its own delicious flavour, but for me the Tofu was the star of this show.

Next came an, unfortunately, tiny bowl of puffed rice risotto and scallop with a chorizo vinaigrette, caviar, parmesan and creme fraiche. I don’t know who had the idea of using puffed rice in a risotto, but it was a divine inspiration. The crunchiness meant the delicate pieces of scallop sat happily alongside the rice and the zingy, tangy (add your own delicious adjective here) chorizo vinaigrette was astounding. Drew liked it so much that he suggested next time we come we might bring our large pasta plates and ask them to fill them with this delicious item. Every mouthful had a different tingling sensation on the tongue. This was my favourite dish of the evening and I’ll remember its flavour for a long time.

I was so excited by the smell that I'd started before I remembered the photo

The next dish was called ‘Tortellini Black’ and was a tortellini made from squid ink filled with pork belly and chicken, a lovely combination, with lardo and spring onion on top and a pork jus and garlic vinaigrette sauce. If we hadn’t just had the chorizo dish, we might have been overwhelmed by the flavours of this tortellini as it was absolutely delicious. But even something as nice and tasty as this couldn’t complete with what had gone before.

Our next course, I seem to have stopped counting, was called ‘Lobster, spring peas, black truffle’ the small chunks of lobster were served with equivalent number of black truffles on top of a delicious pom puree, it was pureed to perfection and all three together were a delight to eat. This was served with a spring pea and dill oil sauce with complemented the fish, mushroom and potato perfectly.

Really pretty - before sauce was added

Even nicer with it

What might have been considered our main course but was just one delight among so many was called ‘beef from the manor, dill pickles and horseradish’ The beef was tender and lightly barbequed in flavour, the horseradish was served as a cream with dill oil in the middle of it. The dill pickles were more finely chopped than I have ever seen but retained all their crisp pickledness. Drew who used to serve dill pickles on McDonalds’ burgers in his early career said that he didn’t think these dill pickles and the pre-chopped mass-produced ones at McDonalds were related in any way. The other delightful, to a man who loves pickles, tastes were pickled lettuce and picked cauliflower with a crunchy dehydrated cloud mushrooms with a Japanese seasoning and Sichuan pepper. Flavours layered and balanced this well are indeed a masterpiece. The red wine jus which was poured over the beef added a salty zing. We like our salt, so this was perfect for us. So perfect that I’d have liked a bit more bread to mop it up, but I managed as well as I could with my fork and fingers!!

Then came the desserts which in turn were: ‘chocolate, buttermilk, passionfruit’, ‘umeboshi, umeshua, pickled sakura’ and chocolate frog with toasted rice ice cream and furikake. While I’m not a huge fan of desserts, unlike my other half who loves them, each of these were within my preferred taste range – i.e. not to sweet. 

The first desert was like a sandwich of two pieces of 72% dark chocolate with a layer of buttermilk cream between them topped with little droplets of passion fruit jell and gold-leaf. The lovely wince of dark, dark chocolate was well balanced with the gentler flavour of the buttermilk.

The second dessert was a pickled plum gel, plum sake cooked into a custard served in a cherry blossom sauce with hibiscus gel, dried apple shaped like little leaves and crunchy sesame seeds. It must take hours to make something that looks and tastes this good. Who knew dessert could be sharp and pickled and still delicious – I think from now own pickled dessert is the plan for me.

Finally, we had the chefs memorial Great British Menu dessert of Harry Potter inspired chocolate frog on a lily leaf plate with a side of toasted rice, an ice cream that was more like a jell in texture than like an ice cream and crunchy furikake over the top. A fitting and delightful end to an amazing meal. One espresso, served in vacuum glass cups, so the cup is cold to the touch with the coffee hot inside, and we were replete. 

 

Having sat down at 6pm we left the table just before 10pm four hours of absolute delight.