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Pollen Street Social

August 13, 2011 9 Comments Filed Under: Uncategorized

Pollen st social

Post Camp Bestival, I felt like I deserved a few nice dinners…and I’d heard great things about Jason Atherton, the chef who runs Pollen Street Social.
I mentioned that I was going on Twitter:

 ‘Get the cocktails, they are amazing’ I was advised.
 I was also recommended the ‘Burrata, heirloom tomato, gazpacho starter’.

The first thing I noticed was the special stool for your handbag… I guess if you’ve spent £600 on a bag you don’t want its expensive bottom on the floor. Mine cost £30 from Hennes but I appreciate the thought.

handbag stool at Pollen st social
Then we ordered some of the famous cocktails which were spectacular:
fancy cocktail at Pollen St Social
Pollen St Social
The ladeez were given a key and promised a little present to collect at the end. This turned out to be a canelé cake. 
Pollen St Social
Amuse bouche: blah dip, cute butter board, bread not bad (ear of corn), but seconds not offered.
Pollen St Social

Pollen St Social

 I ordered the famous Burrata, heirloom tomato, gazpacho starter. Ok, how to explain the size of it without actually taking a ruler for scale. The top pic looks…well large doesn’t it? The second pic gives you more of an idea. Three ‘heirloom’ tomato segments in a vast white bowl. A tea spoon, literally, of burrata. A quenelle of tomato sorbet. Then they did that posh poury thing of the gazpacho around the work of art in the middle. I’ve done it meself. The punters love that kinda shit and it’s a great way of making a soup more interesting with some kind of food sculpture in the middle.
But Jase my love, why so fucking mean with the burrata? I LOVE burrata. This was a prick tease of a dish and not in a good way. With burrata you want a bulging testicle of a cheese curd, that you can gobble teabag style (look it up you bunch of vanillas), not a mingy tea spoon. And the heirloom tomatoes…they may have been different colours but they tasted crap: acidic, flavourless, hard, cold. Tomato sorbet…meh. Gazpacho, another thing I totally love when done right, but it was pretty bland, under-salted too, and no discernable sherry. Nicely plated, a few strands of borage, a pansy petal ect, all very current, all very cheffy, but so what ultimately. Where was the flavour and the hospitality, the generosity? Movie executives talk about ‘seeing the money on the screen’. What they mean is, the budget was evident in the movie, it wasn’t wasted. For me, this dish wasn’t worth £9.50p. I felt deprived. The money wasn’t on the plate.

Pollen St Social
Cauliflower squid with poury broth thing again.
Pollen St Social
Fish. Samphire. Apparently quite nice.
Pollen St Social
Came with mini copper pan of paella. Tasted it. Good.
Pollen St Social
Ox cheeks. My companion liked it. Nobody ever uses the word companion except in a restaurant review.
Pollen St Social
I decided to order from the vegetarian menu for my main. This pasta sounded lovely, girolles with cream, summer truffle I think, or was that the Swiss cheese grated on top? I had to ask the waiter to keep going with the cheese. Meanie. Anyway as I chewed through the gritty girolles and the dull sticky penne, and played hunt the salsify (very small bits), the head waiter asked us if we were enjoying our meal. I shrugged. His jaw dropped. He came closer:

 “You don’t like it?” he asked incredulous. 

“It’s, er, well, boring.” 

“It’s boring? Boring?“ He couldn’t believe his ears. 

 “It’s ok, I’m not sending it back, it’s just not very interesting”.  

He straightened his back and sniffed “I’ll let the chef know”. 

As he was parting, I called out “Don’t spit in my food”.

This was quite bad behaviour on my part (note to self: no cocktails ever again), especially as it was a business lunch. But my fellow eaters agreed:

 “It tastes like a stir-in sauce!”

Pollen St Social
Puddings: we were into stronger territory here. LOVED the candied tarragon and will copy forthwith. Was interested in the hay ice cream as want to do some cooking experiments with hay, but there wasn’t that much of a hay flavour. This pudding was supposed to come with rice pudding, pessimistically I thought maybe it was a couple of grains hidden underneath the garnish but fortunately a little copper pan of vanillary rice pud arrived to accompany it.
Pollen St Social
This was good too, with some sort of astronauts air-dried candy on top. (Remember eating something like that in the Washington ‘Space’ museum).
Pollen St Social

Maybe it’s me though. I just don’t think I get posh restaurants, I’m too much of a peasant. If it’s all form and little content (taste) then I get depressed and fractious. But customers/critics/bloggers seem to like that here. But it leads me to ask: Can the English cook? And do they know how to eat? Why do people want to go to restaurants and pay lots of money for teeny weeny portions?

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Comments

  1. Kavey

    August 14, 2011 at 9:07 am

    I went right on opening so didn't blog it, but I wasn't overwhelmed. Portions were extremely small for the price and the fussiness seemed to be for fussiness' sake, not to add deliciousness. Some of the dishes I did like, but others were nice but, as you say, a bit "so what" given the price. I thought the dessert bar the strongest aspect and there's only room for a few people a night.

    Reply
  2. theundergroundrestaurant

    August 14, 2011 at 9:20 am

    But it's full every night and just won some award…weird!

    Reply
  3. Anonymous

    August 15, 2011 at 11:11 pm

    Really disappointed. Food wasn't even ok – all pretty bland and as you say tiny, tiny portions. Best thing was the steak but not worth the eye-watering £42. Service was diabolical – maybe I don't understand 'new' London. Didn't bother staying for the puddings – nipped down the road to Sketch for some fancy cakes.

    Reply
  4. Grumbling Gourmet

    August 21, 2011 at 9:25 am

    Agree, all of the way, I really didn't like it (http://www.grumblinggourmet.com/2011/04/pollen-street-social-emperors-new.html), and then have tried in a half arsed-ish way to go back and see whether it's just me, and then gone to Goodman instead… at that kind of price it isn't acceptable to be small and only slightly interesting, like a foodie Alexa Chung, you need to make people feel like they've had a really special experience.

    Rich

    Reply
  5. theundergroundrestaurant

    August 21, 2011 at 9:40 am

    haha the alexa chung of restaurants!

    Reply
  6. Matthew

    November 15, 2011 at 5:01 pm

    Well, I've certainly eaten at plenty of terribly posh restaurants where the individual portions look small. But if I leave the restaurant with a comfortably-full feeling then they have delivered the right quantity no matter how tiddly the plates looked (quality, different issue). Of course, I've left some posh restaurants still feeling like I could polish off a kebab, so there are indeed some mean buggers out there. That gazpacho looked mean.

    But there are plenty of posh restaurants that can deliver a filling meal of tiny portions. Probably largely through sustained levels of massive calorific intake in each tiny course! Bless 'em.

    Reply
  7. Eoghan

    December 19, 2011 at 9:57 pm

    I really do like the pomp and splendour of these posh places, and I think the portion size allows you to savour the delicacy of flavour more.

    I haven't been to this place yet, but shall definately be keeping an open mind.

    Reply
  8. Charlotte Frew

    August 6, 2016 at 5:16 am

    "look it up you vanillas'…Brilliant! I laughed out loud. Atherton has a restaurant in Sydney now, and ( Kensington St Local) , and I have been thinking of going for my birthday, on the strength of this I may let some of my more well heeled friends try it out before I commit Seems like a shame if – other than your main which sounds terrible, and why did they not offer to give you a drink or something else, small gesture, but goes a long way towards good feeling – the food was otherwise good and portioj size is what prevented you enjoyingit.

    Reply
    • Kerstin Rodgers aka MsMarmiteLover

      August 6, 2016 at 9:08 am

      I went to another one of his restaurants and there was nothing veggie on the menu really. So I ordered 'poutine' but asked for it to be veggie. Along came a bowl of chips with some cheese on top and pickled jarred jalapeños. Dreadful.

      Reply

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MsMarmiteLover aka Kerstin Rodgers.

Chef, photographer, author, journalist, blogger. Pioneer of the supperclub movement.

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Kerstin Rodgers/MsMarmiteLover
On the heath on Sunday. Must. Walk. More. #coronal On the heath on Sunday. Must. Walk. More. #coronaloner
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Galette des Rois, made yesterday in 12th night. Mi Galette des Rois, made yesterday in 12th night. Minus Crown and king as I cannot find either. This one is made with Tonka bean. Plus homemade puff pastry (well worth the effort). According to ike delorenzo at The Atlantic:  The tonka bean, a flat, wrinkled legume from South America with an outsize flavor that the US government has declared illegal. Nonetheless, it proliferates on elite American menus. The tiniest shavings erupt in a Broceliande of transporting, mystical aromas.
The taste of the tonka bean is linked strongly to its scent. "Scents," I should say, as the tonka bean has many at once. I register the aromas of vanilla, cherry, almond, and something spicy—a bit like cinnamon. When served cold—say, in tonka bean ice cream—the taste is like a vanilla caramel with dark honey. When warm, perhaps shaved over scallops, it moves toward spiced vanilla. Additionally, the aroma of the tonka bean shavings (it's almost always shaved) is so affecting that it seems like an actual taste in the way that opium, which has no taste in the traditional sense, "tastes" like its rich, flowery smoke.  Here is the recipe: 

Tonka bean galette des rois

Serves 8
Ingredients
* 140 g caster sugar
* 125 g salted butter, softened
* 100 g ground almonds
* 2 eggs, medium
* 1 tonka bean, grated
* 2 packs ready made butter puff pastry on a roll
* 1 yolk for brushing the pastry
Instructions
* Preheat your oven to 200c.

* Blend the butter with the sugar then add the almonds. Make sure it’s well mixed. Add in the 2 eggs one at a time, then add the tonka bean.

* If using a block: divide the puff pastry into two and roll out to 5mm thick. 
* Make two circles about 15 cm’s each in diameter. Lay one circle on a silicone mat/parchment paper on a baking tray and fill with the almond cream leaving a 3 cm border around the edge. 
* Paint the border with the egg yolk. Then lay the other circle on top, sealing the edges with a fork. 
* You could then carve designs into the top. Make a little slit in the middle to let steam escape then brush the top with the egg yolk
Mapo tofu is probably my favourite Sichuan dish. T Mapo tofu is probably my favourite Sichuan dish. This is a vegan version. ***

Ingredients:
- 400 g box of soft tofu not silken
- 5 soaked dried shiitake mushrooms, diced, keep water
- 1 red bell pepper, finely sliced
- 400 g fresh shiitake mushroom, sliced thinly
- 400 ml vegetable stock
- 1 thumb fresh ginger, minced
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 4 tbsps groundnut or vegetable oil
- 3 tbsp fermented bean paste
- 1 or 2 small red chillies, minced or a spoonful of Chinese chilli paste
- 1 tsp heaped sichuan peppercorns, finely ground
- 2 tbsps soy or tamari sauce
- 2 tbsp cornflour in 3 tbsps water, mixed into a slurry
- 4 spring onions, finely sliced
- large pinch fresh coriander leaves

Prepare the tofu by cutting it into one inch cubes and soaking it in hot but not boiling salted water. Drain after 15 minutes.
Soak the dried shiitake mushrooms, covering them in boiling water. Leave until soft, then dice the mushrooms. Retain the mushroom soaking water and add to the vegetable stock water.
Prepare the other ingredients so they are ready to stir-fry: red bell pepper, fresh mushrooms, ginger, garlic.

Using a wok or deep frying pan, add the oil and heat to frying temperature. Add the bell peppers,fry for a couple of minutes, then add fermented bean paste, chilli paste or chillies, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, sichuan pepper.
Add the mushroom/vegetable broth and simmer on high for a couple of minutes.
Carefully add the cubes of tofu, taking care not to break them too much.
Add the cornflour slurry, stirring for a couple of minutes.
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#happynewyear #happynewyear2021 #supperclub #hootenanny
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