3:40pm Thursday 12th August 2010
By Jaine Blackman
I DON’T see how that can possibly work,” I said, looking at the list of ingredients teamed with the king scallops at The Crab at Chieveley.
Garlic butter, white chocolate and caviar, basil and hazelnut . . . what a combination, but I was game to try it, until it was politely explained to me that they were three different ways the dish could be prepared.
So I moved on down the list and it wasn’t until later it struck me that white chocolate and caviar – even without the rest – is a pretty exotic mix.
But by that time we’d already eaten.
I should say at this point, that my dining companion and I were guests of The Crab – rather than being on one of our usual incognito visits – so we did have a little special treatment.
That came in the form of being given some extra little samples of menu items to try but, as far as I could see, the attentiveness of the staff and quality of the food didn’t otherwise differ between the freeloading journos and the paying guests.
It’s testimony to the quality of the food – mainly fish and seafood but covering all the bases – that there were more than 70 customers. When we remarked that was pretty impressive for somewhere in the middle of the countryside on a Tuesday, we were told that the previous week there had been more than 100 covers on the same evening.
And you could see why.
First off, we had an amuse bouche of a small but perfectly-seasoned fish soup, and then it was on to the starters. One of the signature dishes at The Crab is the scallops gruyere (£13.50). It wasn’t on the menu on the night we were dining but we had it on the recommendation of general manager Richard Huxtable who said if it’s not on the menu you can always ask for it. “We wouldn’t dare take it off,” he said. “It’s a real favourite. We had a customer turn up from Canada and order it – he’d heard about it there.”
I hope he had a big appetite - it wasn’t a dish for the dainty eater – boasting a dozen scallops smothered in cheese. I was glad that it was my friend’s choice – I enjoyed my taste of it but it was very rich. I opted for a lighter option of lobster raviolo (£11), which was delicately flavoured and came with a truffled sauce vierge.
A great deal of effort has gone in to all the food – we were told that there were 30 ingredients in chef Jamie Hodson’s black pudding, including currants which had been macerated for three days.
My main was another signature dish – the amazingly constructed Rainbow fish which featured seven different fish and seafoods: sea bass, sea bream, mackeral, red mullet, smoked salmon, crab and tiger prawns. It looked like a piscine slice of Swiss roll and was an amazing mix of flavours and textures.
Meanwhile my friend tucked in to pan fried John Dory with crushed Jersey Royals, broad beans, smoked salmon and dill cream (£21).
Dessert was another triumph. Neither of us have a sweet tooth and usually order the cheese board but we were tempted by the assiette of desserts for two (£14) which featured all six of The Crab’s sweets (£6 each individually) and was so good we ended up nearly finishing it all. Delicious morsels included strawberry and vanilla cheesecake with mint sorbet and Pimms granite; cherry tart with elderflower and cardamon ice cream and hot chocolate and walnut fondant.
Special mention must also be made to Sergio Benito, the excellent sommelier, who came up with terrific wine choices to match our courses.
The Crab isn’t cheap but it is very good and it also offers an excellent value special menu (Monday to Saturday noon to 2.30pm and 6pm to 7pm Monday to Friday) at £15.95 for two courses and £19.95 for three.
We’ll go back . . . there’s still those scallops with chocolate and caviar to try!
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