Oh, this one’s late…very late. Flash, the pop-up restaurant at The Royal Academy of Arts Burlington Gardens, has just recently closed after opening for just 80 days. The restaurant was run by the people behind Bistrotheque, another restaurant I’ve been meaning to try, but since this one seemed more fun, I made a booking for early December 2008. As it was a while ago, my thoughts are a little shaky so I’ll quickly run through the dishes we had.
We started by sharing a starter of Ham hock and smoked eel terrine, watercress sauce, toast. The terrine was very pleasant, served cold with the sauce on the side. There wasn’t much eel but what there was was delicious. We sure could’ve used more toast – which was so thin, I would have called it Melba toast.
Blai then chose the Duck confit, spinach, wild mushrooms, mustard sauce. He relished this, the duck was soft with crispy skin and the creamy sauce. He did wish he had more duck though!
I felt like something lighter and so chose the Pan fried river trout, crab and creamed leeks, herb gnocchi, gremolata. The trout was just what I wanted: light and fresh. I don’t recall tasting much crab with the leeks but it was lovely nonetheless. I could have done with more of the fried gnocchi, which were delicious.
On the side, we shared a serving of seasonal vegetables, which turned out to be roasted carrots. Quite nice they were actually.
We always leave room for dessert (though with the size of the portions beforehand, we were still somewhat hungry)! I had the Chocolate and raspberry cake, raspberry sorbet, chocolate tuille. Though well made, I was slightly disappointed that the cake tasted exactly like the chocolate cake that I make at home! The rolled tuille was filled with the raspberry sorbet which was unexpected.
Blai though had the winner with the Orange pannacotta, blood orange sorbet, polenta tuille. I don’t remember the little taste that I had but he was raving about it for the rest of the meal!
There was a surprising listing under the tea section of the menu – beef tea. When asked about it, our waitress lit up and told us it was a tradition of the Royal Academy to have this mixture of Bovril and sherry at their annual meeting. Sounded lovely but not for us that time!
The surroundings were wonderfully eclectic and the plates used were adorable! I was quite tempted to get myself a teapot but the price tag at the accompanying shop definitely put me off. If you’re interested, it looks like they’re selling off all the fixings when the restaurant closes, dishes included. Overall, the food was very good and would tempt me to Bistrotheque. Hopefully the portion sizes will be a little bigger though…
Flash
The Royal Academy
6 Burlington Gardens
London W1S 3EX
Sun, 18 Jan, 2009 at 20:19
I did think about coming here, but shied away due to the uncertainty surrounding the esoteric prices charged for a temporary set-up. Glad you enjoyed it though. Those panda plates…
Sun, 18 Jan, 2009 at 21:58
I love those plates. Can I ask how much the teapot was?
Mon, 19 Jan, 2009 at 12:55
Beef tea eh? Hmmmm. I’m a sucker for a terrine so that’s what I would have ordered too, I can’t believe that toast, not good for spreading a big wedge of terrine on! I adore smoked eel though, it’s quite pricey so maybe that’s why they were stingy. I often buy it in Borough but then that’s not exactly the cheapest place to buy it either is it?! It all looks yum though.
Mon, 19 Jan, 2009 at 13:09
ALl the dishes look really delicious. Bovril and sherry sounds really interesting.
Mon, 19 Jan, 2009 at 19:28
I’m excited that you made it there. I went on opening night – you near the closing. I topped, you tailed. I thought that the kitchen achieved quite a bit considering they were working with an imported, gas-less kitchen (due to Royal Academy regs). I heard that Wedgewood was in receivership now?
Tue, 20 Jan, 2009 at 13:05
The crockery does look amazing, Will Broome for Wedgewood so a bit pricey I agree! I’d definitely recommend a visit to Bistroteque, I had brunch there and the bacon sandwich was a winner! Very reasonably priced too.
Tue, 20 Jan, 2009 at 22:08
Les: It definitely wasn’t cheap for the portion sizes. I mean, it really wouldn’t have hurt them to put a little more food on there.
Lizzie: It was A LOT. I think £70, if I recall. Or maybe it was £120. I can’t remember! But I do remember that a side plate was £20.
Helen: I guess I’ll forgive them for the smoked eel…but not the toast!
pigpigscorner: I wonder if the Royal Academy would care to share the recipe…
Douglas: That’s what I heard too, not too sure about the details though. I only booked for December since we were fully booked for November ourselves! Saw your post – did you not have dessert?
Boo: Thanks for the recommendation – their prices are thankfully lower that Flash’s!
Tue, 20 Jan, 2009 at 22:14
What an insinuation! I think you saw the wrong post. This is the right one: http://douglas-wine.blogspot.com/2008/11/restaurant-in-box.html
Re. my dessert, the chef made it appear like my panda had quite seriously cut itself…
Tue, 20 Jan, 2009 at 22:17
Douglas:
Sorry sorry! I totally missed that photo and paragraph! The bear does look like it had been recently decapitated….
Thu, 22 Jan, 2009 at 04:54
This looked like a great meal! You’re right about the terrinne plate needing more bread though.. that one piece cannot possibly be enough!
Sat, 24 Jan, 2009 at 20:45
Danny: More like toast shards than proper toast! They were nice but more please!
Sat, 20 Jun, 2009 at 19:57
The style of writing is very familiar to me. Have you written guest posts for other bloggers?
p.s. Year One is already on the Internet and you can watch it for free.