Date of Visit: 29/08/2017
Marcus is a 2-star Michelin restaurant in Knightsbridge serving high-end British food from Marcus Wareing. The kitchen is headed up by husband and wife team Mark and Shauna Froydenlund.
I visited the restaurant with a group of fine dining foodies and sat at the chef’s table which is located inside the kitchen. We got a bespoke 6-course menu for £85 which is good value as a 3-course menu sitting inside the dining area also costs the same
The good news is that the lamb here is halal and of high quality with traceability back to the farmer that reared the animals. They also are able to pre-order chicken as well, however, as with many other high-end restaurants, the menu is focused on sustainable ingredients and produce, so you normally get a lot of locally sourced British ingredients and fish.
The menu
Crab, cucumber, mint, caviar
Sharpe’s express 1900, Tunworth, truffle, girolles
Cod, white bean, lava bread
Rhug Estate lamb shoulder, pea, mint
Bergamot, meringue, iced tea
Milk chocolate, nougat, caramel
As you can see from the menu there is just one meat dish, with the rest focused on seafood and seasonal vegetables.
The food in places like this is different to what I usually blog about. Recently I’ve been trying to explore different cuisines which involves different techniques in cooking food and of course new flavour combinations which help me to develop my palette range. As an avid foodie, I’ve become a little bored with the typical or traditional food catered for Muslims, you know, burgers, kebabs, curries, steak, grilled meats. Food like this used to be new, but now for me, it’s getting old and I want to experiment with new flavours.
Each menu item felt like it had been carefully thought out and put together to create a natural flow during the course of the meal.
The crab was a delicate dish which combined simple ingredients to create a positive start to the night. It came with a perfectly cooked seared scallop and milky smooth caviar. The textures and flavours worked well with each other.
The next dish felt like a mix of random ingredients thrown on a plate, but when you have truffles on the plate you can expect good things.
The stand out dish was the lamb. I’m not saying that because it’s a halal meat dish, it really was delicious. I’ve never had lamb cooked and served in this style before. The main was served with an unusual lamb biscuit type pastry.
All the food here has loads of care and attention applied to it and they cater for any dietary requirements. When you make a reservation, just state you want halal and no alcohol or gelatine in anything. They made me separate menu items for the rest of my foodie group who were non-Muslim.
The negative side of the evening was the slow speed at which food was being served. The gap between courses was too long and I began to feel my inner “hangry monster” waking up.
As mentioned above, the 3-course menu is £85, but I got the chef’s table 6 course tasting for the same price.
