Having a meal at Rabbit was the best way to end a good day. We had spent majority of the afternoon in the Saatchi gallery to see ‘beyond the road’ exhibition and it was so dope – immersion of sound, light and space.
Dang I miss going to the art galleries, theater and just being out and about in the city. Fingers crossed; we can get to some semblance of normality sooner rather than later. I honestly don’t want to think that being out and about is now a thing of the past?! Whilst I appreciate that technology has provided alternatives and what not, t’s still not the same is it?
Right, back to reminiscing… Rabbit, located on King’s road in nifty Chelsea prides itself for serving farm to table food that is local and wild. Creating dishes from their farm as well as local produce and, the food here is just ridiculously good! The menu had five interestingly named categories: mouthfuls, Nutbourne cure, slow cooking (braised mouthfuls, Nutbourne cures, slow cooking (braised & marinated), fast cooking (grilled & raw) and Puds (heaven on earth). You lot already know, we sampled a few dishes, but we did it a little different. We asked Natalia (our hostess with the mostest) to free style the dishes and she came through with it!
We started with the mouthfuls – 48hour proved wild yeast bread and smoked paprika butter. And yes, like you guessed, the butter tasted lush. Plus, I particularly like how it was plated up. I know, I know, you are probably thinking huh? How do you make bread and butter look fancy on a plate? Well, present the bread as a chunky cut and the butter on a flat wooden surface, giving it an earthy feel and voila! Did you know you can make cracker out of fish skin? No? well neither did I, what I do know is Trout skin crackers is a ting! And good for scooping, especially for this course which was oak smoked cod’s roe, trout skin cracker, pickled gel and dill and yep, the dish didn’t look like anything I imagined. For our last mouthful dish, Neal reckons we had croquet and to be honest, I am not going to agree or deny because I truly can’t remember but will let the photo speak for itself.
Now when it comes to Game, I don’t think I have tried a whole lot of it and just whilst writing this entry the only Game food that comes to mind is Game sausage we sampled in La Pentola and boy was that good! So, when we saw Grouse on the menu, you know we had to give that a try. The Grouse was sweet cured red Grouse served with burnt butter emulsion, girolles and fig leaf powder and it was AHMAZING! Like, holy crap amazing! The Grouse was tender and looked like steak fillets; the butter emulsion, girolles and fig leaf powder added the layer of flavour that was delicate but wholesome. Still reeling over how good Grouse tastes, then came the ravioli. When it comes to like pasta type dishes, I really like ravioli because these little pasta squares can be stuffed with everything and anything lol. The ravioli here, came fully packed – guns blazing type business! First off, the ravioli was stuffed with peas and house ricotta cheese which was then accompanied with truffle cheese curd, confit egg yolk and poached pears. I mean, come on! If you reckon this course was doing too much and wonder what it tasted like? It tasted delish! Like you, I don’t know how chef’s do it because If I am honest, reading the course on the menu, i was apprehensive about it tasting way to cheesy but I have it on good authority that this was a well balanced cheese tasting ravioli!
Our grilled and raw choices included scallop & caviar as well as Cod fillet. It was a hand dived single scallop, yes it was one scallop, but it was a pimped-out scallop. I mean it came with peach puree, keta caviar and scallop roe powder, like I said PIMPING! The taste? I can only describe is as delicately savoury. The scallop was cooked perfectly and tasted very fresh, combined with the caviar was salty yes, but then the peach puree also gave it a sweet taste! It was good!!! As was the cod fillet coming with peppers, garlic aioli and crispy capers, again, PIMPING! We also tried the farm salad which had pickled shallots (onion family…), feta and pear cider dressing. The feta and pear cider dressing in this salad was so good that I didn’t mind the shallots and you lot know I don’t do onions or it’s extended family lol.
Remember I mentioned that the dessert section of the menu is called Puds- heaven on earth? Trust me, that description is APT. For pudding, we sampled the dark chocolate mousse, basil snow, lemon curd and cherries. Phew, listeeeennn! It was the one boi! Just insanely delicious!
Ahh Rabbit, you did your ting! Thank you for insanely good food and excellent service. We look forward to coming back
Cheers
Ndidi
