80 TASTES, ST JAMES'S COURT

I love discovering places that I didn't know existed. And thanks to Zomato's recent #zomatomeetup I was able to do just that a couple of weeks ago, when they took us on a tour of the restaurants at St James' Court, to show us the new 80 Tastes offer - where you get to try food at all 4 of the restaurants that are part of St James Court and the hotel.

On a hot, muggy evening in London I arrived at St James's Court - spacious and leafy, it's a little oasis in the middle of the city and all the tourists (it's right between Victoria and Buckingham Palace). We started our evening with a  Laurent Perrier Champagne Flight (which you can do on its own too for £20 a head, rather than as part of the 80 tastes food tour if bubbles are more your thing, though I'd advise you do the whole tour, as it's so good). We were given 3 glasses of bubbles, each with a canapé to compliment the drink. We started with the Laurent Perrier Brut which was served with Scottish scallop and avocado tartate - a lovely, fresh tasting bite that was excellent with the champagne. Next was the Laurent Perrier Vintage 2004, served with a summer vegetable ratatouille crostini. The final champagne was the Laurent Perrier Cuvée Rosé, with salmon, crème fraiche and caviar - I really liked this champagne and food pairing, with the rosé bubbles cut through the oily fish and delicious caviar. The Champagne Flight is available every day at The Cellar Room.

From the Cellar Room we moved on to Bistro, the hotel's contemporary European restaurant, for our fusion inspired starter of sesame crusted tuna, grapefruit (fish and grapefruit is a favourite combination of mine, I love the way the citrus cuts through the fish, and it's a nice change from the normal lemon with fish) and wasabi potato. The tuna was delicately seared, leaving the inside perfectly pink, with a nice crunch of sesame seeds on the outside. I couldn't taste any wasabi in the potatoes, so ended up with what was essentially just a nice potato salad on the side. Bistro is smart/casual, with linen covered tables, but no airs and graces, and would be great for a long, relaxed lunch with family and friends. The Dorset crab cakes, celeriac remoulade, citron oil and pea shoots, and the grilled lamb cutlets with harissa couscous, baby aubergines and hummus both look like winning dishes from their a la carte menu.

 

We moved from Bistro to Quilon for our fish course, and only course number 2 of 4! Quilon is a Michelin starred Indian restaurant serving mostly West Coast Indian inspired food, and was definitely my favourite stop of the evening. We were seated in the private dining room downstairs around a huge wooden table, looking back on to a replica Indian fishing boat which graces the entrance to the private area.

 

 

Our dish at Quilon was an Indian fish feast - Fisherman's catch of pepper shrimp, crab cake, lentil fish and grilled scallop; Quilon fish curry made with cubes of halibut, coconut, chilli and raw mango; and a Malabar paratha thin, soft bread for dipping in the divine coconut curry sauce. Each component of the dish had such a unique and divine flavour, and was of course cooked absolutely perfectly. It's hard to choose a favourite but I think the delicate flavours of the fish curry really stood out for me, especially mopped up with the pillowy soft bread.

For our main course it was off to Kona, a Riviera inspired restaurant. Our main course of Norfolk chicken with a parmesan and red poblano crust, sweet roast garlic, panzanella salad, kalamata olives and basil was a little too heavy for me at this point in the evening, but I loved the flavour combinations and the salty kick from the olives. I personally find breaded/crusted chicken too much and prefer my chicken just with its skin, but each to their own, and while it wasn't my favourite of the dishes, it was lots of other people's.

 

Finally on to desert, which was also at Kona, and consisted of  three chocolate tasters - a manjari parfait, chocolate ganache, chocolate sorbet and orange gel. I'm not a huge fan of chocolate and orange together, and to be honest I was so full by this point that I just tried a nibble of each element. They were lovely but not the kind of desert I would order in a restaurant anyway.

St James's Court is wonderful. It's cool in the heat of day, has a plethora of excellent restaurants, and various ways you can enjoy their offerings, whether it's eating at one of them individually, trying all 4 restaurants via the 80 Tastes tour, or just sipping champagne and eating canapés in the courtyard on a beautiful summer day. More information on all the options can be found here, book the 80 tastes tour here (£100 per person, which includes all food and drinks), and you can read all about staying at the hotel on Jasiminne's lovely blog here.