ORMER, MAYFAIR

There's some restaurants I go to which I know I'm going to love before I've even been. Their menus read like a dream, and when I hear someone like Emily, who I have very similar tastes to (apart from the skinny bitch cali maki incident), raving about it then I know it's a sure fire thing. What I don't expect though is to end up eating the best dish I've tried all year, possibly even ever.... A bold statement, I know. But it's true.

Ormer Mayfair is the London version of Shaun Rankin's Michelin starred Jersey restaurant and it officially opens on Tuesday next week. I popped in to try their menu during soft launch, and am going to have to stop myself going back there weekly for the food. Ormer is in the Flemings Mayfair Hotel and has all the classic feels of an old school, luxury hotel restaurant, in a good way (apart from for food photos as you'll soon see). Service was attentive yet not overbearing, and the food.... Well the food was something else. 

I'm not sure if it's just for soft launch but I was welcomed with a glass of 2009 Nyetimber, which as the sommelier rightly said, has a creamy finish to it having been aged for five years in the bottle. This came with an amuse bouche of the poshest lobster roll I've tried - a great hunk of lobster encased in soft, sweet homemade brioche. 

Then the real food came. I didn't know when I ordered them but both my choices are Ormer signature dishes. For starter I had Jersey lobster ravioli and crab and tomato bisque with a shallot salad. A thin layer of pasta stretched to cover a huge amount of perfectly cooked lobster, which sat in a drizzle of rich bisque. To be honest, I could've done with a tiny bit more bisque, but it is very rich so probably best there wasn't anymore! 

Another in betweens mini surprise came next - the lightest, foamy jerusalem artichoke "soup" with truffle and sea vegetables. So full of flavour and a wonderful few spoonfuls of truffly cloud before the main event. 

And then.... the best thing I've eaten this year. Billed as turbot with a pine nut crust, cockles, cauliflower and sea vegetables on the menu, this was so much more than that. Cauliflower had been pureed, roasted and pickled and surrounded the turbot that had been cooked to perfection. Little salty pickly cockles appeared on my fork along with juicy, green sea veg which included samphire and sea purslane and others I don't recognise but now adore. I ate as slowly as I could to savour every morsel of every bite. The crunch of the crust added all the texture the dish needed. My stomach is literally rumbling at the memory of this while I write. I haven't tried this dish at the original Ormer, or cooked by Shaun himself, but Kerth Gumbs, who is heading up Ormer Mayfair's kitchen, spent four months in the Jersey restaurant and clearly has some serious skills. 

I didn't have pudding, but was sent on my way with a little box of macarons and truffles, though I've heard good things if you're pudding inclined.

In short, you need to go to Ormer. Yes, it's not cheap (starters range from £13-17 and mains from £29-35, though there is a three course lunch offer for £30), but I'm personally happy to pay for something that good. And I'm going to save up and treat myself to their food again, and again. Because I can't think of anything I else I ever want to eat again apart from that turbot!!