Birthday Dinner

It was Johnny Bollinger's (the brother) birthday on Tuesday and yesterday we went out to dinner to celebrate. We, that is the brother, the mother and myself, went to Tom Ilic, a newish restaurant on Queenstown Road in Battersea. It is on the site of The Stepping Stone and latterly The Food Room and Tom used to be the chef at The Stepping Stone a good few years ago.

The restaurant has a very friendly atmosphere but it doesn't look as though much has changed decorwise. A big bonus is that they haven't tried to cram too many tables in so it feels lovely and open. The bread, both white and olive, we got on arrival was very good and came with some nice fleur du sel butter. We perused the menu, very nice sounding it was too, and chose some interesting sounding dishes - obviously we all had something different to try as much as possible.

I had Braised Pig's Cheeks with Chorizo, Garlic & Parsley Mash. It was a very well put together dish, there were thin slices of chorizo laid on the pig's cheeks and they added a lovely depth to the porkiness. The mash was a great foil to that and the slick of dark, sticky sauce on the plate. The mother had Foie Gras & Game Terrine with Fig Compote and Brioche, very nicely put together. The foie was soft rather than being straight-from-fridge firm and this made a good contrast to the firm pieces of game, the soft sweet brioche and the crunch of the fig. Bollinger had sautéed calf sweetbreads, oxtail ravioli, apple and parsnip purée, it was a very nice dish, just not quite as punchy as I was expecting... To go with that we had a 2006 Vouvray which was fine.
This brings me to my complaint. I know that I probably expect more from a wine list than some but this was a truly boring effort. It was a struggle to find something you wanted to drink, it was all fine and not fine in a good way, just exceeding boring, nothing exciting to make the food sing - hence not remembering the producer, not something I want to remember as I won't be drinking their wine again.

Main courses. Roast saddle & braised neck of lamb potato and turnip gratin, spiced aubergine was Bollinger's choice, it was nice adn tasty, looked very good on the plate (sorry about lack of photo) and the neck was outstanding. Mother had Seared scallops honey roast pork belly, jerusalem artichokes and hazelnuts which again was tasty, the scallops were cooked to perfection but there was a depth of flavour lacking slightly from the small amount I tried. I chose Venison creamed savoy cabbage butternut ravioli and candied kumquats which was, I think, the outstanding dish. The venison was tender and delicious, the cabbage was a good foil for the rich sauce and the ravioli was simple wonderful. The kumquat however, was entirely superfluous to the dish as I actually found it a little unpleasant to my taste; so I didn't eat it and really enjoyed my dish. We had a 2003 half bottle of Madiran with it, which was lovely.

We finished with some espresso, a glass of Banyuls and a glass of LBV Graham's. Tom came out to see a table in the restaurant who were, I am guessing, friends. I would like to thank Tom adn the staff as they were lovely and made the evening for us. The food was great on the whole, if with a few things I would prefer differently, but then that's my taste, and I would go back. Especially if they change the wine list and make it a bit more fun.