Mandala lamb - tangerine puree, lemon puree, beet impregnated melon, fennel, artichoke
Hotel Cafe Royal is doing a pretty great job of attracting some big names to pop-up in their restaurants. Earlier this year they had Albert Adria's pop-up and this week there's a very exclusive pop-up by number 2 on the World's 50 Best List - El Celler De Can Roca. It's SO exclusive that you can only get in if you get the bank that's sponsoring it, BBVA, to invite you.
So yes, we're afraid this isn't something you can book yourself - but we did manage to grab a space at a table and here's what they came up with.
"The World in our tour" featuring London (scotch egg with salmon eggs), Hong Kong (Octopus ball), SF (Gold nuggets with Californian walnut, plum and chipotle), Santiago de Chile (Pino pie with merken), Mediterranean (Olive oh black olive gazpacho).
The brothers put together a special menu of snacks and dishes that are either unique to the pop-up or well known from the restaurant itself. So the first snacks each represented the destinations of the roving pop-up - Hong Kong, San Francisco, Chile and London (which had a mini Scotch Egg with salmon eggs). Both this and the "memories of a neighbourhood bar" section showed that they know how to put together a mean snacks list - as well as a good deal of theatre (one was wrapped up upon delivery to the table, the other presented on a pop-up fan).
Macallan whisky tenderloin - Spicy wood, vanilla, truffle, saffron, prune, curried walnut, tempeh barley
As for the rest, there's a selection of what came on the night on this page - and watch our Facebook page for the complete run-down too.
So yes, the food WAS great. Sorry you all couldn't be there...
Strawberry with cream - Double cream, strawberry sorbet, strawberry, strawberry infusion
