When chef Mark Poynton announced his three week London pop-up his timing couldn't have been better. Barely 24 hours later, he'd just picked up a Michelin star for his Cambridge restaurant Alimentum. Added to that, he was dropping hints left right and centre about opening somewhere in London. Hot Dinners' interest was duly piqued.
We were invited to try out the tasting menu at a Taste of Alimentum at the Winter Garden - the rather beautiful atrium restaurant at the Landmark London hotel beside Marylebone Station. Apparently it couldn't be more different a dining space to Poynton's Cambridge restaurant - here the glass roof soars eight storeys above your head, there the 50 cover restaurant is in a purpose-built building on Hills Road.
But the food is why we're here and the tasting menu which Alimentum is putting on here until the 8th December goes as follows:
- Carrot with goat curd and tarragon
- Scallop with chicken wing, pumpkin and bacon
- Halibut, butternut squash, trompette and cabbage
- Venison, sprout leaves, potato and Earl Grey
- Ginger granita with white chocolate
- Baked yoghurt with cherry and pistachio
- Passionfruit curt and coffee
The tasting menu is £65, while for £95 you can push the boat out and go for a blind 10-course tasting menu of seasonal dishes. There is also a three course a-la-carte menu for £45 if you're not feeling quite so flush.
Of our dinner, standout courses included the scallops which came with fat little bacon lardons and a slick of sweet pumpkin puree, the halibut, seared to golden, toasted perfection and the unfavourably-named yoghurt dish which tasted much better than it sounded - a bowl of rich, creamy yoghurt studded with blackberries and topped with a cherry icecream and a pistachio shard. The fussy plating up is at odds with the confident flavours - this was grown-up cooking which if it came to London could afford to loosen up a bit. And we do hope it does - we'll have more of this please.
There are still tables free for some of the popup. For reservations call 020 7631 8000 or email restaurants.reservation@thelandmark.co.uk
Prices were correct at time of writing. Hot Dinners were invited to eat at A Taste of Alimentum.
