Those looking for novel dining experiences in 2016 will be delighted to see Hot Dinners favourite Craft London leading the way with their recently launched Test Kitchen Tuesdays.
The concept is simple, every Tuesday evening Stevie Parle and his team serve a £28 blind tasting menu, giving guests the opportunity to involve themselves in the creative process by trying these dishes before they hit the main menu.
We stopped by Craft last week for their third edition of this initiative to try a few dishes see how it all works in practice. Following a quick drink at the upstairs bar (with a great view of the O2) we sat down for a rapidly paced 8 course meal.
Highlights from last week’s menu include:
- Snacks of deep fried oysters rolled in dehydrated rhubarb
- A flight to the far East with crab dressed in house-made XO sauce, wrapped in pickled celeriac
- A whole Red Mullet perfectly portioned for two offset by a sausage crumb
- Salsify / Egg - A standout dish, roast salsify, fried sage, a still wibbly poached egg with shaved chestnut mushroom
- Potato doughnuts with crabapple jelly - part savoury, part sweet
- A quenelle of yoghurt ice cream laced with a salted plum caramel topped with dehydrated milk crisp
It’s worth nothing that the menu is only available from 8pm and only on Tuesdays. However the inquisitive among you shouldn’t be deterred by this as it took just over an hour to get through 8 dishes.
The hit rate and quality of the dishes we enjoyed on Tuesday was consistently high, clearly much thought and development had already gone into these. A seat at the Aulis development table, while also great, will set you back £150, so at £28 for this menu we definitely think it’s a worth a punt.
Test Kitchen Tuesdays are at Craft London at Peninsula Square, Greenwich Peninsula, London SE10 0SQ. To book, call them on 020 8465 5910.
