Hot Dinners – Test Drive

Thrilled and honoured to be today’s Test Drive in Hot Dinners​

Thank you Hot Dinners for visiting us and for your lovely words about our menu 🙂 We look forward to welcoming you again 🙂

Their full review can be read on Hot Dinner’s excellent web site.

…..”What’s on the menu?

Their big thing is the section of Josper grilled Longhorn steaks so you can share a prime rib or porterhouse if there’s a group of you, or order other cuts individually. But actually it’s one of those menus that has just loads you’d genuinely fancy eating on. Make sure, though, that you start with the cheese croquettes (£3.50) – the oxtail mayo they’re served with is just amazing.

From our starters whipped goats cheese with proscuitto and fresh peas (£70 was a super summer dish – perfect for the terrace and the seared scallops served on creamed cauliflower with a wild garlic gremolata (£9) was a generous dish. We opted for both a rib eye (£28 for 350g) which came with that wonderful sear only the Josper can give and a pork rib eye with smoked aubergine puree (£18) – you could really taste the quality of that Ginger Pig pork.

Sides were all super, but we would be remiss if we didn’t tell you to order the brown crab roast potatoes – a dish of sheer genius from chef Oliver Pollard (who comes here via SMOKESTAK, Marcus Wareing and Barrafina).

After all that we weren’t able to go big on the desserts, but the black pepper pannacotta with balsamic strawberries was perfectly wobbly and a scoop of their malted cornflake gelato made us want more.

What about if you’re veggie?

There’s an entirely separate menu for vegans who are well catered for here. The charred cauliflower dish sounds worth a try (£14) and the heritage tomato salad with sherry vinegar and basil (£4) was one of the sides we tried and was very good indeed.

And to drink?

There’s a decent section of wines by the glass – with an option of 125ml (why?), 175ml, a carafe and a full bottle. The Etna Bianco from Sicily’s Planeta vineyard was at the top end of that at £11.25 for a proper glass, but was worth it. Otherwise there are plenty of bottles in the upper 20s and early 30s or you can push the boat out and get yourself a magnum o Artesmis from the Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars in Napa for £190.

Overall thoughts:

Just a super restaurant – and one we’d happily come back to. There’s plenty to enjoy here and although the emphasis is on the steaks, there’s so much more than that’s also worth trying on the menu. A great addition to the Victoria area.