Thursday 30 July 2009

Saltoun Supper Club - The best place to eat in Brixton?

EAT

The Saltoun Supper Club is refined, urbane, slick and charming. From the moment we arrived we were set at ease and made to feel welcome. The fact that it is on my doorstep in Brixton is a bonus of Forsythian proportions.

Arno's house is a fabulous setting for dinner. If you had only 1 guess about what Arno does for a living you wouldn't opt for something boring like accountancy. The whole house was like being in a photo shoot. But rather than feeling forced or intense, it just made us feel very special to be part of Arno's world for the evening. In a nutshell, this is what makes "secret restaurants" so appealing. Restaurants rarely give you this feeling of intimacy and a direct connection with the person cooking your supper across the dining room.

Salt

Our starter of courgette carpaccio with barrel aged feta is something I wouldn't order in a month of snow days. But it was as if Arno had read our minds. At the end of a hot day, after a sweltering tube journey, we were dying for something light and refreshing. The edible equivalent of a gin and tonic. I could hear Cowie humming with glee as she reached out her fork to steal a slither of courgette whilst I was thirstily draining a glass of Douglas's prosecco.

Cougette carpaccio

A duck terrine then arrived, very photogenically, on the lid of an old port case. The terrine was wonderfully deep, tasting intensely of duck with a smooth richness that wouldn't be out of place at an ambassador's cocktail party. My tounge almost got splinters as I tried to lick the wooden platter.

Duck and pistacio terrine

A simple fillet of sea bass served with new potatoes and peas was a lovely piece of fish that was allowed to speak for itself. It wasn't the evening for fancy sauces, especially when you conider Arno was cooking fish for 14 people in a small kitchen.

Sea bass

Then, Arno hit us with one of the best surprises I've encountered all year. He produced an oyster the size of Belgium from his fridge and asked if we'd like him to cook it for us! Wow.

Massive oyster

Oyster opening

Arno battled with the blighter for several minutes before poaching the enormous oyster and serving it to his awestruck guests with a beurre blanc let down with the poaching liquor. It stands out as the best thing I have eaten all year by quite some distance. It was so good I wouldn't be surprised if he had laced it with opium. Unfortunately my photos don't do it justice whatsoever...

Oyster

Oyster sauce

Sharing a gigantic communal oyster is a surefire way to get the party started. Whatever imaginary barriers existed between individual tables or with Arno vanished. The decibels went up and we all mingled between tables as if we were at a friend's dinner party.

Our eton mess with mango and salted caremel was simple and delicious, oozing style and caremel in equal measure.

Meringue with salted caramel and mango close

Meringue with salted caramel and mango

The meal then officially finished with coffee and petit fours that put many restaurants to shame.

Petit fours

After a couple of tables had disappeared and Arno relaxed after a lot of hard work, we found ourselves being treated to a wine and cheese lock in with a bottle of wine that Douglas described as a "couth, cigar, hymnbook and distantly blackcurrant scented Bordeaux [which] turned out to be a vital delight." What a treat.

We left on a high; buzzing just like you should do from restaurants, but o so rarely do.

Pay up

P.S. Here's what Douglas thought.

6 comments:

Gregory said...

and this is why I bother to read blogs !

Yet again... love the work ...for this sparkling gem of information.

Browners said...

@Gregory - delighted you enjoyed the report. This is why I write a blog!

Douglas Blyde said...

Super, supper memories, Jonathan. Looking forward to then next rendition of pleasure...

Helen Yuet Ling Pang said...

That was one monster of an oyster! Am loving your photos more and more. Are you still using the same camera from a few months ago?

Hollow Legs said...

Your photos are great, you really have an eye for it.

This looks like a great supper club, in such an interesting setting too. Good work on the lock-in!

Browners said...

@Douglas - It was a cracking evening. What's next?

@Helen YLP - The oyster was the biggest I have ever seen. A real treat. So pleased you are enjoying the photos. I'm loving taking them! I'm still using the same camera but it's my new 60mm macro lens that is doing all the good work. Not me!

@Lizzie - Thanks for being nice about my photos. And yes this is a fab supper club. Very inspiring.

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