Thanks to my lovely wife Irene, who always keeps an eye out for great deals and events, we went to Gordon Ramsay's Maze Restaurant for lunch today. Like L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, we decided to pay Maze a visit because it's part of the London Restaurant Festival and it's the remaining three Michelin star restaurant in London that we have not yet visited.
I've never been a fan of Gordon Ramsay and am disapproving of his on-screen antics; as such, I didn't hold much expectation when visiting his restaurant today. Perhaps it was the lack of expectation but I left the restaurant today a very satisfied person.
We ordered the three course set menu, a bottle of still water, a glass of wine each - a rose for Irene and a Malbec for me - and a coffee. The three courses that Irene ordered were salmon, poussin, and apple and blackberry crumble; I ordered a pressed duck leg, pork belly, and apple and blackberry crumble. Being a three Michelin star restaurant, you'd expect the food to be of a certain quality and Maze definitely lived up to, if not exceeded, the expectation. My main, the pork belly, was excellent! The pork belly was said to have been prepared with Szechuan spices but the spices were probably too subtle to be tasted; nevertheless, the pork belly was still full of flavour and was well accompanied by the apple wedges that came with it.
Most deserving of mention out of all the dishes that we had is the apple and blackberry crumble. Normally Irene and I would order different things so that we can try more dishes but this dish seemed interesting enough for us both to order it. It first caught Irene's attention for being part of the degustation menu (I believe anything on the degustation menu is worthy of ordering as degustation menus usually showcase the better dieshes that the chef has to offer) and judging by its ordinary name, we suspected that there's something more beneath the surface! As it turned out, we were right!
Half way through our meal, two girls took the table next to ours and when they were making their orders, they enquired about the apple and blackberry crumble. That was our first hint that there's something more to the apple and blackberry crumble than the name suggests as when the waitress described it, she described it not as a typical crumble, but rather, a yoghurt mousse with some crumble on top. Then when the crumble finally came, we were delightfully surprised. Typical of many dishes, the waitress put the finishing touch at our table; in this case, it was a blackberry coolio that she poured around the mousse. After the sauce was poured, the dessert emitted a very nice and tasty scent that pulls you to the dessert and makes you want to dig in immediately. Halfway through the mousse, another surprise came in the form of a blackberry sorbet. The sorbet was in the middle of the mousse and hence hidden when the dish first came. But as you dig through the mousse towards the center, you'll eventually hit the ice cold sorbet that gives the dessert a new refreshing touch. A brilliant, exciting, and surprising dessert that is a reflection of the three Michelin stars that the restaurant holds.
Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the coffee was pathetic, though the complimentary petit fours were pretty good.
Apart from the food, the service is also worthy of a mention. Unlike many restaurants, the wait staff at Maze still take orders with pen and paper (though they each had a nice leather folio that holds the notepad that they write the orders on). Although this is not as fancy as those restaurants where the wait staff shows off their amazing ability to memorize a zillion picky orders, it is at least practical and less prone to error. Thanks in part to this practical side of taking orders, our meals came without issues. Furthermore, the dishes came swiftly and the wait staff were exceptional in serving their patrons, never too late in noticing when their customers are in need of their service.
Another tiny thing worth mentioning are the breads. The breads came in little buckets and one of the bread is like these deep fried dough that Chinese people have with their congee; it was delicious!
On the whole, we thoroughly enjoyed the lunch. The food, service, decor, etc were without fault and we had a thoroughly enjoyable meal! I guess Maze deserves its three Michelin stars but that still doesn't change my view of Gordon Ramsay as a person, apart from the fact that he does know how to cook, or at least know how to hire people who does.
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