Table talk

Tipped off by a reader, our critic samples a tremendous tasting menu

Michael Deacon at Hammer & Pincers

GENERAL RULE: if you’ve got the time and the money, go for the tasting menu. Not every time you eat out, obviously, or by Christmas you’ll be the size of Switzerland. As a treat, though, you can’t beat it. Two reasons.

First, the decadence. Three lazy, sprawling, blissfully profligate hours of being waited on hand and foot, as a seemingly endless succession of rococo delicacies is presented with a humble bow for Your Majesty’s delectation. I love it. Proper banqueting. Regal luxury. It makes me feel like Henry VIII. Afterwards, I want to stagger outside, roar for my horse, and stick an arrow through a stag while downing a bathtub of ale. (Admittedly, this particular feat would require me to have at least four arms. But after a good tasting menu, anything feels possible. Especially if you’ve had the matching wines.)

The second reason is slightly more prosaic. In any tasting menu there’s always bound to be a course you aren’t so keen on. Too fiddly, too pretentious, too downright weird, or whatever. But you don’t really mind, because the course is only one of eight, or 10, or 12. Whereas if you order from the à la carte and you don’t enjoy one of the courses, that’s a third of your meal. A third of your money wasted – rather than a mere eighth, or 10th, or 12th.

See. Of course tasting menus are best. It’s basic arithmetic.

This week I ordered one on the particular recommendation of a reader, Mr Peter Mostyn of Nottingham. His