Verdict is in on Marco Pierre White’s new spring menu
WHEN my name was pulled out of the hat to review the new spring menu at Marco Pierre White one of my colleagues jokingly said I should write it in the style of one of my court reports.
I’ll be the judge of that, I thought. But after being ushered to my seat at the Wollaton Street restaurant, and while sipping on a delicious zingy Margarita, I wondered, on the balance of probability, if that might not be such a bad idea after all.
But after weighing up the evidence with my dining companion for the evening, I decided to let that idea lie on file - or at least adjourn it for a short while, anyway. Instead, I think I bored my wife that when I was growing up in Nottingham the building in which we were sitting was the former Co-op store that seemingly dominated every shopping trip to the city centre from my childhood home in Bobbers Mill.
It was the place where I came to have my feet measured in those terrifying machines that I was convinced were going to crush my size nines as a youngster being fitted for my new school shoes.
And before the late, great, Selectadisc opened its doors, the top floor was the go-to place to buy records - the soundtrack to the film Grease being one I vividly remember parting with my pocket money to pick up there in the late 1970s.
Now, of course, the department store is gone and the smart, spacious, upmarket, steakhouse bar and grill is housed in a casino which, on the evening we dined, was bustling with revellers out on the town to celebrate Eid Mubarak.
After demolishing our cocktails Mrs Naylor tells me the espresso Martini was one of the best she’s ever tasted - and the dish of fresh lemon-infused olives, we sat back in the lovely ambience and waited for our starters.
She plumped for the tartelette of mushrooms Maintenon which she told me had a crisp base and was topped with perfectly cooked mushroom and a soft egg with Hollandaise sauce.
I selected the cream of cauliflower veloute with its more than subtle truffle and garlic flavours, joking that as a child I’d be given oxtail soup, rather than something quite so sophisticated as what I was now eagerly spooning down my throat with the eagerness of a young prosecutor racing through an opening speech (sorry).
As we were there to sample the new dishes on offer, I moved my eyes away from selecting the incredible-sounding signature steaks which I don’t think my already ample-enough stomach would have thanked me for anyway on a Wednesday evening in April especially the 1,679-calorie, 32oz Tomahawk I am sure some of you reading this might have gone for.
Instead I went for the spring vegetable spaetzle - Googling what it might be like a juror sifting through the evidence (sorry again). The search engine informed me that spaetzle is a pasta-style dish, originally from Germany, and this one came packed with asparagus and peas.
Whatever it is and wherever it’s from, it was well worth picking and was so filling I was concerned that dessert might suffer, especially as I couldn’t finish it all.
My wife chose the supreme salmon with what she said had a deliciously crispy top and came with perfectly cooked asparagus.
By now, we had almost finished the crisp glass of Pinot Grigio that our attentive and friendly waiter, Will, had poured for us and all we had to do was decide if there was space for pudding.
There was, just I hasten to add, and so we decided to share the New York cheesecake with blueberries, which was perfectly presented. We finished with a coffee each before heading off into the night as the roulette wheels next door spun round.
So is the jury still out on the new spring menu at the Marco Pierre White steakhouse bar and grill or has it reached a verdict on recommending it?
Very much guilty as charged, m’lud.