I’ve been eating far too much food recently. Trying to keep up with all the new openings in London is struggle at the best of times – and trying to eat at them all is even harder. With Christmas only round the corner I vouched to only eat out only once a week, but since then it’s become almost every day. There goes my tanned, washboard abs I was hoping for before Christmas. If that wasn’t bad enough I also said I wouldn’t drink – that lasted all of sixteen hours. With the added announcement of a new restaurant opening in Clapham called The Manor – well I just couldn’t resist.
The Manor in Clapham is the newest venture form the lovely people behind the amazing restaurant The Dairy (also in Clapham). Described as a modern bistro on Clapham Manor Street the interior is stripped back and very rustic, but still manages to feel warm and cosy – the etched into old school tables are fab too. I’d been pre-warned to not leave without trying the crispy chicken skin butter – and it didn’t let us down. Whipped to perfection, a little salty and very meaty – the thick and crusty, slightly charred loaf was magnificent as well, soaking up every spread of that luscious, heart attack of a butter.
Crispy BBQ chicken with kimchi – easily the best dish we had here. The kitchen had compressed layers of chicken skins together to create a texture almost not too dissimilar to the Chinese crispy lamb version we all love – but of course here at The Manor it’s a million times better. The meat/skin was so juicy, incredibly crispy and was full on in flavour. The BBQ sauce was a nice addition but far too intense and masked everything on the plate. The kimchi was completely pointless as those pieces of compressed chicken goodness are perfectly fine just on their own.
Things continued on the successful(ish) path with a bowl of shredded sweet crab, charred celeriac, hazelnuts and buttermilk. It wasn’t the most elaborate or even technically challenging of dishes to look at – although I’m sure it was in the kitchen, but as a plate of food it was much more of a showcase on flavour and ingredients than anything else. Everything in the bowl was magnificent, but as a mix I struggled to get excited about it all. The one main problem The Manor has, is the shadow of The Dairy – people will most certainly be comparing it to that and this newest addition so far, still needs a little more time.
The one big thing The Manor has going for it, much like The Dairy – is its pricing. Food here is very well priced indeed and the quality is second to none. This aged hanger steak, scorched bone marrow and roasted onion tea was only £12.50 – not bad given the dishes size and quality. The beef could have been a little more tender if I’m being picky but the lovely, soft onion was a dream. The onion tea on the other hand was served on the side in a glass. Apparently the restaurant couldn’t decide whether to serve it poured directly in to the dish or not – so instead they advised on sipping it from a cup. Personally I didn’t see the point of the tea and neither would it have worked in the dish either as it was much too thin for anything in the dish to have soaked it up.
More confusion came in the way of our suckling pig belly, braised head, morcilla and squash. Again it had nothing to do with the quality or cooking of the dish, but instead the matching of flavour intensity. The pork was utterly beautiful and the squash was cooked so well with a little bit of charring and soft centre. But that morcilla which worked its way around everything seemed to dominate so much over all the sweetness that everything else gave to the dish. There was an unexpected addition of sunflower seeds – which were a heavenly addition to the dish giving a great texture to the overall mouthful.
Granny smith apple parfait, meringue and bitter sorrel – all I ask is why? The Manor have a cool little dessert bar, where you can relocate to once your sweet tooth has suitably developed. It’s a lovely way to near the end of our meal but this dish for me was nothing more than a palate cleanser. It was very cold, liquid nitrogen played an interesting part but getting to shove my hand in the canister was the highlight of my evening. I love modern cuisine, technical plays on food are what I live for and liquid nitrogen still gets me excited – but I just couldn’t see what dish was aiming for, or even to whom – aliens?
I hadn’t been to The Manor just once, but twice now and in both my visits I’ve felt exactly the same way about my meal. The thing for me is that The Manor is overshadowed by The Dairy, and I just can’t help but compare it. The Dairy is a lot better and right now that’s probably down to the time it’s had to iron out small creases and blend flavours together – because the ingredients and cooking skills aren’t the problem here. It’s had glowing reviews recently so perhaps I’ve picked the wrong dishes as people would say – but the matter of the fact is there should be no such thing as picking wrong in a restaurant. Time is what The Manor needs and that’s exactly what I’m going to give it – third time lucky perhaps?
6/10
