Review – The 2014 Christmas Menu @ Gilgamesh [Camden]

What is it?

Gilgamesh London‘s Christmas Set Menu. Lots of courses, and with a slightly cheaper vegetarian option. It does not include drinks or service.

How much does it cost?

£55 for meat, £45 for the vegetarian alternative.

Rating

Cuisine

Pan Asian

Appeals To

Businesspeople throwing Christmas parties inside a place with decor that any observant and relatively sober team members will still be talking about long after the dust has settled and work has resumed for the new year

Celebrities, media personalities and high rollers of all stripes who have inexplicably ended up in Camden and would like to perhaps buy a few Jeroboams of Cristal Champagne for their trouble. Gilgamesh can provide.

Pan Asian food fusioneers who have eaten a Japanese meal and asked themselves why this Japanese meal can’t also include Chinese and Thai food.

In A Word

Memorable

Christmas Comes to Mesopotamia/Camden  

Memo from your editor (who is also Jack): Most of this is written by Jack, but the bits penned/keyboarded (is that a word?) by Alejandra, our rather wine savvy and also rather Spanish contributor, are in this colour.

Jack: The day I get to ‘discover’ Gilgamesh is dark, cold and I’ve just come from a job interview in Twickenham. Which means I am wearing a suit and a strange demeanour. I’ve shown up early and consequently spend my time wandering around the lovely Camden Lock trying to get my new Android phone to take not shit photos. I fail but that’s OK..  

I eventually find Gilgamesh within the sprawling Stables Market. The entrance is barred by an ‘alt lifestyle’ bouncer, all in black, bearing a strong beard and an angry face. He kinda looks like someone you’d meet at an Anaal Nathrakh gig and thus fits ‘the Camden aesthetic’. He moves sideways… like a sliding door, as you enter via an escalator that takes you upstairs into a the reception area, and beyond that…wow.

Upstairs is not the Camden aesthetic. On that note, you may very well know what awaits in you at Gilgamesh – since I never do any research, I have no idea what to expect and am blown away.

I think there are at least 2 floors of Gilgamesh but I am not entirely sure. I must come back and find out…

The Atmosphere

The decor is fucking crazy – it looks like a painting of the Ishtar Gate mashed into Indian woodwork and lit up with sparkling Christmas lights. The place is spacious, the bar expands generously and the walls are adorned with an array of shiny and/or wooden things. Wow.

The ceilings are high and there’s multicoloured, low power floodlights casting a glow of red and green upon the place. All conspires to create an impact that I can’t describe in words. Trippy would be too far but it’s going that way. Mystical maybe? They could throw a party here and get everyone dressed up in Pre-Biblical attire and it’d probably work.

I’m not sure who invested in this place but there was definitely a lot of money involved.

And speaking of a lot of money involved, take a look at the drinks menu! That’s a £3000 JEROBOAM of Cristal that they do. Or a bottle of port from £110. Apparently the place is rather popular amongst the very wealthy and with celebrities.

The last time that Bryony, Tasting Britain’s cofounder, went, she was sat on the table beside Emma Bunton (AKA Baby Spice – anyone remember the Spice Girls?). The day after me and Alejandra showed the place was apparently playing host to Snoop Dogg (we are sad to have missed THAT photo opp)

The soundtrack is not the generic, Eastern tinged downtempo mixes you may expect in such a place. They opt more for dub tracks, which later becomes that guy from The Rat Pack (I dunno which one) singing Christmas renditions, some esoteric hip hop, and what I swear is Led Zeppelin. The playlist starts to loop again at exactly 9:18pm

We’re looked after by a fine young woman called Carmen – who I think is the manager. I can’t work out her accent but I think she’s Italian. Or Polish? What the fuck do I know about accents anyway?

We’re here for the Xmas menu and the place looks stunning in its Xmas decor(ations)! The tables and chairs are all carved and etched with thick, organic, floral patterns

It’s a Tuesday night and the place is pretty sparse at 7pm – it fills more about 8:30, but not to capacity.

This evening the clientele is mainly business types, groups of suited people who look like they’re out on a Christmas work do. There’s also the odd couple, and someone who looks like the creative director at my previous agency, wearing a check shirt. The only check shirt in the crowd.

The place must have hundreds of covers – it’s a big open hall with a few enclosed spaces at the far end of the room. As I discover later this is only one floor of the venue – there’s also another space upstairs for the club room (which we don’t visit because you don’t go clubbing after this much food, do you?)

Alejandra points out that the decor could be Persian. All the furniture was apparently made to order in India, before being shipped over.

Later I take a quick walk around the place to try and take more of it in. There are bouncers at another entrance, where people are getting cigarettes. I don’t think this is actually an entrance as it is above street level. I think it has something to do with the club?

They also have a semi open kitchen – so you can go and peer through the wooden facade and see what the chefs are up to (hint: they like to cook food). The sterile industrial space of the kitchen that you see through the gap in the wall is a stark contrast to the crazy decor of the restaurant area.

The Drink

Vesper Martini

As a Martini should be. Hella strong and wonderfully well balanced (smooth as silk, but with a kick like a mule, though not a Moscow Mule… ) Feeling a bit rekt before I’m half way through it. Truly a wonderful thing. 

Kish

Alejandra: If you like gin (specially Hendricks Gin, my favorite!) mixed with other tropical flavours, I would suggest you try this cocktail, a blue drink that contains Grenadine, Blue Curacao, Elderflower and Pineapple juice. The perfect combination to get you in the mood.

Wine

Alejandra: As the food is Pan Asian, you may expect the likes of dim sum, sushi, sashimi and Thai curries. Therefore, you need to make sure that you choose a wine not very high in alcohol or tannins – because if you do it’ll increase the heat from all the spicy food. And that’s not very pleasant!

With that in mind, we went for the Kanu Stellenbosch: a Chenin Blanc (Unwooded) South Africa 2013. This is a medium and textured wine with notes of melon, flowers and some savouriness. Very easy drinking, which is the key for this type of food. It is also good value!

The Food

As Carmen explains – “Pan Asian cuisine, European Waiters, Indian Decor. Crazy – but it works!”

Yes indeed…

Roasted scallop and avocado roll with tobiko

Clean taste, some avocado, with a slight crunch – I don’t really taste the scallop. Alejandra: This goes well with a bit of Wasabi. Good sushi although it’s nothing special that you can’t get elsewhere.

Crispy black cod with rich mango sauce

Inside is deep fried, I think, creamy taste. Pastry reminds me of a Baklava style filo pastry. Falls off everywhere (that’s OK: it’s meant to). Tastes LEGIT with the tropical mayo they serve as a side.

Crispy Asian Broccoli with citrus dressing

I eat this and know that I’m gonna get some abuse from my stomach later (my stomach hates cruciferous things, even if I like them). The dish itself is OK to moderately good.

It’s served al dente, and at lower temperature (possibly because we left it too long to sit). It is also served with what looks like fried onions – they provide some crunchy textural contrast.

Slow roasted short ribs with Bulgogi sauce

Is cooked until it collapses off of the bone (literally, none sticks to the bone at all and you can split it easily with the side of your fork). It sits on an intense, slightly spicy, molasses tasting BBQ  sauce.

I actually prefer the beef (cooked to perfection) without the sauce, which is too much. But I could give two fucks for BBQ sauce anyway.

Wok fried lotus root, lily bulb, asparagus and tofu

Neither of us are keen on this. It has an underlying salty citrus taste which gradually annihilates all the other flavours and sticks on your tongue like it wants to stay there. Is it MSG? IS IT DESTROYING MY BRAIN?!

I initially like it, the lotus roots are beautiful, slightly crunchy, and the tofu is firm. And then that flavour really kicks in and I can’t have any more 🙁

Steamed Chilean seabass with hijiki in a ginger & spring onion soy broth

This one makes up for the previous dish. It is the best seabass ever. Legit. Also you can use the sauce it comes in for your rice. It is like cod on steroids.

It’s so good that it gives me Tourette’s syndrome when I try to describe how it tastes I. I just keep repeating ‘fuck’ – Alejandra catches on too and soon Gilgamesh have pioneered contagious fish Tourette’s.

The seabass sits on a bed of leafy greens which are kinda sour on their own but have partially absorbed the sauce, leaving them somewhat infused with the perfectly piscine flavours of the fish.

Sides

Alejandra: The sides were two different rice; Steam black sticky rice wrapped in a lotus leaf and jasmine rice. They are both ok although I think it was too much rice for the food. Jack seems to agree with me but the truth is that his face was saying ‘I’m OK with so much rice’. [Jack: if it is there I will try to eat it]

Sushi already comes with rice, Broccoli doesn’t need rice, the beef needs to be enjoyed on its own and the Lotus salad…. well, it wouldn’t improve with more rice. The only thing which I enjoyed the rice with was the sauce that came with the sea bass. It was very tasting and quite a pairing!

Sometime before dessert we notice that the restaurant is level with train tracks. At some point, a very slow moving cargo train rolls by, accompanied by what honestly sounds like a charging superweapon (imagine an electric hum, gradually increasing in volume and pitch as the train draws nearer).

The entire restaurant goes quiet for about 20 seconds as everyone wonders what’s going on and if the building is going to be taken out by an ion cannon.

Everyone survives, dessert continues…

White chocolate & mint mousse with cranberry cake

Ok so I really don’t like minty desserts or white chocolate at all (*insert your chosen off colour joke about being a race traitor here*) BUT FOR THIS I MAKE AN EXCEPTION. I think the mint takes the sickly sting out of the white chocolateyness, as does the sharper cranberry tastes.

Pretty great – I give the piece of white chocolate on the top to Alejandra – as I’m almost entirely sure they’ve not managed to make that taste any less like white chocolate.

Toasted coconut panna cotta with candied waterchestnuts and thai basil

I am quite keen on this, but too full to really appreciate it. It tastes like desiccated coconut with a slightly mousse-like texture. Not too sweet, nor too dry (despite the coconut). Pretty darn good, but not mindblowing.

The place never fills up completely and we leave around 11:30 because if I leave any later my trip home becomes less of a journey and more of a nightmare that I can’t wake up from and this time I won’t fall asleep at Victoria or end up in Three Bridges wondering what the fuck just happened to me.

We leave via another stairway (we are buzzed out) into what is almost like a stealth exit onto the Stables Market.

This is not an experience I will forget anytime soon. 

The Verdict

Well, the drinks were great, and the Xmas menu was good (though not great) for what you pay.

Gilgamesh is an experience you won’t quickly forget, if not for the food combinations, but for the decor. It is luxurious without being ostentatious, and I guess quirky enough to make some impact onmy somewhat restaurant saturated psyche.

Would certainly return to try other menus and/or to take a look at what goes in in the club bit (I assume it involves clubbing). 

Alejandra: Really cool atmosphere, great décor, unusual location for a restaurant of these characteristics and good Asian food (although not great). Generally we think it is an experience hard to miss, so give it a go this Christmas. Message to the men of London: If you want to make blow your partner’s mind please bring her/him here (yeah, you’re welcome).  Or if you are single you can also bring a friend pr two and blow their minds too.

The Details

The Stables Market, Chalk Farm Rd, London NW1 8AH

020 7428 4922

http://www.gilgameshbar.com/index.php?job=_menus#xmasset

@GilgameshBar 

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