Rating
Cuisine:
French, with Japanese touches?
Appeals to:
- Flavour flâneurs and gustatory aesthetes
- Metropolitan diners and people opting for the high class version of the ‘Westminster experience’
- Romancers of the stove or high powered business types
- Those who like to see the types of delicious liberties that can be taken with Francophone cuisine
- French-Japanese people (we assume there must be a few of you out there!)
In A Word:
(Aff)Fluent
The Location & Style
Greta: The restaurant is located within Westminster Bridge Park Plaza. Style and sophisticated glamour glint on the polished surfaces of the Brasserie’s artfully arranged interior decor. Articulate metropolitan class and hotel residents elegantly chill in the wining and dining environment.
Jack: Everything basks in an almost warm red glow…
The Service
G: The restaurant staff are sophisticated and welcoming, but also humbly charming and charismatic. (J: They’re also hella French). Attention to detail is all inclusive and all consuming, and never is the little basket empty of bread or the glass empty of beverage. I must mention the complementary bread is the best I’ve tasted, one of the loaves was delicately flavoured with lemon and thyme, served warm and soft!
The Food
G: Me and Jack shared a privilege of sampling the menu, directed by Chef Walter Ishizuka (J: we quite like him…). Wonderful to taste the dishes which are most prized by their creator. Here the most interesting combination of Japanese and French cuisine are articulately blended to rouse the curiosity of flavour flâneurs and to delight the hungry. (J: Like me. I’m always hungry)
As a starter the Lobster Bisque was rich in texture, high quality with plenty of Lobster pieces. (J: it has a nutty creaminess that is not meant to exist alongside lobster yet does. Cannot explain but approve highly.)
The followed by the Tuna Tartare, which had the infusion of distinctly Japanese flavour in the sauce.
J: And, inside your mouth, the crunchy fried shallots fight the yielding tuna tartare, which is cut into tiny cubes. It’s quite a pornographic sensation as you spoon it out of the jar and into your jaws…
We were treated to two equally great mains…
The Seabass wrapped in aromatic flavours of fennel, balsamic onion and lemon oil. Then the Duck Fillet with a playful companion of a roast pear. It definitely made me stop and re-think my taste preferences (J: it’s always a very good sign when you have to redefine what you actually like to eat in light of a new dish, right…?). This is no ‘pineapple on pizza’, there was true craft to this is duck and pear combination!
The desert was a finale of artful quality.
The Chocolate Fondant, once scooped, had a rich hot chocolate sauce ooze. It melded with the caramel ice cream, a joyful flow of smooth sweetness, tinted with a hint of salt and all lovingly engulfed within a delicious chocolate sponge.
J: …now that I look at it, this dessert resembles some kind of tiny factory that manufactures…I dunno…delicious things?
The Verdict
G: What can I say? I definitely felt a lot more cushioned around the waist area after all this! A sultry environment and quality artisan food, a glinting gem in the city indeed.
J: This is a really great take on French cuisine. Different enough to be exciting, not so different as to be completely unfamiliar. Les carrottes sont cuites.
The Details
A: Park Plaza Westminster Bridge Hotel, 200 Westminster Bridge Rd, London SE1 7UT
P: 020 7620 7272
W: http://www.brasseriejoel.co.uk/
E: reservations@brasseriejoel.co.uk
