La Trompette, Modern British in Chiswick - Chef Rob Weston Comes from The Square - From the Owners of Chez Bruce

[DonRocks]

Andy Hayler's Reviews

[zgast]

Undertaking my new part time job as diminutive shadow to Andy Hayler, I made La Trompette - a French restaurant with a Michelin star - my second dine-out in London and thought it worth sharing.  The restaurant is located in Chiswick, which is about halfway between Heathrow and central London, if that helps contextualize the location.

We shared a meal between two of us, by way of explaining why it looks like I ate so much.  The sommelier recommended a French chenin blanc from the Loire to accompany our eclectic food choices and we thought he did quite well - it had enough acidity for the starters but some heft for the entree courses.

Starters were a crab and scallop tortelloni as well as an asparagus soup (in season here).  The former was quite nice - just a really delicious few bites of crab with minced scallops inside of a tortelloni shell.  The sauce was definitely made from crab shell stock, which doubled down on the crab flavor, probably at the expense of the scallop taste, but I'd order this again for sure.  The asparagus soup was probably the weakest dish of the night.  It was good asparagus soup, but you expect a bit more from a Michelin restaurant.

Entrees were suckling pig and a cod dish with Jersey royals and nettles.  The suckling pig was magnificently crisp and had a nice sauce at the base to accompany without ruining the crackle.  Just a few bites each, but felt like a nod to what England could be doing with their Sunday roasts.  The cod dish was almost certainly the winner.  Touches of saffron came through in the cream sauce, but the nettles were a delight and the Jersey royals won the best component of the night.  What are Jersey royals you might ask if you're an American trying to decide what to order (theoretically).  The waiter would tell you that they're baby potatoes from the island of Jersey - but that they're really quite special. He would not be kidding.  Absolutely the best potato I've ever had in my life and I can't figure out for the life of me whether it was the potato itself or the cooking method.  I'm guessing it was pressure cooked in a wonderful stock, because the flavor permeated the entire potato.  We actually spent ten minutes after this course discussing the potatoes and I've since tried to recreate them with Ocado Jersey royals (unsuccessfully). 

Dessert was a chocolate tart and a cheese tray.  Very good chocolate tart, although I can't remember much more than that a couple weeks later.  The cheese plate was a great reminder that American restaurants tend to serve cheese way too cold.  These were room temperature or a bit warmer and it really made all the difference in bringing out the flavors.

Overall, a quite solid meal.   Prix fixe is £65 pp and wine was £79.  Markups here on the wine are going to be a sore spot for me - they're significantly higher than most places in the US.