A sunny Saturday back in August was indeed one such occasion. We were even so carried away we spent the time in between meals shopping. In truth, I am not well-off enough to be living such a lavish lifestyle and halfway through the day I had a minor personal financial crisis. Still, what is life without enjoyment and the occasional splurge?
We began the day with a little dim sum for lunch with a few friends in Chinatown. I love dim sum - it's just about the best way to eat Asian food in my opinion. Provided you find somewhere with a bit of authentic flair (or you splash out ridiculous money on high-end Chinese as we did at Hakkasan some time ago), you are usually in for a treat.
Imperial China is one of the better restaurants in Chinatown. You will often find a lot of consumer traps and cheap imitations here, similar to Brick Lane, but there are always a few diamonds in the rough. Imperial China is one such diamond, especially during lunch or tea time.
Dim sum lunch was a fairly typical affair. Five of us tucked in to a variety of dishes, the highlights of which were some pretty delicious egg tarts, some slightly salty and spicy duck noodles, the usual pork buns and long, silky pork dumplings. Unfortunately a little tofu was ordered which was a waste of the plate it was served on, let alone our money.
I can't really say too much about Imperial China you haven't heard me bleat about before. I love dim sum so much that as long as it's reasonably priced and tastes reasonably good I will eat until I realise I've eaten too much. Roughly the same as the kind of dim sum you can expect at a branch of Royal China, I was happy before moving on to spend more money on clothes I didn't need.
The evening took us on a walk from the west end to the other side of Holborn to sample Jun Tanaka's popular restaurant, Pearl. Jun Tanaka is something of a veteran of London restaurants now, having started his career at Le Gavroche many years ago. Pearl has been a fixture of the higher end of London's eating scene for some years and I'd heard consistently good things about it. The other thing I appreciate about Tanaka is that he really does work in the kitchen still. I saw him pace across the restaurant not long after we had sat down.
As we arrived, one thing immediately stood out: the restaurant is huge.The building is the former site of Pearl Assurance, some banking company or other, and in 1999 it was transformed into The Renaissance London Chancery Court Hotel. Firstly: what a stupid name for a hotel. Secondly: this place is too big. I mean uncomfortably so. Why anybody would look at a hulking banking building and decide to put a high-end restaurant in it is beyond me.
That said, it is a good location for a decent hotel, and decent hotels need decent restaurants. Another saving grace is that Tanaka and his design team have decorated the place remarkably well. Sheets of utterly non-invasive glass, streams of glass pebbles and the most delicate lighting you could wish to see do help when you're dealing with such a massive room which is clearly in need of help. Though I do think it smacks a little of childish word association to have thrown quite so much soft pink and glass at the place. What used to be here? Pearl. What shall we call this place? Pearl. What shall we decorate it with? And so on...
When we were seated, I realised that no matter how gloriously you light a restaurant (and it was probably still too dim - the bar lighting was better than the restaurant), if it's this big it's too big. And Pearl remains a vacuous monstrosity. I felt as if I were about to be run over by a docking jet as we hunched around our table.
One more slight inconvenience to get through before food was the chilled cucumber soup with ricotta. I wish they had stayed true to form and only bought one bowl of this bland excuse for an appetiser so we could've got through it sooner. Depressingly thin and lifeless.
The menu (we were dining from a limited £40 for three courses deal) was designed to be modern and simplistic. Each course was headed by the main ingredient ("TOMATO", "LAMB", etc...) before explaining what came with the dish. Something about even this approach didn't quite sit right with me. Surely in a building such as this it should be simple all the way? Then again, all these pearly fixtures suggest opulence of the highest calibre... There is definitely a clash of styles afoot here.
Starters proved to be something more to write home about. It seemed as if they were upping the game when they needed to by presenting us with some light and well-dressed Pollock brandade - a mixture of salted fish with cream and seasoning (right). I'd never knowingly eaten this before and I have to say it was lovely: very smooth and packed with salty punch. Served superbly with smoked haddock crisps, quail eggs coated in breadcrumbs and parsley, suddenly I didn't really care that they couldn't count guests at the table or serve worthwhile soup - this dish really warmed me up.
The quail starter on the other side of the table wasn't quite as amazing, even though it looked lovely (left). Presented with figs, burrata cheese (creamy, mozzarella-esque stuff) and crisped ham, it was a little dry and didn't quite hit the mark the way the Pollock had.
Unfortunately, main courses weren't up to the same standard as the starters had been. The "SALMON" turned out to be some meagre fillets needlessly sprinkled with almonds, propping up broccoli and baby sweetcorn. This is the sort of thing you might find charming at a friend's dinner party but was nowhere near the standards Pearl should be setting. Likewise, the roast saddle of lamb with trimmings - despite what the menu would have us believe, they were merely trimmings - just wasn't what you would hope to be eating in somewhere with a reputation like this (above right). Cooked rare but cloyingly fatty and cruelly under-supported by the strong garlic and non-existent mint jelly, it was so far away from the sort of stuff we'd eaten at Corrigan's Mayfair that it didn't merit the price we were being charged.
Slightly better was the strawberry and champagne jelly which was packed into a pot with some lemon and almond sponge. The interesting part of the dish was in the vanilla foam which sparkled and crackled in the mouth as you ate. The flavours were a bit tricky to pick out though, which made the whole thing rather unimpressive and quite disappointing after how good the stuff looked.
Desserts were a good representation of not only the meal, but of Pearl in general. It's big, full of promise and looks good. Unfortunately, the food and the ambiance leave you feeling exactly as the restaurant feels: empty. Jun Tanaka is clearly one of the most pleasant and charismatic men in the cooking public eye, but his restaurant leaves much to be desired. He has attempted to incorporate elements of cuisine from the top chefs he has worked under and has consequently been caught in a middle ground which is a bit of a mess.
It's hard to know what will happen to Pearl. I doubt a Michelin star is in the offing which, let's face it, is what any restaurant serving food like this is after. Having said that, they have been in this huge building for a good few years now and clearly they are making money. Personally, I would recommend Tanaka sells up and re-launches himself in a more moderately-sized venue, takes things back to basics and remembers what makes French food great. You can only pull off high-end French cuisine with twists and gimmicks if the quality is exceptional. Pearl are charging moderately exceptional prices without the pay-off.
Looking back on this Saturday some months ago, it's clear which restaurant I enjoyed more and which restaurant I'm likely to go back to. Now there's some knowledge that would've saved us some money if we'd had it at the start of the weekend.
Imperial China
Pearl
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