L’Enclume (*) – thoughts

Hello fine diners!

I was lucky enough to go to L’Enclume this past week and it was pretty mind blowing. Beautiful countryside, village and got to stay in a suite from L’Enclume itself (amazing room).

It won’t let me annotate picture by picture but here are my thoughts of each dish.

Started with 3 snacks, a beetroot tart with smoked mackerel and a beetroot juice taster. Very refreshing for beetroot, the smoky aspect was incredible and was a great start to the meal.

Next was maybe my favourite bite of the meal, a pork/eel fritter with corn and lovage. We were asked to use the fritter as a spoon to mop up the lovage emulsion. It was delicious. Fatty, crunchy and smoky with a herbaceous note from the lovage. As the waiter said ‘like a posh frazzle’.

Last of the snacks was a cheese ‘pudding’ with cheese gel and more cheese. It was well, cheesey. Salty and pungent. Amazing.

I opted for the signature wine pairings which started at this point. I am not an expert in wine so I won’t give details of all of them except when the pairings were phenomenal (admittedly this is most of them).

Our ‘first’ course as an asparagus and crab course, in a little ceramic bag. The crab was amazing and worked super well with the fresh and in season asparagus. Yum.

Next was probably my favourite course of the night, celeriac with pike perch roe. Creamy, salty, earthy. All the right notes in perfect combination. It was delicious – it worked very well with the Austrian white wine paired with it.

We’ve had frazzles, now cheese and onion (crisp themed menu maybe?). Creamy broth with potatoes and onion emulsion. Pumpernickel bread to mop up the soup.

Seaweed custard, bone marrow, beef broth to follow. This was the best wine pairing of the night. An incredibly apple-y champagne which absolutely cut through the salinity of this dish. This was worth the price of the pairings alone.

Grains, pickled onions and egg. Understated but powerful. Textures were amazing.

Monkfish with king oyster, onion jam and king oyster sauce – this was another favourite. Deep mushroom flavour, meaty fish, orange wine to pair. Yum.

The main was a West Country duck alongside a pot of it’s organs which were stewed with an elderflower foam. Everything was cooked to perfection. A crumpet was served alongside the course to mop everything up. Rich, meaty, deep. Perfect flavours.

Now we move into the ‘sweets’. Frozen tunworth cheese. A textural triumph. Spots of frozen, ice cream-like cheese, tart gooseberries and crunchy malt.

Pear and cobnuts – crunchy caramelised cobnuts, sweet and juicy pear. Fantastic.

Finally (almost), Simon Rogan’s signature dish – the anvil. Caramel mousse, miso, apple. Very complex and unctuous. Great way to finish the meal. Unless….

Cheese – choose 5 cheeses and get some Madeira to really splash out.

The petit fours are lovely and thankfully light.

This was the best dining experience I’ve had. The staff we’re friendly and knowledgable, not stuffy or overbearing. The timings were great, never felt rushed. The dining room is light yet cosy.

With my package I also got breakfast the next morning at Rogan and co. It was fantastic. Everything Rogan touches (see his recently 2 starred ion harbour) seems to turn to gold.