THE BURLINGTON
Bored and hungry at work one day, and having recently attended restaurant Balzac, i was keen to take advantage of The Burlington's remarkably priced $35 lunch offer and so again have the opportunity of tasting Matthew Kemp's cuisine.
Rounding up a few of my work colleagues (at prices like this, it wasn't difficult), we headed down the road to the restaurant, situated on , unambiguously enough, Burlington st.
The first thing that struck me about the restaurant was how small it was, and despite having a reservation, all tables appeared to be occupied. Luckily for us, i quickly became aware that the restaurant is significantly more spacious than it seemed, as we were led by the hostess down a corridor and into the secondary dining room. This particular area is situated right outside the kitchen, which provided us with a degree of entertainment as we were privy to one of the chefs emphatically berating a poor apprentice. Of course, this is the nature of the industry and our waitress displayed great composure and judgment in handling this as she joked about the situation with us so that we might get back to the business of ordering.
Despite most of the options on the menu looking incredibly appealing, it was the lunch special which had brought me here so we all decided upon that, with a few nice wines to accompany the food.
The lunch began with bruschetta with white anchovies and sardines layered atop tomato and pesto. The pesto was fresh and lively and despite my worries that the sardines and anchovies might overpower the dish with an overwhelming fishiness, the whole thing harmonised quite well.
Our main consisted of ocean trout with scallops and a sweetcorn and artichoke risotto. The trout and scallops were perfect but i was less convinced by the risotto, which i thought was a bit bland.
Rounding up a few of my work colleagues (at prices like this, it wasn't difficult), we headed down the road to the restaurant, situated on , unambiguously enough, Burlington st.
The first thing that struck me about the restaurant was how small it was, and despite having a reservation, all tables appeared to be occupied. Luckily for us, i quickly became aware that the restaurant is significantly more spacious than it seemed, as we were led by the hostess down a corridor and into the secondary dining room. This particular area is situated right outside the kitchen, which provided us with a degree of entertainment as we were privy to one of the chefs emphatically berating a poor apprentice. Of course, this is the nature of the industry and our waitress displayed great composure and judgment in handling this as she joked about the situation with us so that we might get back to the business of ordering.
Despite most of the options on the menu looking incredibly appealing, it was the lunch special which had brought me here so we all decided upon that, with a few nice wines to accompany the food.
The lunch began with bruschetta with white anchovies and sardines layered atop tomato and pesto. The pesto was fresh and lively and despite my worries that the sardines and anchovies might overpower the dish with an overwhelming fishiness, the whole thing harmonised quite well.
Our main consisted of ocean trout with scallops and a sweetcorn and artichoke risotto. The trout and scallops were perfect but i was less convinced by the risotto, which i thought was a bit bland.
Reflecting Matthew Kemp's English heritage, our dessert of eton mess was a superb example of a simple dish done well. Light and velvety cream, raspberry coulis and crisp meringue, what's not to like?
This was a very enjoyable meal, and one which i can honestly say i did not want to end (though that is largely due to the fact that we had to return to work at the conclusion of our lunch). I am told that the menu for this lunch changes fairly frequently and, at these prices, I will be quick to return to sample some different offerings.
Bruschetta with tomato, pesto, sardines and white anchovies
Roast Ocean Trout with scallops and sweetcorn risotto
Eton Mess
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