The London Carriage Works

The London Carriage Works is somewhat of an enigma, and I regularly hear both and good and bad comments about it, some love it and others don’t. I’d had issues with them before, but was still quite excited about going for dinner there last week. It was my first evening meal there for a number of years and I’m pleased to say is was very enjoyable. This wasn’t a meal of absolute perfection, but it was very good, great quality of produce prepared well.

A grilled Menai mackerel starter, was very good, probably my favourite course of the evening. Soft, sweet and oily fish with sharp, crisp vibrant flavours from the accompaniments. It’s a shame that I couldn’t take a picture worthy of it.

Lamb rump, white beans in provincial sauce, aubergine and tapenade, was a bit over complicated for me, but still a good dish. For me the tapenade didn’t need to be there, but I still enjoyed the perfectly cooked lamb and other accompaniments.

We then had a three lovely cheeses followed by a vanilla panacotta with red berries, it had a great soft texture and carried a lovely flavour. Sharp and sweet red berries made an excellent combination, and a little flower helped it look very pretty.

Over all I had a lovely meal and was very impressed. This wasn’t actually in the main restaurant, but part of a wine meal hosted upstairs, I’m not currently sure how many of the dished we had are on their al a carte menu. However, if they are applying this standard of cooking to all their other dishes it would bode very wall for them. The Carriage Works has had its ups and downs over the years, lets hope this meal was pointing the way for future levels of cooking and consistency.