It took me seven years between visits one and two of Folium, and less than five months between two and three. This time it’s not just a new menu, but a much cheaper menu. A whole 25% cheaper than last year for the same amount of courses. The £120 we paid for the tasting menu is £90 this time around, with the shorter menu £45 at lunch and £55 at dinner. By my (admittingly fleeting) research that makes it the cheapest tasting menu out of all the big hitters in the cities. Not the Six By Nico, paint-by-numbers approach to crafting tasting menus, but the real places with serious intent and ambition, and as much as much I want to say that cost shouldn’t matter at this end of the market, right now it does.
Sophie thinks it even better than last August, which is a surprise given it’s one of our highlights of eating out. The canapes are just sublime; what they call a savory churro which is really a potato dauphine mixture with added smoked haddock, with blobs of lightly smoked whipped cod roe and dill emulsion, then a crustade of lobster prawn cocktail that packs the punch of Worcestershire sauce and cayenne pepper. The final bite is the only crossover from the previous meal; the silkiest of liver parfait sat within the curl of a burnt onion tuile. It’s one of the best bites in the city, easily. No wonder they are finding it difficult to part with. The bread is immaculate and generous, served with whipped butter and a rubble of sea salt. We eat one half of our loaves each and take to work on the remaining bits throughout the meal.
The next two courses confirm to me that the lack of accolades is not only a mystery, but a travesty, too. Noodles made from biodynamic grains come in a broth made from aged beef fat and mushrooms, with a lightly pickled shitake mushroom and puffed grains for texture. It’s a dish that speaks of confidence and technique, just clean flavours and an understanding of knowing when to stop. It’s followed by a slow cooked egg, with sauerkraut beurre blanc, pickled kohlrabi, and contiguous interweaving planes of dehydrated brassicas and crispy chicken skin. I’m just going to leave this out there; for this style of cooking it is more memorable than any dish we ate at Skof last year. It wouldn’t feel out of place at L’Enclume.
There’s a slight call back to last summer’s stand out dish in the prawn butter sauce that stars on the softly smoked trout dish, which, yet again, has my wife taking chunks of bread to the last of the sauce. Then the lamb, cooked (I’m guessing) in fat, softly and for a while so that it blushes pink and falls apart at a prod. It doesn’t need much, just the innards of some grilled chicory, puffed grains, and a killer lamb sauce. Sophie thinks it’s one of the best lamb dishes she can remember eating. I’m inclined to agree. We share a cheese board. I say share; she takes the gooey ones and leaves me with the blue and the Lincolnshire poacher.
At some point after the meal I tell Ben that I think the rhubarb pre-dessert has the bones of a much bigger dessert and I really think it does. The poached rhubarb is gorgeous, with floral top notes from the preserved cherry blossom and lactic notes from the creamy thing in the bowl, which, I think, is yoghurt. I could have asked but I was too busy enjoying myself. We finish on cox’s apple that has been blackened over a slow and arduous cook, with a hay cream and a Matterhorn of crisp wafers. It’s deep and lengthy in flavour. Fortunately it is right up my street. There are petit fours that include a brilliant salted caramel and sunflower seed crisp, and a chocolate and cep tart that is mercifully light on the cep. The bill, including a rather brilliant and generous wine pairing, comes in at £370. You could do it for a lot less, we just chose not to. Call it a treat after living on lentils and water for two weeks.
In the week that followed lunch, my messages have been two things; firstly chefs questioning why they haven’t got a star, to which I really can’t answer that properly. Second, people, who like me, said they would go more often if they changed the menu, to which the answer is easy and above. It feels like the kitchen in Folium is going through something of a hot spell, with no duds and a strong sense of direction. I’m so tempted to say that outside of Opheem this might be the most exciting cooking in the city at present. There you go, I’ve just said it.
10/10
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