Sketch Lecture Room and Library (London – Conduit St.) Sketch Lecture Room and Library is the fine dining section in a building with several venues (I had afternoon tea in the Gallery on my last London visit). The restaurant is part of the Pierre Gagnaire collection (I’ve visited his outposts in Las Vegas and Tokyo). The location was easy to find, as it was on one of the main shopping streets in London off of Regent St. The venue for my dinner was divided into two areas, as appropriate for the name.
For dining options, they offer a tasting menu, a vegetarian tasting menu, and a la carte options.
© 2015 Michael T Grepo All rights reserved.
I decided to go with the vegetarian tasting menu. The wine‐by‐the‐glass list was fairly extensive. I only photographed the whites.
© 2015 Michael T Grepo All rights reserved.
I selected a 100ml glass of the 1974 Jurançon. It was the most full‐bodied and distinctive white wine I had ever tasted.
The meal started off with a collection of canapés which were brought before I made my menu selection. These included their version of a vodka martini, but made with a jelly, spiky artichoke leaf, aioli with saffron mayonnaise and pine nut, Parmesan sables, chilled gazpacho of strawberry and tomato, artichoke cream with cumin cracker, squid ink wafer with fresh goat cheese, and crunchy bread with lardo di carlotto and Dijon mustard.
© 2015 Michael T Grepo All rights reserved.
Fig and seed bread, brown butter bread, also had baguettes. With the breads, they served farmhouse unsalted English butter and brown butter emulsion with black salt.
The first course from the menu was vegetable and fruit tartare with beet root purée, cherries, artichoke, and fresh lemon sorbet. This was nutty and crunchy and on the sweet side.
The next course featured a whole artichoke heart and sous‐vide egg cooked at 63 degrees. It was garnished with a spinach velouté, spinach leaves and mustard. This tasted and felt rich. It was also a good‐sized portion. © 2015 Michael T Grepo All rights reserved.
The next dish started with a tomato filled with Swiss chard and a Parmesan crumble served very hot. Underneath, there was more Swiss chard and some Parmesan shavings.
This dish had vanilla‐scented corn cream added at the table to pan‐fried chanterelles with herbs and whole corn. The mixture was topped with crispy filo, and courgette (zucchini) blossoms. The corn and mushroom mixture with the sauce was like a risotto and very tasty.
© 2015 Michael T Grepo All rights reserved.
The gnocchi in this course was served with fried aubergine, French white beans (Coco de Paimpol beans from Brittany), white peaches, golden raisins and green onion jus. On top was a bit of pan fried onion lace. While this was nice, it needed more texture contrasts.
A new napkin was brought out as we transitioned from the savory part of the menu to the desserts.
The pre‐dessert was strawberry with some black sesame seeds. Aged balsamic vinegar was added at the table. © 2015 Michael T Grepo All rights reserved.
The selection of desserts began with Campari water with orange and almond cream, Pavlova with frozen grapes and red pepper and topped with vanilla and almond cream and a blackberry bavarois with blackberry slices.
Desserts continued with a verbena milk foam with enoki mushrooms and raspberry sorbet, Armagnac chocolate ganache with coffee ice cream, hazelnuts and lemon meringues, olive oil Dacquoise cake with a trio of sorbets, raspberry burrata and summer fruits, and petit fours (poppy Turkish delight, basil and lemon tartlet, and chocolate shell with milk jam and crystallized ginger). I finished up with fresh mint tea. I came to this meal with a slight disadvantage in that I was not very hungry. About six hours before, I had just finished a very generous afternoon high tea. That was one reason I selected the vegetarian tasting menu – I didn’t think I would be able to appreciate fully a regular tasting menu sequence. However, I think that vegetarian menus can also be extra filling in a different way, as chefs try to compensate for less fat and protein by making vegetarian portions bigger than the regular menu offerings. The vegetarian menu was fine and very filling, but I will need to come back and experience the regular tasting menu with the appropriate appetite to evaluate this restaurant’s experience properly.
© 2015 Michael T Grepo All rights reserved.