Leo's parents are in town, so we took them to our favorite restaurant, St. John. As always, the food and the experience were fantastic. We started with black cuttlefish with onions and, the St. John standard, roast bone marrow and parsley salad. Even though Leo said he wasn't going to partake of the bone marrow, since he was all bone-marrowed out from our meal there last week, he still scarfed down all of the marrow from one bone. For our mains, I had ox heart with a beetroot and pickled walnut salad. The heart was incredible tender, which a bit of a vinegary tang to it.
Leo's mother had sweetbreads cooked with bacon and peas. The bacon was probably the best I've ever had - rich and smoky - and the sweetbreads took on a bit of the smokiness. The sweetbreads were so soft, it was like eating a cloud.
Leo's father had Venison liver with mashed celeriac (celery root). The liver was not as tenbring out more of it's gamy flavor.
Leo had the most interesting dish of the evening - squirrel with garlic, served with pate (not sure if it was squirrel related) on the side. When it came out, Leo was convinced that either the meat had come from two squirrels, or that the restaurant gotten his order wrong, since it looked like too much meat. But our server assured us that if we were to stack the pieces of meat, we'd get one big squirrel. The meat was the color and texture of duck, but tasted...for lack of a better descriptor...old. Kind of how mutton tastes like it comes from an older sheep, this had that older, dusty quality to it. It was very odd, but good.
For dessert, we shared a rhubarb crumble served with something that tasted like clotted cream but looked like custard on the side and a baked pudding served with shortbread (sorry, by this point I was too exhausted from the amazing meal to take any more photos). We all enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and Leo and I will probably be back very soon.
Leo's mother had sweetbreads cooked with bacon and peas. The bacon was probably the best I've ever had - rich and smoky - and the sweetbreads took on a bit of the smokiness. The sweetbreads were so soft, it was like eating a cloud.
Leo's father had Venison liver with mashed celeriac (celery root). The liver was not as tenbring out more of it's gamy flavor. 
Leo had the most interesting dish of the evening - squirrel with garlic, served with pate (not sure if it was squirrel related) on the side. When it came out, Leo was convinced that either the meat had come from two squirrels, or that the restaurant gotten his order wrong, since it looked like too much meat. But our server assured us that if we were to stack the pieces of meat, we'd get one big squirrel. The meat was the color and texture of duck, but tasted...for lack of a better descriptor...old. Kind of how mutton tastes like it comes from an older sheep, this had that older, dusty quality to it. It was very odd, but good. 
For dessert, we shared a rhubarb crumble served with something that tasted like clotted cream but looked like custard on the side and a baked pudding served with shortbread (sorry, by this point I was too exhausted from the amazing meal to take any more photos). We all enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and Leo and I will probably be back very soon.
3 comments:
This is on our list of places to go. Have some foodie friends coming in May and we plan to take them there. Offal is something we have not been very exposed to and we are always game to try new things. St. John's is the mecca of offal eating. Do you know if they served a lovely crusted sourdough bread with dinner? If they did, was it for sale at their restaurant?
I thing so, they had very good looking bread for sale there.
Olga
yes. they served their fresh bread with dinner and you can buy it at the restaurant as well. they served a darker bread and a sourdough, i believe.
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