Star turn

HoTMackerel

Rosie McGlade savours a spectacular meal at Newcastle’s House of Tides on the very day it wins a Michelin Star

As a young newspaper reporter, I recall an editor’s edict stating that anyone reviewing a restaurant meal was never to ‘plump’ (especially not ‘plumb’) for anything, or enjoy a meal served ‘on a bed’ of whatever ingredient – hackneyed descriptions which were popping up almost daily in our food pages.

It’s a rule I’ve obeyed diligently, but I regret now that there were no positive pointers; some nice little phrases you could reach for when in need.

House of Tides has me tempted to overload this review with an excess of superlatives. It’s intelligent, imaginative, very, very interesting; all the things I’m afraid of not being here. My son is no help. He goes, unusually for him, for the vegetarian tasting menu. “How’s your tomato salad?”  I enquire. “Very tomatoey.”

“And..?”

“All the tomatoes are different colours and taste different from each other and there’s a sort of cube of chewy watermelon which is really nice.”

Clearly, he’s no journalistic protégée, but I think he is trying to capture something of what House of Tides is about – a precision in flavours and combinations that intrigues and delights while allowing its star ingredients to shine for themselves.

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Can serious food be unpretentious? Can it be – whisper it – fun? This is owner and star chef Kenny Atkinson’s vision, and it is a wonderful revelation. The judges at the Michelin guide have been won over, and have announced the award of a coveted star on the very day we visit, which adds an extra frisson to our anticipation of the evening to come.

As I say, this place is refreshingly unaffected, and old favourites by goth/new wave pioneers The Cure are playing in the sofa area downstairs where we’re invited to look at the menu and enjoy some ‘snacks’ – an informal choice of word for oysters and caviar, ham parcels with a saucy dot of apple on top, and cones of superlative salmon.

Determined to crack the vocabulary, I quietly hit YouTube in search of the clip when Kenny won the 2010 Great British Menu fish course for his Mackerel, Gooseberries, Lemon, Mustard (main pic, above) – a dish that appears on the House of Tides tasting menu as an optional extra and is highly recommended by our waiter. Via the magic of YouTube, Prue Leith declares: “This should REALLY please Prince Charles because [Kenny] is promoting a fish which is sustainable, available, and
not expensive.”

Oliver Peyton (the Irish one): “You’re completely right, because, er, mackerel when it’s right, is an absolutely unbeatable fish, and that’s part of the reason why this dish is so fantastic – because the fish tastes amazing.”

Prue: “I’ll kill anybody who says anything negative about this dish.”

Obviously, there is nothing negative to say about it. Indeed, it is so spectacular I think I will remember it forever.

We eat upstairs in another handsome room in this 15th Century merchant’s house, its original beams and flagstones intact. It is late summer, and the menu features a beautiful bright green pea velouté soup with pine nuts followed by the mackerel which won Kenny his TV prize, a cress vichyssoise with sea bass and mussels, and venison tartare with various takings on beetroot, pickled blackberries and flakes of dark chocolate.

There are spectacular duck and lamb creations, both exquisitely designed in ways that defy the imagination, as only a Michelin-starred kitchen can.

Eating Michelin-starred food is unlike any other food experience. Take the broccoli and the kohlrabi discs with the lamb, which are magically infused with deep fruit flavours, and the tiny balls of mint jelly scattered on the plate. This is thrilling, remarkable food; a multi-sensory experience which truly stays long in the memory.

Pre-dessert, a deconstructed cheesecake, is the best pudding I have ever had. It is followed by a dark chocolate mousse with popping candy surrounded by charming little bubbles of rosewater jelly topped with rose ash meringue. It looks like something from a fairy story.

The wine flight is excellent, naturally, so no surprise that the lady on the next table tells the sommelier that while she usually dislikes oaked Chardonnay, this one is a wonderful revelation.

The coffee is accompanied by impeccable petit fours and rounds off a meal of immense sophistication in exquisitely elegant surroundings which still manage to defy pretention, which means you won’t feel out of place in jeans. A star turn, indeed.

HoTMain-Restaurant

 

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