Thus two friends and I were thrilled to act upon a tip that the restaurant at the Bingham Hotel in Richmond was in full pursuit of its first star, and we should try the place before they got it and the prices skyrocketed.
The food is, without doubt, on track for lofty acclaim. Interesting ingredients, prepared with great skill and creative flair, with absolutely exquisite presentation. A bit over-complicated at times for its own good, but all positive. The setting is sophisticated and, on a sunny day, offers some of the most picturesque Thames-side dining I've ever experienced. The problem was the service. Genial but very slow and woefully uninformed. They're going to have to work on that.Let's start with the food. There's a set price menu with three options per course that you can try for £19.50 for two courses and £23 for three. I could have been happily opted for the celeriac and goat's cheese terrine with beetroot and Jerusalem artichoke salad (nice use of seasonal produce); skate wing with the uber-trendy salsify and pigs' cheeks; followed by a selection of British and French cheeses. But we were keen to try other things on the menu, so we went a la carte. This too, however, was a set price. At £39 per person, lunch or dinner, that's a good value, and I like the fact that the set price allows you to choose what you fancy rather than juggling the range of costs.
I started with the pressed rabbit and ham terrine with pickled carrots, crisp ginger and a foie gras parfait. The terrine was beautifully delicate for something made with such robust ingredients; truly a work of art in its finicky, precise construction. And it tasted fabulous. The foie gras was a bit pointless, however. It was an unnecessary compliment to the dish and, in consistency, too runny to eat easily. My main course was a very posh take on fish stew: Roast monkfish with razor clams, squid and scallop in a seafood bisque with citrus oil and fennel marmalade. The bisque was rich, pungent yet also light, and a vivid yellow. Tumeric, I presumed. I wanted to consume every drop. That was a bit difficult, given the fact that it wasn't served with a spoon. This is a typical example (more to come) of the staff's deficiencies. Both of my friends had the sucking pig; again, a traditionally hearty peasant's dish re-imagined as beautifully presented nouvelle cuisine. The crackling had been cut into thin strips and woven into a lattice work. Clever and pretty. Though, as I'm not a crackling fan, I can't offer much judgment on how it tasted.
While the starters and mains were flamboyant and, often, more complicated than they needed to be, the desserts were pretty straightforward. Two of us opted for the Amadei chocolate tart. This Tuscan chocolate, considered the "champagne of chocolate" by many, made a tart that was dark, rich, smooth and deeply satisfying, though on par with many I've had. The third diner had a marscapone cheesecake, which she rated similarly "good but not best ever."
What was missing, food-wise? I found most of the dishes over-complicated. This reminded me of the main criticism I had of Tom Aikens' place (see 30.03.08); things would have actually been even better with a bit of restraint. The fennel marmalade in my fish, for example, added nothing but a fiddly bit of decoration. The nibbles with pre-luncheon drinks were an unexceptional bowl of mixed olives. Moving on to the table, I've never been to a Michelin starred restaurant without an amuse bouche, that little extra something from the chef. No hint of that here. Also no little extras around pudding, be it a secondary, complimentary dessert or a lovely little tray of delicacies with the bill. (Regular readers will know that multiple desserts are always going to captivate me.) It's as if the chef ran out of steam on the main dishes and couldn't work up the energy for any fine little touches and transitional notes.
My main issue with the Bingham, however, was service. Everything was exceptionally slow. We were shown to the bar rather than the restaurant upon arrival for our 1:30 booking (standard for dinner, but we would have liked an option at lunch. We were ready to tuck straight in.) and were abandoned for 10 minutes before anyone took an order. Another 20 minutes passed without anyone giving us a menu to peruse, or checking up on us, before we finally got to the table. Once settled, the staff showed no expertise at or interest in the menu. At a really fine restaurant, when I ask for help choosing between dish A and dish B, I expect a lot of detailed knowledge, some questions and a consultative recommendation. Not the "it's all good" that any 20-something barmaid can give me at my local pub. At the end of the meal, when I asked about their single malts, I was handed a menu of ports and dessert wines; not a scotch in sight.
We were abandoned for long stretches after each course was delivered, making it difficult to ask for any extras (like that inexplicably eliminated spoon for the bisque). The friend who had to leave at 4 barely finished her pudding in time. The remaining two of us stayed past 5, and in all that time only got asked if we needed anything once. Requests for water had to be made three times before a fresh carafe turned up, and the staff was inexplicably reticent to ask us if we wanted to order any more drinks. We ended up having a remarkably restrained one-bottle lunch over that four-plus hours, but figured they could have sold us another £60 in wine and cocktails if they'd only come around and asked.
All of this was made forgivable as much by the remarkable setting as by the food. The Bingham sits directly on the Thames, just up river from central Richmond. Sleek, modern gardens slope down to a high wall, beyond which is the Thames path and the water. We were seated on the balcony in warm glow of one of the last balmy, bright days of summer. Cormorants snagged fish, posh boys skulled by from the rowing club and the odd pleasure craft drifted by. With such a setting we could have been happy across the hours with a burger and a diet coke. The gourmet fare was a bonus.
Should you go in the winter, however, plan to be demanding about the service. It certainly won't stand much scrutiny without the distraction of a fine view.
Post script: After writing this post I've learned that neither service nor setting play a role in getting a star. It's all about the food. Specifically, quality of ingredients; skill in preparing them and combining flavours; creativity; consistency and value for money. On these criteria, I'd say the Bingham stands a pretty good chance. As for my rating, I'll stick by my guns. Service matters.
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