From wicked witches to Icelandic chefs, it's a week about confounding expectations

Restaurant review:  Texture (London), Reunion Bar (London)
Theatre review:  Wicked

Christmas merriment, part two.  We start with Agnar Sverrisson's Michelin-starred Texture.

Scandinavian cuisine continues its uber-trendiness, with Copenhagen's Noma retaining its lustre as the world's most desired restaurant table and the third UK TV chef in a year (this time, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall) about to do a cooking series from there.  Married to the half-Dane, I've been ahead of this curve, discovering gourmet delights in Copenhagen three years ago, attending family meals at Madsen's Scandi Kitchen (now sadly closed) and attempting some of my husband's favourite Danish dishes.  Despite the trendiness, London doesn't have that many Scandinavian restaurants.  Texture is, with its star, its elegant location on Portman Square and its TV-regular chef, undoubtably the poshest of them.

Given my personal ties to the cuisine I'd always wanted to try the place.  Christmas lunching with one of our design agencies provided the opportunity.

It is all that you'd expect from Michelin-starred dining.  Exquisite tastes, beautifully presented, in an elegant yet modern dining room with impeccable service.  What it was not was particularly distinctive, or noticeably Scandinavian.  Had you escorted me to the table blindfolded, I wouldn't have picked up the national flavour and wouldn't have found much to differentiate it from many other fine dining establishments doing modern European food from the classical tradition.  Except perhaps a lighter touch on sauces and ingredients that makes it easier to eat while watching the calories.  Sverrisson states in his menu that he does his best to avoid saturated fats in his starters and mains.  All I noted as obviously Scandinavian, besides that light touch, was wafer-thin rye bread served as crisps, an abundance of dill and assurance that the cod was from Iceland.

While it might not be distinctive, their £26.90 three-course set menu is a deal.  I started with a wonderfully delicate venison tartare, followed by that Icelandic cod done with Jerusalem artichoke and black truffle.  Dessert was the most inventive: white chocolate mousse and ice cream paired with dill and cucumber (pictured above).  The surprising accompaniment prevented the chocolate from being too sweet and brought a welcome freshness to the dish.

Far less delicate, and more rib-sticking, was an impressive array of canapés served as a pre-theatre dinner at the Reunion Bar at the Grosvenor Hotel, Victoria.  This is one of those grand Edwardian places that are architectural monuments to Empire.  Walk into the lobby and you'll feel like organising India or taking over a small African country.  Walk up the processional staircase to the bar and you'll find a space with modern decor and amusing nods to grandeur.  We partied in an area with throne-like chairs and a grand canopy above us.

Fabulous service kept our champagne glasses constantly topped up and fresh nibbles appearing every few minutes.  Ironically, we probably ate and drank more in 90 minutes here than we would have at a "proper" dinner.  Certainly the mini Cornish pasties and the tempura prawns didn't do the diet any favours.  Petite rolls of rare roast beef around a sliver of fresh horseradish and a slice of heart of palm were suitably light, however, and worth trying at home.

The cocktail-party dining preceded the case study production team's outing to see the long-running Wicked.  I knew very little about the plot other than that it's a prequel to the Wizard of Oz that presents a surprising, alternative story to the assumptions you will have had from watching the original film.  Knowing any more than that, frankly, would spoil your enjoyment.  Because the story is marvellously clever.   The music is almost incidental, and other than one tune (Defying Gravity), not memorable.  It's really more of a play, and the lessons it teaches about not believing appearances, or official spin, are fabulous.  It would be an excellent outing with pre-teens; must keep in mind for the godson.
musical

Thus ends this year's holiday party season.  At least the work-related, expenses-fuelled season.  The personal weeks ahead will be quieter and less profligate.