One of the highlights of my trip to London in late 2011 was Roganic, the temporary London offshoot of L’Enclume. At the time, Ben Spalding was cooking up a storm in the kitchen and front of house was ably led by Sandia Chang. One year on and things have noticeably changed with Andy Tomlinson (a L’Enclume alumnus) leading the kitchen and Richard Cossins now leading the front of house team. The menu approach is still similar with lunchtime options ranging between three, six or ten courses with parallel vegetarian menus with the same number of dishes. The influence of L’Enclume on the menu was more pronounced this time around with a couple of dishes very closely related to things that I’d eaten in Cartmel in September.

After ordering the six-course tasting menu it was time for the amuse bouches. The deep fried brawn and seaweed crisp came out together and both were excellent. The deep-fried brawn was a breaded cube of braised pigs head with coriander, mustard seed and sweetcorn purée. The poaching broth for the pigs head had been boiled down to give the jelly that the meat came in so the centre was surprisingly light in texture but the burst of flavour in the mouth was wonderful. The seaweed crisp was topped with diced pickled apple, celeriac purée, sea herbs and seaweed dust. The light crisp was a wonderful taste of the sea and the apple gave a light fresh burst to contrast with the seaweed. The dish also needed the earthier tones of the celeriac to totally succeed. I could have eaten both of these again and again.

As with previous visits here and at L’Enclume the breads were great and it’s always tempting to fill up on them. On offer this time were onion and thyme bread, pumpernickel with cracked oats and wholemeal and ale bread.

The first course proper was listed on the menu as grown up yolk, salt vinegar and garlic. Building on the idea of the cod yolk at L’Enclume this was a chicken mousse served in a saffron gel for the egg yolk like appearance. This was served on salt and vinegar puffed rice that is just sensational in the way it adds texture and boosts the mousse. There was raw kohl rabi discs in the base of the bowl for additional clean crunch and garlic mayonnaise and wood sorrel topped things off. This was a lovely light dish to start the meal. The salt and vinegar rice is work of genius.

Next up was the most L’Enclume dish of the day but as it was based on the sensational Keen’s dumplings I had no complaint. The quail’s egg-sized dumplings made with Keen’s cheddar are incredibly light but pack a nice cheddary punch. The dumplings were served with cream of onion, wild chervil and liquorice powder. The dish was topped with crisp seared silverskin onions and mustard greens. The dumplings had a superb supporting cast here from the gorgeous onion broth to the chervil foam and the gentle liquorice powder. Superb.

When ordering I had been allowed to substitute the raw mackerel in coal oil, beetroot and apple gel for the scallop that had been listed on the six-course menu. This was a dish with more muted flavours than I expected but was a lovely fresh dish overall. The mackerel was served on an apple gel for an acid lift and topped with beetroot and apple slices that provided crunch. Beetroot syrup ringed the serving and tangy ox-eye daisy leaves garnished the whole. The lovely mackerel seemed overwhelmed by the coal oil dressing at first but as the fish asserted itself the amalgam of flavours made much more sense. This was another lovely dish.

The fish course was cod and leeks with cockles and ground elder. This dish smelt wonderful as it was placed on the table. The roasted cod was lovely although its gentle flavour ran the risk of occasionally being overwhelmed by other components. The ground elder added a nice fresh flavour. The leek purée was delicious and the charring on the baby leek really helped boost the flavour. The star of the dish for me was the tender cockles with the cockle butter sauce adding more depth.

The meat course fulfilled its role as the culmination of the savoury courses admirably. Reg’s guinea hen with turnips, parsley root, offal ragout and yarrow also included with hen of the woods. The flavour on the bird was superb and the breast was delightfully tender and it revelled in the rich jus. The robust flavour of the Hen of the woods worked really well with the offal ragout.  The turnip and parsley root purée provided clean fresh flavours to lighten the tone. This was excellent.

Dessert was billed as artichoke, butterscotch, pear and walnut. Artichoke ice cream and crisp was served with dehydrated walnut cake, pear poached in pear juice and butterscotch sauce. The walnut crumble had a wonderful warm flavour and it combined perfectly with the pears and butterscotch sauce. The least convincing part of the dish was the artichoke ice cream that really needed the fresh pear to help it.

This was followed by a glass of cool Douglas fir milkshake and a small spicy parkin topped with carrot gel.

Overall verdict.
This was my third visit to Roganic and it confirmed what a great restaurant it is. Food was superb and the enthusiastic front of house team really helped make this an excellent experience.

Would I revisit Roganic?
Roganic was billed as a two-year pop-up and those two years expire in mid-2013. Simon Rogan’s team are actively exploring new venues so if Roganic is closed by the time I next visit London hopefully the next step in the Rogan story will be underway. I can’t wait to see where it goes.


Overall Rating - 5/5