Some places you walk into and almost straight away, feel at home. Now it could be because Skosh has a colour scheme that includes a good splash of mustard (which I wear often as with my hair it makes me look like I’m on fire). It also could be because I’ve been dying to visit this place for ages (and actually a lot of restaurants in York are on my hit list, it really is punching above it’s weight restaurant wise at the moment). Or it could just be because the welcome is warm and professional, the place is nice and busy, and it smells delicious.
Or again, it could be a combination of all three. Either way, as I mentioned above, I’ve been looking forward to this visit for a while. It was planned earlier in the year, tied in with a distillery visit, but my date’s broken ankle put everything on hold. Finally, last weekend (just before my jaunt down to London) we made it. And my, we were glad we did.
Skosh is situated on Micklegate, on the way into the main city, skirted by bookshops, craft beer, and bloody beautiful buildings. Again, there is a little bias here, because I genuinely do love York and it’s architecture, timber buildings, the cobbles of The Shambles, and this part of the city has gorgeous arches, and the rather clean but impressive front arches of Georgian houses.
Into Skosh, and comfy banquette seating is merged with chairs with the open kitchen at the back and visible to all. I even spotted some kitchen side seats, which for a people watcher like me, are heaven. Next time Liam, please?
Drinks wise, I was here for the gin. Skosh and Cooper King Distillery (watch out for a full post on this distillery in the near future) have collaborated to create a gin that’s spicy and smoky – using smoked cardamom – that’s a little bit special. Even if you switch to the delicious looking wine list later, I’d recommend this to whet the appetite.
The menu is small plates and snacks – perfect for a leisurely, greedy afternoon of sampling and chatting. We went in immediately with the sourdough, and a selection of dishes to start us off.
The sourdough is that heavenly combination of light and soft, but chewy and dark, and full of flavour. It’s served with fresh butter, and ‘gunpowder’ spice, spiking mouthfuls of the combination with pepper, spice and lemon.
We also selected the lamb belly fritters with lemon kosho aioli, cauliflower manchurian, and skosh fried chicken, brown butter hollandaise. The soft fatty lamb was encased in strands of vermicelli and topped with a slice of crunchy green chilli and preserved lemon. The astringency satisfactorily cut through the soft buttery meat. The cauliflower was battered and coated in a slightly addictive sweet and spicy sauce (we soon found ourselves ducking crumbs of sourdough in it too), whilst the fried chicken managed to be tender, but crunchy and chewy, again, something immensely satisfactory about it.
It was whilst posting pictures on my Instagram stories that I had a message from fellow blogger, Ian. ‘The egg is a must.’ Speaking of his own visit ‘The whole meal was outstanding, but the egg has stuck with me!’
Of course, we requested an egg each – whilst most dishes are made to be shared, this is one of the few dishes that is individual.
The ‘hen’s egg’ is made with St Andrew’s Cheddar, mushroom and PX Sherry. I can see why it sticks in the mind. The mushrooms and the sherry add an earthy sweetness, the cheese in it’s soft whipped form, adds a little salty dryness then right at the centre, the yolk adds a big hit of creaminess. Yes, a must have indeed.
Not quite yet sated, we went for two of the slightly heavier dishes. The salt-aged beef rump tartare with mushroom and sesame, andchilled consommé, and the chargrilled Galician octopus, with wild garlic nahm jim and kohlrabi.
The octopus was done beautifully, charred on the outside, creamy and sweet on the inside, working well with the crunchy, clean kohl rabi, and the sharp garlicky hit of the wild garlic. And the beef was deliciously tender, the rich sesame crisp bumping up the texture, and the umami, the broth adding a meaty sweetness, the daintiest of pickled mushrooms looking fairy tale delicate on the plate.
And here, I’d like to apologise, because my date and I lost track of time. So much so, we were horrendously late for our distillery tour before we had even left the restaurant. This not only meant I had to send hugely apologetic messages to the distillery hosting us, but also meant we missed pudding. Which is a tragedy, because Skosh is one of the few venues that offers a savoury pudding.
Yes, I know. GUTTED. Please, learn from our mistakes. Book in. Take your time. Do not book anything else in your diary.
Meantime, I’m just going to have to book in again.
I need pudding.
