Restaurant Review: TEN

I make no secret of my love for the Violet Hour – on his first visit, Mr GFB fell a little in love with the decor and pictures on the wall (someone remind me to ask Dan where he got them?).

But for all this and despite friends raving about how fabulous it was, we still hadn’t been to their pop up restaurant, TEN. Until Wednesday this week, when we finally made it. It’s so popular that this time they had to put on two nights as the first sold out back in June.

It’s no wonder it’s so popular – 5 courses and a flight of 3 matched cocktails, all for £35 each. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

 

Seated downstairs next to the bar (where else would you put me?) we had a perfect view of each course as it was brought up from the kitchen, as well as the cocktails being prepared. Spotting a bottle of Prosecco, I knew the first one was going to be special.

 

And it was. Chase the Rabbit, Chase Marmalade vodka, lemon, Benedictine and topped with Prosecco. This was matched with rabbit and fig terrine with glazed fig, aged balsamic and croutons.

 

The cocktail was refreshing, kept dry by the prosecco and lightly bitter by the vodka, but a lovely match for the rich rabbit and sweet balsamic. The fig was rich and heady and my only teeny grumble was that the rocket was a bit tired. But it didn’t matter because there were enough croutons to go with the terrine. Sorry, it’s a pet hate, having to eat half or two thirds of it with a fork. I want the contrast between it and the bread or toast. Chef, thank you.

 

Onto our second course and I spotted the glasses lined up with glee. The Portobello Garden Party – Portobello Road gin, apple juice, elderflower and lime mingled to create a light floral gin cocktail. Mr GFB commented that it was one of those delightfully dangerous cocktails that you could drink an awful lot of and not realise. It’s true, it’s so fruity, you could easily forget how many you’d had until you tried to stand up.

 

Alongside this, we had one of my favourite courses of the night, gazpacho soup, light and cool, with the most gorgeously tender squid. My god this was good. I could cut the squid with a spoon it was so tender.

 

Onto our main and a glass of wine. Merlot and Malbec respectively in hand, this was my other favourite course, ox cheek cooked in cherry beer with panko potato. I love ox cheeks, they need time, but when done right the results are spectacular and this was exactly that.

 

Tender, sticky beef, rich stock, you could still taste the cherry beer in each mouthful. And then, oh yes, deep fried mashed potato. Soft buttery balls of mash, coated in breadcrumbs and deep fried.

Refraining from licking the plate clean and sipping my wine instead, we let our tummies relax whilst awaiting our pre-dessert. And this is where Mr GFB and I disagreed.

 

I love beetroot. Really love it. I pickle some to the family recipe each year. Mr GFB doesn’t like it. However, he loved the beetroot granita with the fennel seed crackers. I liked it, but  could have done with a bit less sugar. That said, the fennel crackers were fantastic and worked very well with it.

 

Onto dessert and I’m not the biggest fan of chocolate desserts. I find them overly heavy and tend to kill the rest of the meal. With chocolate stout cake, vanilla ice cream and popcorn on the menu served alongside a cocktail with Kraken dark rum, chocolate liqueur and peanut butter syrup I worried I was in trouble.

I wasn’t. The cake was much lighter than I expected and though the sauce with it was heavy, there wasn’t too much, and the popcorn added a gorgeous nuttiness that went perfectly with the cocktail. That itself was deep in flavour, the peanut butter came through really well, but light in texture, not overly rich or aggressive.

Overall? I can see why this does so well. It’s excellent value for money, the food is great, the cocktails are gorgeous. What other excuse do you need to head to Burton Road?