Pearl is Jun Tanaka’s modern French restaurant. Jun, who bears a passing resemblance to my brother (it could be the long hair!), has been heading up this restaurant since June 2004. The restaurant is located in Holborn in the Renaissance London Chancery Court, a luxury hotel. It’s a very elegant location with sensuous designs, lots of pearl! The best thing about it was that everyone’s speaking volume was very muted so we didn’t have to shout over each other to be heard. Additionally I like how they had set up the room so that at the two people tables around the edges the chairs were faced inwards so that no one had their back to the rest of the room. Jenny’s seat was slightly facing towards the kitchen and we were both excited to see Jun moving in and out of it. Wonder if he prepared any of our dishes tonight?

We dined off the set menu deal (3 courses for £37.50 plus cocktail). On the set menu there were three starters, three mains and three desserts (though one was for cheese at an additional £10.). Both starters and mains gave a choice of a fish, meat (pork ) and vegetarian options. Despite having three options both Jenny and I went for the same starter and mains only differing when we got to our desserts.

First up whilst we were deciding on the menu and waiting for our cocktails was a pre pre amuse bouche with four little treats: a sort of scallop carpaccio, cherry tomato oozing with goat’s cheese, a miniature black pudding and a mushroom risotto crumbed and fried. Cute and unexpected!

Our cocktails were quite strong. As usual my “allergy” decided to make an appearance and I must have been red enough that my waiter expressed his concern for me not once but several times despite the fact I reassured him that I was fine. He even offered to change the dessert options to a non-alcoholic dish!

The amuse bouche of golden raisin puree, celeriac foam, almonds and parmesan was tasty. I commented to Jenny that I was a bit over amuse bouches that were basically foams or veloutes. What a snob! Ha ha! But its so rare that the amuse bouche doesn’t consist of foam of some sort. I guess it’s a vehicle which allows for intense flavour to be infused in a very small package.

Our starter was served very quickly after – Pollock Brandade with Caramelised Squid Crisp, Quail Eggs and Parsley Vinaigrette. It was a very attractive dish especially when placed on the centre of the table where a light was glowing from below. Eating experience-wise the squid was surprisingly chewy but the pollock was moist and strong flavoured. My favourite part of the dish was the quail eggs – which were breaded and fried.

Roast Fillet of Pork with Black Pudding, Choucroute and Smoked Mash Potato was served for our mains. We hadn’t realized what Choucroute actually was but it turned out to be a couple of sauerkraut with different varieties of sausages. Jenny didn’t like the sausages so I got to benefit. Heh heh. The pork itself was very well cooked (tender and well seasoned) and the ring of black pudding around it was surprisingly effective. The smokiness in the mash potato, however, wasn’t very identifiable. The presentation of the plate was not as pretty as our starter as it seemed like a big ole mess of sauces, meats and veg thrown onto the plate!

Which takes us to our very pretty desserts! After a pre-dessert of coconut couscous (we’re not sure if we misunderstood our waiter as it seemed mostly like a rice pudding), mango and passion fruit we moved on to Tiramisu (Mascarpone, Coffee, Amaretto Ice Cream) for Jenny and Prune (Poached Prune and Almond Crumble Almond, Ice Cream). Jenny’s Tiramisu was nothing I’ve seen before with the Tiramisu wrapped in a sheet of caramelised sugar and my dessert was presented on a rather long plate which very nearly didn’t fit on the table – it was an awkward fit at any rate. I liked it though actually breaking down what was going on on the plate the components were rather simple. I did particular like the little cake.

Service tonight was fairly decent except for the waiter who kept checking up on me and my alcohol tolerance (it did get a little annoying despite his best intentions) and he also happened to be the guy who was supposed to top of our water which I had to ask for and which he took over ten minutes to address. Otherwise all our dishes were explained well which is what I would expect from a good restaurant. Food did come out very quickly though so we were in and out in just under 90 minutes.

Comparatively speaking with restaurants in the same or similar league the deal we had tonight was a little on the pricey side so not the best value for money meal. Still, overall the experience was pretty good and its always a plus when you actually know the chef the restaurant is attached to is actually in the kitchen!