Young Turks. The Clove Club. I’ve written about them before, saying how you should pay attention and take them on, if you can. Read my previous post on them here, if you missed/ignored it last time.
So I won’t write too much about them today. Except to say that they’re at it again, producing awesome food and drink for as good a value as you can get in the capital. Last time it was in an understated and cool loft apartment. This time they’re dishing up at the Wharf in a pseudo 1980’s office environment.
I was sat at ‘the boardroom’ sharing a table with some high flying and massively important Directors and NEDs (aka 3 friends and 4 very amiable strangers).
We ate a colourful and ultimately perfect heritage tomato salad with goats milk and marjoram, lemon sole with fennel and incredibly mushroomy mushrooms, and loganberries and ewes milk yoghurt for dessert. Before we started there was brilliant bread and the yellowest butter you’ve ever seen, Indian salted cucumbers which exploded as you ate them, perfect pea pods and buttermilk chicken popcorn. Somewhere around coffee time we were handed brioche buns filled with coffee ice cream. And in the midst of it all, I remember (and will remember this the longest) eating the most fantastic apple wood smoked and charred fore rib of beef. Which was unbelievably good. Like, ‘never want the dish to end’ kind of level.
Wine was ace, service was spot on, and despite being in a disused office building, the atmosphere was great. I think the Loft Project meal just edges it, but only by a whisker; all in all, it’s another success.
They’re ‘in residence’ for 7 or 8 days more and, as I write, not completely sold out. Slick your hair back, button your collar down, swap your iphone for a brick and go. Gordon Gekko and Patrick Bateman would trade their finest platinum business card for such an opportunity.
Young Turks at the Wharf in 3 words
Triple A rated.
The Bill
£45 for 4 courses, though the bread, pre food nibbles and ice cream buns made it feel like way more. Great value booze too. Buy, buy, buy.
www.youngturks.co – www.thecloveclub.com
25 June to 3 July at Heron Quay, Canary Wharf – click here to book
Ach! Sorry to miss you last night! Would’ve loved to say hi. Such a lovely evening! Great pix here. Hope to meet you soon, perhaps at the next Young Turks gig, whatever they get up to next 🙂
Wen
Great pictures and sounds like a wonderful experience. I’m not going to get the chance to go this time round but can’t wait to see what they do next (and read about it on your blog!)
Sounds like an opportunity to good to miss. Thank you kindly for the heads up!
Oooh you had a slightly different menu to me (we had mackerel). GOD that tomato salad was good.
I was here with a group of friends for my girlfriends birthday on Saturday and I have to say that whilst your enthusiasm for the main course and desert is warranted, I do feel this review is over effusive. Every one of the eight of us left hungry! I understand the fine dining concept, but it somewhat undermines your ‘value for money’ claim when nobody goes away sated. That there was not a single side dish with the (admittedly excellent) main was a huge oversight. The tomato salad was pointless taradiddle. Sorry, but raw tomatoes and milk (wherever the milk came from) was a waste of everyone’s time. Overall, fantastic concept, venue, service and evening, with two brilliant courses, but certainly room for improvement.
Thanks for your comments everyone.
Iain, some interesting points and I thoroughly enjoyed your use of the word ‘taradiddle’, even though I’m not convinced it was used in the right context. I will, however, stand by my ‘value for money’ claim.
Firstly, I thought the meal was well weighted in terms of portion size. I suspect your fish dish was different and maybe less filling. But in any event I felt no need, for example, for any sides beyond what was presented with the beef; the dish was perfectly balanced with the meat as the star.
Secondly, and probably more importantly, my view is that the £45 was not paid simply for 4 courses, but for the whole package: for the quality pre-nibbles, coffee and ice-cream bun petit fours; for the service (did you tip?); for the atmosphere and the original setting; and, most significantly, for the innovation of the chefs. Dishes served with wit and which are ahead of or, at worst, completely on trend. We all felt the booze well priced too; and once that cost was amalgamated with the £45, it helped foster the perception of ‘value’ for our evening.
Did the tomato salad rock my world? No. But I didn’t say it did and a tomato salad never will. However, was it as visually stunning as a tomato salad can be and did you appreciate the different tastes and textures of the various types? Was it interesting to try the dish with milk, rather than the standard mozzarella fare?
A four course meal (including a tomato salad) with a coffee at, say, Carluccios will set you back £40 before drink. A £5 saving and perhaps a marginally more sated stomach. But in reality just a very average experience and a false economy.
Ed,
Glad you enjoyed taradiddle – in one context it means pretentious nonsense, so it was correctly employed above. I’m not sure there is anything else to say about the tomato salad but I note that t’s the most visually stunning one you have ever seen.
Whilst I’m sure what you say is correct,wit and trend don’t fill my stomach. I don’t have an issue with that, but it seems to me the night could more accurately be described as a showcase for both the chefs and the food rather than a meal.
Taking the package as whole, I would agree with you that it was good value – particularly the location and the final two courses.
I’m not berating the night, which was excellent in all the ways I mentioned above. I just wanted to share my experience, plus in dolling out such high praise, you either leave yourself nowhere to go when something truly amazing comes along, or your words carry less weight as they only ever dish out praise. There’s a tip.
It’s all opinions and prior experience though.
Peace x
Thanks again Iain. Maybe you’ve got a bigger stomach than me… and I very much agree with you that too much praise can undermine the value of an opinion; accordingly I try not to offer praise too freely. Reading my review of YT again, and on the basis of my evening, I think the wording is measured and appropriate! Best.