St John (British) – London, England (8.5/10)
Jan 23rd, 2009 by admin
Background:
St John in Farringdon has been bouncing on and off my restaurant wishlist for many years. I finally had the opportunity to dine there on Tuesday, when wine blogger Rob McIntosh from Wine Conversation and Thirst for Rioja invited fellow food bloggers Niamh, Chris, Helen, Lizzie and I to dinner to meet Rafael Vivanco, winemaker and owner of Bodegas Dinastia Vivanco, and Hugo Urquiza, also from the winery. An added bonus was that St John had just been awarded its first Michelin star.
A truly enjoyable evening in the private dining room followed, with far too much free-flowing wine and food. I had initially been hesitant to accept Rob’s invitation, as I drink very little these days and my knowledge of wine is practically non-existent. However, Rob, Rafael and Hugo explained everything so clearly that even I managed to absorb some of the information. I also learnt more about Dinastia Vivanco, a family-run business, started by Rafael’s grandfather. Rafael’s passion for wine soon rubbed off and before long, I had four different glasses lined up in a row in front of me!
We started with a white Rioja, the Vivanco Blanco 2007, which apparently is very unusual as most wines from the region are red (although there is also a rosé Vivanco). Rob talked at length about the importance of acidity in balancing out the fattiness in a meat dish, which made a lot of sense to me. Three different reds followed, but I’m ashamed to say that the first and second (Vivanco Rioja Crianza 2005 and Vivanco Rioja Reserva 2001) blurred into one for me. I have to say I loved the last one though, the special Colección Vivanco Rioja 4 Varietales 2005. Please read Rob’s account of the evening to learn more about the technical details of each wine. Talking so much about wine is already a first for me, but I hope next time I’m in a restaurant, I’ll study the wine list with more interest!
Back to more familiar territory – food.
Menu:
As you probably know, St John is famous for its ‘nose to tail’ menu, utilising all parts of the animal. However, there are a surprising number of options for those not so keen on this, or eating meat in general. Out of nine starters, only three contained meat, four were seafood-based and two vegetarian. There were nine mains, including one vegetarian and two fish options. But we were naturally there for the meat. On Tuesday, there was woodcock, roast kid, chitterlings, ox heart, teal and beef and kidney pie (for two).
Between the eight of us, we must have sampled over half the menu. I felt obliged to try the signature starter of roast bone marrow and parsley salad, followed by roast kid, white beans and kale. These were the most popular choices, but Lizzie had pig’s head followed by chitterlings, Niamh and Rob shared the massive beef and kidney pie and Chris had the woodcock. Photos of these dishes with accompanying descriptions will almost certainly be on their blogs, as the five of us were clicking away throughout the meal.
I was surprised that I liked the roast bone marrow quite as much as I did. Our waiter instructed us to use the long metal pick, scoop the marrow out onto the toast, add some coarse salt and top with the parsley and caper salad. It was a messy affair, with marrow running down my fingers, but the combination of flavours was delicious. After this, the roast kid seemed quite ordinary in comparison. It was served medium-rare and was very tender, but not as strong-tasting as goat or lamb. I haven’t seen kid on other restaurant menus, which is why I chose it. I still prefer lamb to kid though.
Pudding was a struggle. I was already feeling quite giddy from the enormous intake of protein and wine, neither of which I’m accustomed to these days, and thought I could just about manage the stem ginger ice cream, which I shared with Rafael. He thought it was interesting, as ginger isn’t that common an ingredient in Spain. The others were far more courageous, with Helen choosing the Eccles cake & Lancashire Cheese, Lizzie the rhubarb jelly and shortbread (I thought I’d show you her pudding as it was more interesting visually than three scoops of ice cream) and Niamh and Chris sharing the bread pudding and butterscotch sauce. The pudding sizes at St John are substantial, as are the starters and mains, so be warned.
The verdict:
I’m very glad to have finally dined at St John. It’s relaxed and laid-back, and if you’re part of a large group, the private dining room is a lovely space (according to the restaurant, it seats up to 18 people). Don’t worry if you’re not meat fanatics like us. You can definitely still enjoy an excellent meal here, even if you’re vegetarian!
10 – Perfection, 9.5 – Sensational, 9 – Outstanding, 8.5 – Superb,
8 – Excellent, 7.5 – Very Good, 7 - Good, 6.5 - Above Average, 6 – Average
All the London restaurant reviews on World Foodie Guide
Contact details:
St John
26 St John Street
London EC1M 4AY
Tel: 020 7251 0848
www.stjohnrestaurant.com
Bodegas Dinastia Vivanco
Carretera Nacional 232
26330
Briones – La Rioja
Spain
infobodega@dinastiavivanco.es
www.dinastiavivanco.com
Tel: +34 941 322 332
Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide
That kid is raw.
Great round up and I’m glad I convinced you to come along – wine is really not threatening … and we always drink responsibly.
I’ll put something up soon about the wines (been running around too much over the last few days) on my blog and leave the food reviews to you experts
Thanks so much for coming along, we had lots of fun.
Watch out for potential foodie blogger trip to Rioja plans in the near future
Gosh it makes me feel full all over again just looking at it! It was a delicious meal wasn’t it? I wasn’t as amazed by the marrow as I thought I would be, although it was delicious – don’t get me wrong! I think the Eccles cake and Lancashire cheese was a step too far though, even for me!
Nice post, Helen.
I wish I had had the kid! I just realised that I was the sharer! Sharing both main and dessert. I think I just like it when my food looks bigger
Lovely lovely, meal and fabulous wines. A wonderful evening. I’ll be writing my thoughts up soon.
It all looks great. I am dying to go to St. John. One day!
I’m really keen to try some kid. And am looking forward to reading about the pig head and the woodcock elsewhere.
Helen’s Eccles Cake was indeed, MAMMOTH! I’m still surprised by it. Great review – it was a meat fest and a half. I’d love to go back, especially for the whole pig.
Looks a greee-att meal! It’s still in the world top 50 isnt it? I need to go!
Not too big a fan of the marrow – but it seems like these guys know what they’re doing!
I need to eat there
Hi Helen!
Wonderful place and the wine sounds excellent a reserve 2004/5 Rioja …4 varietals a good blend!!
The dessert area, a ginger ice cream is not very common, I’ve never tried, worth to see how result someday
Cheers!
Gera
Fat Les – it was just on the cusp, but because it was so tender, it tasted fine. What was raw was the meat on the bone of my roast pork chop at Bocca di Lupo.
Rob – thank you again for the invite and I look forward to reading more about the wines we drank, so that I can pass it on. Possible foodie blogger trip to Rioja? It’s in the diary!
Helen – I was proud that I managed to eat the bone marrow, as I wasn’t sure if I’d like it. I was amazed by your valiant attempt to eat your Eccles cake and cheese – it was huge!
Niamh – you really were the sharer for two courses! It was a lovely dinner and I can’t wait to see your photos and post.
Jonathan – you’d love it and it would be great for your blog. Woodcock you’ll find on Chris’ blog and pig’s head on Lizzie’s!
Lizzie – great idea! Would love to have the suckling pig. Was it Rafael who described how it was served between several people, so that someone got an ear and the head, and someone got the tail? My memory of the evening is a bit fuzzy.
Kang – I am sure you’d like the food. Maybe one day I’ll compile my top 50, once I’ve eaten my way around the world…
Gera – hello! Dinastia Vivanco will be pleased to hear your comments on the wine! Why don’t you try and make the stem ginger ice cream and let me know what you think? There must be loads of recipes online.
Helen Yuet Ling
hey, helen! great post. not sure if you got a chance to check out our post on st. john from a few months ago. if you’re interested (most of our stuff, though, takes listening to on a podcast): http://www.weareneverfull.com/eating-nose-to-tail-in-london-a-podcast/
i had the marrow and the mutton which was fabulous. we really enjoyed our 3 hour lunch at st. john. in fact, we were even luckier when we were able to chat w/ fergus who had been at the bar sipping champagne earlier (ahhh, what a life). it was delicious, simple and a really relaxing way to spend a tuesday afternoon.
nice pics on the food. the problem with st. Johns is that their cooking is often underwhelming – by that I mean it is stuff you can whip up at home without needing half a brain. For example their signature dish of bone marrow -> buy bone marrow from market -> season -> chuck in oven -> eat. I find that hard to justify when paying for my own meal.
we are never full – lucky you chatting with Fergus. Watched an interesting programme with him and Jeremy Lee called Could You Eat An Elephant, in which they travel around the world trying different ‘taboo’ things. They weren’t too successful! I’ll have to check out your podcasts one day, thanks for the link!
gen.u.ine.ness – thanks. I kind of agree with you, and there are things I never order in restaurants if I can have the same or better at home. But I can’t really have meat at home unless the vegetarian husband is away. So that’s why I eat a lot of meat when I go to restaurants!
Helen Yuet Ling
Wow – I love your website. Great food photography as well as the write up to go with it.
I will make sure I get to St Johns in the next few months as I have been meaning to try the place for over a year! How were the chitterlings? I am intrigued.
Laura
lol… why did you marry a vegie husband in the first place??
psst… silently brainwash him (if you haven’t been doing so already…)
Laura Zucchetti – thanks for the compliment! I didn’t have the chitterlings so you’ll have to read Lizzie’s review to find out…
gen.u.ine.ness – he can’t be brainwashed unfortunately. But the other day I was allowed to cook my steaks with him present (teaching me how to fry them actually!). I’ve never cooked meat in our house until 2 weeks ago, so it’s a huge step. Separate cooking utensils of course!
Helen Yuet Ling