Friday was my only source of blogspiration from the weekend. I knew from the moment I left work that it was going to get a bit out of hand due to it being a birthday and leaving celebration for my friend who had been visiting for a few weeks but was now back off to his bar in Thailand.
Earlier in the day I'd noticed a 25% discount offer on Twitter for one of my favourite Reading restaurants LSQ2 and thought there really could be no better way to start out than to have a tummy full of delicious grub so a table for two was booked for 7:30pm.
With me was a friend who is not normally known for his adventure with food so I was interested to know what he thought of the place. The menu at LSQ2 is one of fusion so for him some of the combinations may have seemed a bit exotic or perhaps even a little obscure.
I started with the Romsey Free Range Duck Egg (£8.95). This is served up with some white asparagus, air dried ham and some wonderful little wild mushrooms. The egg was cooked perfectly with a touch of crispiness around the edges and the texture those mushrooms gave was like little explosions going off in the mouth. I especially liked the enokitake mushrooms, well that's what I think they were!
My friend opted for a starter version of the Hot Scotch Egg (£3.50) which came cut in half to reveal the runny yolk and juicy Meon Valley pork casing. It looked vibrant on the plate as most dishes here do and I think the orange pumpkin ketchup in contrast to the white plate and golden yolk colour gave it a really nice first impression which he said carried on through the eating of the dish.
We'd (read I'd) decided that best for drinks would be a bottle of white wine and as they'd run out of the Sauvignon Blanc that I usually have we instead chose the Saam Chenin Blanc, 2010, South Africa (£21.00) which had lots of fruit and nice aromatics but was still fairly light to drink and certainly complimented my starter.
For main course I fancied something fishy so I went for the Roasted Cornish Monkfish (£14.50). The Monkfish comes wrapped in panchetta which keeps it as moist as you could hope for and it's served inside a very light Yorkshire pudding. The cider, chorizo and caper sauce was quite rich but very tasty and packed with flavour.
All classic combinations but my only gripe would be with the Yorkshire pudding. It was so incredibly light which made me question why it was actually there. Sure it looked nice and did give a slight bit of crunch but I couldn't help but think that a piece of fried bread underneath the monkfish (Steak Rossini style) might have been a bit better because it would have made the fish more of the centrepiece rather that the Yorkshire pud..............was a fantastic piece of delicate cooking though, take nothing away from that.
My fellow diner went for the Isle of Wight Lamb Two Ways (14.95) again I think he thought he was playing it safe and was surprised when the dish actually came out because again it looked very vibrant and was well presented. Judging by the "mmmm's" and "ooooh's" I'm guessing it was tasty too. He did have to ask me what the ravioli was, I'm sure he was expecting something you'd get out of a tin and not a 10cm disc sized parcel :-)
We couldn't hang around for dessert as there was some serious drinking to do elsewhere but it was pretty much a perfect start to the evening. It was the first time my friend had been to the restaurant and I'm absolutely certain he'll go again.
Not that my last experience was all that bad but I did mark it down on the finer points to give it a very good 6 out of 10. This time however I'd happily give it and extra 2 points to make it a very good 8 out of 10........high marks indeed for me and I'm looking forward to the restaurant that can give me my first ever 9 out of 10.
Like I say the rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful. In hindsight it probably wasn't a great idea to go out on Friday because my right leg was very sore after bashing it during a cricket match. I'm currently having to wear flip flops to work because shoes and socks are a no go. I think I twisted my ankle, bashed my calf and my shin all at the same time.....
Oh well, sport hurts and effort is required.
Going to start experimenting with the starter for my July menu this evening so I'll let you know how that goes..
Toodlepip xxx
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