The Grill
Back at the Stirling Hotel, where I was a few days ago. Often, when there are two restaurants in one hotel, one will be subtly more-salubriously named than the other.
I had assumed that The Bistro was the fancier one, but it isn't.
This place is like a fancy house, and my seat is like a throne. Definitely the fanciest seating in The Feed Report history.
Rack, black olive, rosemary shortbread, snake bean, spinach, horseradish.
The cup of froth is actually the horseradish. I'm used to horseradish being very strong, but this froth is extremely weak. Even when I dunk a piece of lamb in there, there's no horseradish taste—just a weird froth texture.
The lamb itself, however, is very tasty. It's slightly on the chewy side, but I'm happy to chew on it. The soily olive bits add a nice tangy flavour.
The rosemary shortbreads don't have any rosemary taste, and are clearly stow-always from someone else's dessert. I'm no expert on foods, but I'm pretty sure a rack of lamb shouldn't be accompanied by light, crispy biscuits. However, the shortbreads are sweet and airy.
Caramel, feuilletine crunch, honey jelly, honey milk chocolate ganache.
The panna cotta has a honey taste that's a bit too strong. Imagine just eating a spoonful of honey. It's that kind of overly strong honey taste. However, when mixed with other components, this taste is more muted.
There are a lot of bits here. The caramels and chocolates are all nice, but the little toffee pebbles are jarring, especially when studded into the soft panna cotta. Toffee in desserts is almost never a good idea, in my opinion.
The big clear honey-flavoured jellies have a bit of the same strong honey taste.