<a target="_blank" href="https://trivetrestaurant.co.uk/">Trivet –
London</a>

36 Snowfields

Bermondsey

London SE1 3SU

(Nearest Tube/train station is London
Bridge)&nbsp;

BY NEAL MARTIN | DECEMBER 13, 2019&nbsp;The Food:

Scallops
with barbucine, sesame, pomegranate seeds and Buddha’s hand

Chicken
with vinegar sauce, kale, roasted onions and bergamot seeds

Roasted
pigeon with persimmon and chervil root

Hokkaido
potato mille-feuille with sake and white chocolate mousse and butter and sake
gelato

Chestnut
Mont Blanc, bergamot and vanilla

The Wines:<table>
 <tbody><tr>
 <td>2017 Artemis Karamolegos Winery Santorini
 Assyrtiko</td>
 <td class="wysiwyg-text-align-right">92</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>2016 Arcadia Winery Odrycia
 Narince</td>
 <td class="wysiwyg-text-align-right">90</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>2016 Kalecik Karasi
 Kavaklidere Prestige</td>
 <td class="wysiwyg-text-align-right">86</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>2011 Domaine Tatsis Goumenissa</td>
 <td class="wysiwyg-text-align-right">89</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>2017 Jean-Marc Grussaute Costat Darrèr Jurançon “Les Grains des Copains”&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
 <td class="wysiwyg-text-align-right">90</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>NV Tedorigawa Yamahai Junmai
 (Sake)</td>
 <td class="wysiwyg-text-align-right">89</td>
 </tr></tbody></table>

Striving
to give readers the lowdown on London’s hottest restaurant openings, yours
truly visited Trivet exactly a month and a day after it opened. (I always allow
a new restaurant to settle down and tackle any teething problems before casting
judgment.) Trivet has serious credentials; it’s the first restaurant by two
alumni of The Fat Duck, where Jonny Lake was head chef for 12 years and Isa Bal
MS the highly regarded head sommelier. There are parallels with another
destination restaurant, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.antoniogalloni.com/articles/vinous-table-core-by-clare-smyth-london-united-kingdom-jan-2019">Clare Smyth’s Core</a>, in terms of a chef leaving the shadow of a
high-profile name and striking out on their own. Gordon Ramsay’s protégé
succeeded in winning two Michelin stars for Core just a year after opening. Does
Trivet covet the same ambitions?<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1576269374786-trivet_isa_bal.jpg"> 

Co-proprietor Isa Bal MS, former head
sommelier at The Fat Duck

Named
after the iron plate that you rest hot pots and pans upon, Trivet is located a
couple of minutes’ walk from London Bridge station. It’s tucked away out of
sight, and consequently I had to follow Google Maps until I was virtually
outside the front door. The interior decor follows similar lines to that of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.vinous.com/articles/vinous-table-hide-london-uk-jun-2018">Hide</a>: spotlessly clean,
wood as smooth as a baby’s bottom, that Nordic aesthetic that’s so in vogue. The
restaurant is partitioned so that one side accommodates mustard-colored
banquettes and opens only in the evenings. A partially open kitchen lends
atmospherics and allows diners to see firsthand the fastidious preparation of
each plate. There is also a chichi bar at the entrance. As an aside, Bal told
me that they have introduced a separate bar menu. You could argue that the
decor lacks a little warmth and coziness and might not be the first choice for,
say, a couple seeking an intimate romantic dinner.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1576269400964-trivet_plating.jpg"> 

Plating in the open kitchen

There
is no set lunch (an oversight that I think should be addressed to increase
bookings during the day) nor any set tasting menu. While Trivet’s menu is
limited, the wine list comes in a hefty 60-page leather-bound tome containing
an eclectic and assiduously chosen 350 wines. It takes the novel approach of corralling
wines in chronological order of when the respective countries began to make
wine, all the way back to 6000 BC. It also means there are good selections from
Greece, Turkey (Bal’s country of birth), Armenia, Syria and Eastern European
countries, inter alia, not to mention a fair few Japanese sakes. The selection
from classic regions, most notably Bordeaux, is small by comparison. Bal told
me that he does&nbsp;plan to expand this
in the future, though frankly I am quite content with the current gallimaufry
of bottles from all corners of the world. One small feature I appreciated is a legend
indicating not just the wines available by the glass, but natural and
biodynamic wines and “funky” wines with the obligatory sketch of a bearded dude.

But we’ll
get to the wine later. How about the food? Like The Fat Duck, does it involve
listening to waves lapping on a shore on an iPod as we devour a miniature
beach? Err... no.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1576269418363-trivet_chicken_copy.jpg"> Chicken with vinegar sauce, kale and roasted onions

The
menu itself is limited to five starters, five mains and five desserts. After a
gooey warm sourdough from Devon with cube of cultured butter, I could not
resist the scallops with barbucine and sesame, seasoned with Buddha’s hand, an
odd-looking yellow Asian fruit that does resemble a deformed hand and tastes
like the second cousin twice removed of Japanese yuzu. The scallops, from the
Orkney Isles, were more thinly sliced than you might find elsewhere and displayed
a perfect soft consistency, their natural sweetness offset by the bitterness
imparted by the barbucine, partially charred and lending a smoky, ashy aroma.
This was an outstanding starter.

We ordered
two mains. My chicken with vinegar sauce, kale, roasted onions, puréed potato,
button turnips and pomegranate seeds was devilishly simple but utterly
delicious. The red wine vinegar reduction was the guiding hand and discreetly lent
a slightly acrid bite to the perfectly cooked chicken, while the kale was not
too strong or bitter.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1576269433921-trivet_pigeon.jpg"> 

Perfectly cooked pigeon served with
persimmon and chervil root

The sliced
roasted pigeon was pink and tender, having been marinated overnight in milk and
yogurt. It partnered beautifully with the persimmon, given lift by the earthy
chervil root. This was a stunning combination and outshone the chicken.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1576269450876-trivet_hokkaido_potato_copy.jpg"> The Hokkaido potato mille-feuille has already become a celebrity dish

The
star of the show might well be the already Insta-famous Hokkaido potato mille-feuille with sake and white chocolate mousse and butter and sake gelato. One restaurant
review claimed that this is so popular it occasionally sells out, though Bal refuted
this. You cannot visit Trivet without sampling this dessert. Bal told me that
he was traveling with Lake through Japan a few months ago. They stopped at a Sapporo
izakaya&nbsp;(a kind of informal restaurant) and chanced upon their
indigenous small, thick-skinned potato loaded with butter. Bal remarked how
they hadn’t really come across any potato dishes during their trip, and set
about incorporating it into a dessert. The result is very individual and has
divided restaurant critics, but I loved it. For a start, using potato for the mille–feuille means that is it not loaded with sweetness and/or calories. The trick was to
partner it with a brilliant sake and white chocolate mousse that is to die for.

On the
other side of the table came a chestnut Mont Blanc flavored with bergamot and
vanilla. This was less adventurous than the mille-feuille but no less
delicious, offering perfect consistency and sweetness. <img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1576269464562-trivet_mont_blanc.jpg"> 

Chestnut Mont Blanc, bergamot and vanillaApropos
of the fermented grape juice, rather than opting for a full bottle at lunch, we
exploited the fecund list of wines available by the glass. Usually I avoid this,
because too many establishments pour fatigued wines from bottles opened God
knows when. Isa Bal would never allow this. The wines were as fresh as a daisy,
equivalent to how they would taste if consumed from unopened bottles. This meant
we could be adventurous in our choices, and so I focused on Greece and Turkey
for both white and red.

The 2017 Santorini Assyrtiko from the Artemis Karamolegos Winery was a
revelation. Having come off the back of tasting reams of Burgundy whites, this
was a timely reminder that (a) you can find equivalents from less coveted
regions that offer just as much pleasure and (b) Assyrtiko is sorely underrated.
This was full of tension on the nose, quite Chardonnay-like in character,
surprisingly reserved at first but opening with aeration. The palate was fresh
and vibrant. maintaining superb tension from start to finish, and showing fleeting
traces of orange zest and white peach toward the finish. What an outstanding
Greek wine! The 2016 Odrycia Narince
from the Arcadia Winery in Thrace (Turkey)
made a fascinating counterpart. This was about texture: the aromatics were muted
at first, and the palate was deep and waxy, revealing a subtle flor-like note
toward the finish. But it changed in the glass, developing much more fruité&nbsp;on the nose (dried apricot,
kumquat and nectarine) while the palate gained more and more tension with
aeration. I have little experience of Turkish whites, but this was sublime.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1576269501110-trivet_wine_list.jpg"> The wine list – arranged by millennium

Moving
on to the reds, the 2016 Kavaklidere
Prestige from Kalecik Karasi in Central
Anatolia was open-knit and redolent of a Châteauneuf-du-Pape on the nose, which
was a bit soft and gamy, and just missing a little tension. The palate displayed
fine depth and plenty of flesh, coming across a little animally in personality,
with perhaps just a hint of brettanomyces&nbsp;on the finish. Nevertheless,
it was still enjoyable. The 2011
Goumenissa from Domaine Tatsis
was the better of the two. Despite eight years in bottle, this blend of
Xinomavro and Negoska sported a lovely blackberry, raspberry and cedar-scented
nose not unlike a Haut-Médoc of similar age. The palate was quite structured
and grippy at the beginning, but it softened with aeration, revealing fine
balance and sappy red fruit on the finish. This was very impressive.

I asked
Bal to recommend two sweet wines by the glass to accompany our desserts. The 2017 Costat Darrèr “Les Grains des Copains”
Jurançon from Jean Marc Grussaute,
a blend of 80% Petit Manseng and 20% Gros Manseng, was endowed with attractive
dried apricot, quince, lanolin and peach on a nose full of tension and focus,
while the palate was well balanced with a fine bead of acidity, Barsac-like in
some ways, and a fresh, persistent finish. The Japanese sake, Tedorigawa Yamahai Junmai, comes from
the Ishikawa region and was served at room temperature. It had a potent,
beautifully defined bouquet of grilled hazelnuts mixed with macadamia, dried
honey and a steaming bowl of rice. I was not quite as taken with the palate,
which was just a little too oxidative for my liking, but I appreciated the
tangy sharpness and the nutty/smoky finish.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1576269516113-trivet_red_wines.jpg"> The two reds from Turkey and Greece made interesting comparisons

Trivet
offers dishes that are not designed to show off or dazzle. They initially appear
simple, but when examined close up, they are much more nuanced than the rather
laconic menu suggests. Trivet clearly has ambitions, but unlike Core, its
approach is more straightforward, remaining faithful to the idea of a
three-course lunch or dinner without the frills and theatrics. There are no amuse-bouches or pre-desserts. I like that. I came away without feeling bloated and having
eaten healthily. There is a personal touch that I like at Trivet, in terms of
both Lake’s menu and Bal’s choice of wine. It’s their&nbsp;restaurant, and
they stamp their personalities and their experiences upon it. Let’s be frank – it
is not cheap. At £38.00 for the most expensive main course, you can easily run
up a two-ton bill without splashing out on the wine. Then again, there are so
many reasonably priced bottles that wine-lovers will come away satisfied and
feeling it is money well spent. The standard of service was exemplary, as you
would expect from two seasoned former employees of The Fat Duck. The ambiance&nbsp;is
casual, fitting with London’s move away from formal dining. Isa Bal candidly
remarked that they have no desire to rush things and their desire is to build
the restaurant gradually. The more I reflected upon Trivet, the more I liked
it. Moreover, I think it’s going to get even better. If you seek a restaurant
with cuisine from the top drawer, without fuss and ostentatiousness, and an
eclectic wine list not intent on gouging you for every penny, then Trivet comes
recommended. 

“Has
Heston Blumenthal been here yet?” I asked before leaving. “Not yet,” Isa
replied. When he does come, I am sure he will enjoy the experience.

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