We are so lucky in Newbury to have some great restaurants like The Newbury and now this fantastic pop up. Different people operate different nights and tonight we went to Henry & Joes Dining Table @16BartholomewStreet. The food is first class on every night regardless of who is operating that night and it is such a coup for Newbury to have this facility. If it isnt used it will disappear but it looked good yesterday, full of wonderful laughing people including some foodie friends, Helen and Roger Cook who obviously have great taste in food.
This is what @16Bartholomewst looks like but that hairless man wont always be there
Joe is an amazing host, very welcoming and friendly but not in your face. If he ever opens another place I will follow him like a pet dog.
Typical chef, I managed a quick pick of Henry and the delightful server before he disappeared into the kitchen again. What was utterly spectacular about him, besides his amazing cooking, was that he gave me a bag full of wild garlic! How lovely x. He also has a brilliant approach to food, combining things that you think wouldn’t work but totally do and make up more than the sum of the parts.
Now my delicious lovely reader, you know that I am not a pudding person so instead I asked for every savoury course and offered to pay the extra. I still got a taste of Tony’s carrot cake so YEAH job well done.
Home bade bread with the most luscious sea salted butter, was it whipped?
Amuse bouche of poppy seed crackers, beetroot and a buttermilk purée. Also crab beignet with apple sauce, what a great combination. Running through this whole menu is the interesting combinations which they do so well in a similar way to James Mansfield who runs on other nights at this location.
Oh my, this was a wild garlic risotto with lamb sweetbreads and a samphire pesto. The risotto was astounding particularly paired with the really crunchy yet moist sweetbreads. Didn’t pick up much of the samphire but was concentrating so much on the risotto.
How flipping wonderful is this, hand caught scallops cooked to perfection as in 5 seconds underdone and stunningly textured. This came with pickled cucumber, yum, yuzu, apple and you can see on the outside the hazelnuts. Perfect
Line caught cod fillet, wild garlic which had been chiffonaded (is that a word), butter nut squash, spicy chorizo from Vicars and wow, clam butter
Confit leg of lamb, balsamic potato, smoked beetroot, asparagus and sorrel. The lamb had (I think) been water-bathed and was so tender. I loved the smokiness of the beetroots, not too smoky but a great flavour to add to the dish
Tony’s carrot cake, I don’t eat puddings but hells bells if I did this is the one I would eat. Carrot cake is often a kind of damp lump with a ton of cream cheese vomited on top, this was so different. The taste was amazing, the texture was looking like it was going to be dry but it wasnt, it was chewy and delicious and came with buttermilk, cardamom ice cream (genius) and lemon caramel.
Thank you my lovely Henry & Joes for the wild garlic, see how much it made! I love the atmosphere of your place, the friendliness, the professionalism without pomposity and the amazing quality of the food.