Roganic-The 14thefrog review.

If you want to go to Roganic, then book ahead because it's about as big as your front room if you've got a big house, or your back garden if you haven't. My best guess is that they'd seat about 28 people top whack, so the "fully booked" sign will be going up most nights long before service.

Getting there is easy enough, get into London and get a taxi. It's on Blandford St and while I wouldn't like to have to get there again for a bet, it seems to be around the back of Oxford St somewhere. If you walk it, keep your eyes peeled because the restaurant is kind of a grey colour with smoked up windows, you'll miss it in a blink or if your partner is waffling on about something.

Once you get inside, it's a bit minimalist but nice enough. All the fellas waiting on are nice lads who know their onions, led by the excellent Jon Cannon (@jonjcannon). The lovely Asian looking girl who does the wine, Sandia Chang is right on it too. All in all you get the impression you're in safe hands when you're asking questions about the food and wine, and I would describe the service as attentive but not stuffy and OTT. It's the kind of place where they do put their free hand behind their backs while they're pouring your wine, but you can ask the waiter which football team he supports as well.

As far as the food goes, we kicked off with an amuse bouche (mini free starter) which for the life of me I can't remember what it was. The waiter did explain it, and it was layers of this and that on a kind of black wafer. Suffice to say it was lovely, as was this kind of grape and cider cocktail thingie they gave us as a birthday drink. It had a frozen grape in it, and was dispensed from like a soda syphon thing.

The food proper opened up with a poached lambs tongue dish in a wee bowl which was like a cross between a jelly and a soup. This was absolutely sensational and really set the tone. Next up was a ducks egg (a "Braddock white" by all accounts) which was kind of gently fried till barely done. They lopped off the white bits and served it on kind of toasted barley. Once more it was great, and though a miniscule portion, just about right.

There were eight more courses so I won't bore you by going on about all of them. Special mention though for a smoked Ling dish which was great (and very smokey), a bit of veal poached in buttermilk which genuinely melted in the mouth, some unbelieveable skate belly and a languostine which was so good you couldn't help but burst out laughing while you were chomping it. Half the time you haven't got a clue what you are actually eating, there's little taste explosions dotted around the plate like little culinary IED's as you pick your way through it.

For desserts we had a chocolatey one and a yogurty one as I recall which were great, particularly the chocolate. I should also mention some little bread rolls about the size of snooker balls which were fab, and the butter which they slap on the back of a rock in the middle of your table (no really they do), which you end up eating too much of. We also completely pigged out and had a cheese course as well, along with these little pickled pear thingies and some homemade chutney.

As far as wine is concerned, we put ourselves in the capable hands of the aforementioned wine waitress (@Watermelonchang) and she was flippin brilliant. We tasted lots of different wines, none of which I had ever heard of to be totally honest, but they ranged from the "I'm not too sure about that one" to the "ooh yeah that is gorgeous". All in all though they really added to the experience.

The bill came to £276 for two, but when you consider the ten course menu is 80 quid each, we had cheese as well for two and more wine than you could shake a stick at I thought it was good value. My only gripe was the addition of service charge, not that it wasn't deserved because it most definately was, but just because I like to decide how much myself ta.

All In all though it was a wonderful experience, gastronomic alchemy with even things like a bit of beetroot causing you to close your eyes and groan in cullinary pleasure. The chef Ben Spalding (@Benspalding1) is only a young bloke, but he is obviously out of the very top drawer. We couldn't afford to go every week, but on special occasions I'd definately reccommend it to anyone. It's open for two years, and you should make sure you go at least once.

Roganic is bloody good, go.