I heard great things about the Glasshouse prior to our visit. Someone whose views I respect a lot told me it was "some of the best food currently on offer in London", so you can imagine how I felt as the black cab pulled up outside its glassy, housey frontage. We'd got in on a cancellation, and it was packed out when we arrived (I'd say about 50 covers at a guess) and buzzing away nicely. The clientelle was well heeled forty somethings in the main, and the restaurant clearly knows its market very well.
We got some water in (or someone else did, always seems a bit pointless to me) and perused the menu. It was quite reasonable given the promised quality, about forty five quid for a three course menu, or the taster menu at sixty quid or ninety five including a wine with each course (of which there were six I think). We decided to go for the taster menu as it contained most of the dishes our table of four were going to order anyway. Over the years I've found these menus have the added bonus of @NZSezGB not either nicking half of my food, or alternatively trying to stuff a bit of her wild mushroom ravioli into my mouth while I'm chewing on a sausage. The wine to match the food angle is always a winner too, so it was in for a penny in for a hundred quid and lets go the whole hog.
There are more waiters than you can shake a shiney shovel at here, and aside from one moment which I'll return to later and one young fella whose accent unwittingly made "you're welcome" sound remarkably like "you're a wanker" when he spoke to me, the service was good. There is a chance of course I'm doing the young fella with the accent a slight disservice here and he was more perceptive than I'm giving him credit for, in which case of course I take it back and commend him on his swift reading of human character.
We opened up with an amuse (their words not mine obviously) of cep and potato soup. This was dark, creamy and earthy. To be totally honest, I could have eaten a bucket full without any bother. Flippin lovely it was, and if you ever go it's on the main menu and you won't go far wrong at all ordering it. They kept bringing round bread and I kept taking it, the olive in particular is really good. I did consider dipping the bread in the soup (which is what I'd do at home) but not wanting to give the waiter with the accent any further encouragement, decided to leave well alone.
Next up was a smoked salmon terrine thing which was nice. I was disappointed that the horseradish blob which came with it didn't have more of a kick, but I suppose not everyone likes their nose to run while they're eating. The wine with this an Australian from Adelaide, and this was the only moment when the service fell down a bit. I asked the young lad who brought it out what the "story" was with the wine as I'd never heard of the grape variety (Fiano or something like that). He told me he'd ask the somellier, only to return with the bottle which he gave me to read the label off the back. Fair enough I guess but normally you get the wine gadgie over to tell you it's been filtered through nettle leaves and stored in Sicilian oak or something, off a grape that was originally grown in Sardinia. To be fair the somellier did come over for all the other wines and he was a smashing young bloke who knew his onions. Anyway the wine from Australia was good as I recall.
Next up we had the star of the show as far as the food was concerned. Kidneys (veal maybe?) with a little mustardy sauce, a bit of pastry and some tiny confit veggies (their description was better than mine but I'm going from memory here). This is/was a sensational dish, everyone at our table rated it number one in the tasting menu Olympics (you do these things after a few glasses of wine). This was top class cooking, perfect. I can't for the life of me remember what wine we had with this, but by now the wine bloke was in full flow and it all sounded and tasted good.
We had some cornish cod after this. A lovely little piece of fish with some sweet kind of sauce, some edamame beans and a bit of bok choy leaf about the size of a matchbox. The essence of this underrated vegetable is surely in the crunchy white bits though, and just giving you a bit of leaf seems about as pointless to me as deconstructing a brussel sprout. Overall however, this was a tasty little number. I'd have gone for a bigger lump of fish too, but that's probably just me. I think with this one we had some French wine.
The Duck breast next was lovely (I do like Duck). It came with fonadant potato and confit duck leg, but I wouldn't personally bother with the orangey stuff on top (candied orange zest maybe?). I found it overpowered it a bit, I'd have liked the dish without it on. The duck breast though was beautifully cooked it has to be said. With this we had some Portuguese red wine which I didn't like although I can't remember much more about it than that.
After that there was some sorbets which were good. My personal favourite was the blood orange one which was sharp enough to make you pull a funny face while you were eating it, and these were followed by a chocolatey thing which was very rich and lovely. There was a dessert wine (sparkley) which I didn't like at all (everyone else did it's just me) but the wine waiter very kindly gave me someting else when he noticed me not guzzling it. With the chocolate dessert we had a red Spanish wine which was kind of caramel like and absolutely fab.
The bill came to about £435 for four of us (the obligatory and soooo annoying to me 12.5% service charge nudging it up) and I wouldn't complain at it by any means. The food was mostly excellent, and at least very good, while,the service was nice too. They rang us a cab, got our coats, I said thanks to the guy with the accent and I'm almost certain he said "you're welcome" as I was leaving.
There was some great cooking in parts at the Glasshouse, and everything was of a high standard. I would say though that this market is a tough one. At these sort of prices you are into the Roganic kind of hitting zone, more expensive than the Lawn in Wimbledon village and up there with some of the west end places who have eye-watering rents to contend with. This restaurant is definately up in that sort of class and I'd go again. Among the best food in London though? Perhaps not last night, but given it's popularity it probably normally is. Go, it's good.
