Plum and Spilt Milk: upmarket treat

10th September 2018
My wife and I were given an outing to this newish restaurant as a birthday gift. It seems that at our stage of life, experiences rather than stuff is the way to go.
Many years ago, my boss had used the meeting rooms at the Great Northern Hotel as a base for organising London meetings because they were cheap and available. The hotel has been greatly revamped since then, and I dare say that would not be the case now. It is completely unrecognisable compared to 25 years ago. This is not a place we would have chosen to go, mainly on grounds of expense, but as it was a gift, we said thank you very much and boarded the Picadilly line.
The restaurant follows modern trends being fairly open, hard surfaces, and staff who can border between patronising and obsequious. At the time of visiting, there was major work going on in the hotel which limited the routes of entrance or egress, but the main consequence of this at the moment is that there are no accessible lavatories near the restaurant.
This is what the restaurant has to say for itself (from website)
"SIMPLE CLASSICS, BEAUTIFULLY COOKED
COURTESY OF HIGHLY ACCLAIMED CHEF MARK SARGEANT, IN AN ATMOSPHERE ELEGANT YET RELAXED
Theatrical destination restaurant Plum + Spilt Milk, celebrated for the quality of its seasonal British dishes. Our new menu includes Wild watercress soup, wild garlic oil & sourdough croutons; Wye Valley asparagus feuilleté, orange hollandaise sauce; Organic Wiltshire burrata, broad bean puree, pickled red onion, chilli, pine nuts & raw rapeseed oil; Grilled lamb cutlets, roasted & wild garlic creamed spelt, slow braised lamb shoulder & mint sauce croquette.

One hundred and fifty hand-blown glass lamps suspended from the ceiling set the atmosphere; leather banquettes curve luxuriously around tables of cracked black lava".

Nuff said.

For starter I chose Spiced Cornish fish soup, red pepper rouille & croutons. This was a winner. It was really really hot, about a 9+ on the CHOF scale. It was only mildly spiced, and the red pepper relish, which I rightly or wrongly chose to add to the soup, made for an interesting taste.

This was a good choice, and if the opportunity presented, I would definitely do it again.
The choice, as I mentioned before is limited, and for the main course I chose a flatiron steak, not really knowing what to expect

They had turned down the lights by then and it started to get tricky to take pictures.

I asked for my meat to be medium, but not bloody, and I think that they followed my instructions. The dish came accompanied by triple cooked chips

You get nine large chips in a dish.......... and I also had some mixed vegetables.
Desert comes from a pairing menu, but I decided not to pair my desert with a wine.
I had  iced peanut parfait, chocolate ganache with salted caramel sauce.

At first glance, it looked a bit like a deconstructed Snickers bar, and as I love Snickers, it was pleasing to find it tasted similar, particularly as I like to keep my Snickers in the refrigerator.

I am off wine at the moment, but the wine list has house white and red which are realistically priced. I finished with a coffee which was excellent.

The meal was of excellent quality as one would expect, and what was supposed to be hot was actually hot. No problems there, but of course, medium steaks may not always be hotter than they are supposed to be.

I have no idea what this meal cost, but you can probably work it out from on line.

My only criticism would be that the place was very noisy to start with, with braying businessmen creating a non-intimate atmosphere. However that is a sign of the times, and almost every modern restaurant one goes to is unsuitable for a deep conversation. That is probably why you see so many diners texting each other during meals. To help that, all tables here had charging points and USB sockets. A sign of the times.