The Balcons: Review
Located on West End’s Pall Mall is one of London’ special food treasures The Balcon, a grade II listed 100 cover brasserie filled with all the glamour and great food the West end is known for.
What’s even more exciting is that Matt Greenwood, one of London’s best chefs and known to previously have cooked at Smokehouse, Caravan, Kopapa and Providores, has revamped the menu at The Balcon and we are singing its praises.
Walking into The Balcon is always a treat with its beautiful design, warm atmosphere and amazing staff team, we were excited to try Matt’s new menu. The starters we had were grilled scallops, boudin noir and apple and croquette with a carrot pickle. If you have seen how much of a fan we are of scallops you will know we can be highly critical of this dish. But Matt and his team have got it spot on; the delicate scallops were encased with flavor from the croquette and pickle just how we love them. We also tried the pan-fired snails, chorizo with a sweet potato puree and oloroso jus. This by far were the best snails we have had in a while, too many times do restaurants overdo snails until they are rubbery. But The Balcon’s got them spot on and the saltiness from the chorizo really pulled out the flavours from the sweet potato and the jus.
Let us get onto the star of the night the “Elwy Valley Lamb” which was paired with “Pearl Barley, Roasted Carrots, Cavolo Nero and Broad Bean Pesto”. The dish features slow cooked shoulder and à la minute rump. The menu truly reflects Matt’s experimental side and willingness to include ingredients that are not so widely used by many chefs around. Let me get back to the lamb, cooked to perfection the lamb was a delight to the pallet with the softness of the pearl barley and the crunchiness of the roasted carrots making this dish a party inside your mouth. It was amazing we could hardly speak through our main, always a great sign when you have two chatty people sitting at dinner. Matt’s new menu at The Balcon is a triumph!
We were so full from our two courses we could hardly fit in a dessert. So opted for the pear and poire Williams ile flottante, with an apple sorbet. I actually paused from typing just now to appreciate the flavours in this dessert. The apple sorbet was full of flavor it almost tasted like an apple puree, accompanied by the perfectly warm apple pudding it was heaven on a plate. I can imagine that everything on the menu would have been just as amazing and we highly recommend it as it is worth every penny.
Further more The Balcons are have an amazing ‘Leap Year’ event on Monday 29th February 2016, they will be offering the table on the champagne balcony to couples as part of their amazing Leap Year deal. Why not take the time out to book a table and pop the question to your special someone. Turn things on their head in style!
To book a table or to find out more about the venue visit their website at http://www.thebalconlondon.com/
