Date of visit: Wednesday 10th July 2019
Website: https://sorrelrestaurant.co.uk/

Overall misohappiness: 4/5

A special milestone such as a 40th Birthday requires a special restaurant and Sorrel by Steve Drake with its impressive reputation and Michelin Star did not disappoint. I made this reservation a few weeks earlier for my husband’s birthday. I let them know we would have baby in the pushchair and that I was on a gluten free diet. Neither of these things phased anyone. Our 5 year old and 3 year old were at school/nursery and someone else was collecting them so we set ourselves up to enjoy the whole afternoon.

When we arrived, whilst Tim parked the car in the restaurant’s private car park, the Maitre d’ met me at the bottom of the steps and helped carry the pushchair up. On entering the restaurant my senses told me we were in for a treat. The sounds and glimpse of the chefs working away in the semi open kitchen, the ambient music, the tasteful, neutral decor and the smell – not cooking smells! That would never do… it was more of a delicate botanic fragrance that I only really noticed once we had left and couldn’t smell it anymore.

We were seated in the “baby corner” across from another family with a newborn also celebrating the Dad’s birthday. The team at Sorrel went the extra mile to make the meal special. The Birthday Boys received a menu signed by Steve Drake himself in a named envelope when we sat down. The wine list was suitably thick however, since I was only having one glass of champagne (very tasty) and Tim was driving, we didn’t explore it too much. There was a very keen, redundant sommelier hovering around but as we weren’t drinking alcohol, it was best to stick to sparkling water with a meal of this calibre. This is the first time I’ve done one of these without wine and I have to say I really enjoyed it. Old me would have pumped a litre of milk beforehand and said “sorry baby you’re on the bottle today”. Don’t get me wrong – wine gives me life – but I still had that woozy satisfied glow at the end of this meal. I’d always put this down to being tipsy. Turns out good food is it’s own recreational drug.

We looked at the menu for about 10 seconds before deciding in for a penny… let’s DO THIS: 9 course summer tasting menu at £95 per head. Boom. Here’s a picture of the menu:

Everything was as amazing as it sounds. The dishes that stood out for me were the Asian influenced quail which was so tender it was like eating a savoury sweetcorn and soy sauce marshmallow; the signature green green green (broccoli 3 ways) which I very inelegantly consumed in 3 delicious mouthfuls; and the Reisley cheese course which after 9 months of pregnancy induced cheese abstinence, I relished every bite.

In all honesty choosing favourites is difficult because every course was amazing. The fish was cooked perfectly. I’ve been to 2 Michelin star restaurants in the last 2 years where the fish course disappointed and for some reason the meat courses seemed to be front and centre, so it was refreshing to see so much care and attention go into both the Turbot and Scallop courses.

Like all elements that make up the experience of this restaurant, the toilets were very well thought through. The hand soap was unbelievably good (100 Acres hand wash) and besides, any restaurant that provides sanitary towels gets a thumbs up.

In the end we tore ourselves away but it was hard. We arrived at 1245 and were still there at 1600. If we had been child free and drinking we could easily have stayed longer. My milk must have tasted yummy after all that fine food because I could barely get baby off the breast throughout! Thumbs up all round.