Last weekend, I escaped the bleakery (new word) of Scarborough and revitalized my soul with London. Antidote Wine Bar lives up to its name’s sake, and provided the required antidote to a poisonous day filled with mundane travel and frantic bustling around town trying to find formal gowns to wear aboard the Queen Mary 2. Nesteled in the gorgeous lane ways of Soho, Antidote serves elegant food and amazing wines, all hand-picked with care. There are no accidental wines.
Offering a four course tasting menu for £40, and matching wines for £30, this is reasonable considering its location and quality. Antidote serves modern British cuisine with traditional flavours such as mackerel, radish and cucumber prevalent on the menu.
This delightful amuse-bouche of pickled cucumber with buttermilk and cucumber sorbet is freshness personified. I am a huge fan of savoury sorbets and the zing of the cucumber is balanced perfectly by the creamy buttermilk.
Accommodating to our rather difficult trio (we are able to interchange certain dishes on the tasting menu) the staff also redesign the matching wines accordingly, so I am impressed with their service and knowledge of the menu. I change the beef for the lamb, only because I have eaten beef for the last two nights (thanks to the carvery I’m currently living above) and I love lamb and have had a distinct lack of lamb since coming to Britain, in fact, this might even be my first lamb. I have no regrets in doing so. The beef looks and tastes wonderful, but the lamb is succulent and rosy and is matched with celeriac and black garlic; earthy and real. What a dish to foray into British lamb with. This saddle from Cumbria is perfection.
Desert was a standout too; Millefeuille of white chocolate, pistachio and green tea. It is noisy and flaky and creamy and all the things. I want more. And how I love a dessert wine. The wines have all been joyous, and reaffirms the skill and necessity of a great sommelier. If you are not into wine pairings, it will change your life. Trust me.
The downstairs wine bar area is a hub of vintages and tapas, and chatter and next time, this is where I’d like to be with a bottle of something decadent and some cheese.
Thankfully taking reservations, Antidote is a super find in central London, and made a lovely backdrop to meet friends old and new and be regaled with hilarious tales of overweight, middle-aged bankers on the train eating bacon butties and craving egg banjos.
