DISCLOSURE: The meal was complimentary. All opinions are my own.
A few weeks ago, we were invited to Sketch for their pre-reopening night in The Gallery.
If you have never heard of it, Sketch is a hub of four separate restaurants, each with their own quirky design, and respective menu.
The four restaurants are The Gallery, The Lecture Room (a 3 Michelin star), The Parlour and The Glade.
When we arrived, we were greeted at the door with a warm - physically distanced - welcome, and had our temperature checked with a contactless thermometer screen, followed by a hand sanitising station located next to it.
Once at our table, you could tell that the staff are taking extra precautions to look after their guests safely but discreetly. They are wearing gloves, each table has its own small bottle of fragrant hand sanitiser, and adequate table spacing. At the time of writing, a new technology was installed that is claimed to have the ability to purify the air flow circulating within the venue by targeting air born particles such as viruses, bacteria, and mould spores that may be in suspension in the environment.
Let's talk food!
Our starters were the "tomato and fig tart, served with Iberico ham, goat cheese, rocket salad and red port reduction" and the "triple baked haddock and scallop soufflé, leeks fondue and Colman's mustard".
I really enjoyed the tart as it combined hot and cold, and the pastry was crumbly and deliciously flavoured with herbs. To me the winner was the soufflé as it was rich and packed with a lot of flavour, giving a moreish sensation (I am salivating just by thinking about it!).
To follow we ordered the "sketch tartare, hand-cut beef, raw tuna, Montgomery cheddar with green bean and sesame salad" and the "lobster fricassé infused with verbena, cassolette of baby potato, carrots, fava beans and chanterelle mushrooms".
The Sketch tartare (I see what they did there) was lovely, I never thought of having beef and tuna together, but it works really well.
As for the lobster, it was a superb, really subtle and fragrant dish, cooked to perfection.
We followed with the "roasted apricot with rosemary, pralin mousseline and gavotte" and the "chocolate parfait with cassis coulis".
The apricot dessert was really pleasant, and I loved the gavotte as it gave a nice touch of crispiness to the dish (a gavotte is more or less a crispy wafer that is traditionally from Brittany). The chocolate parfait was... dare I say it.. parfait (bear with me, it is my first review, I am still finding myself!), rich and decadent, if only the portion was bigger as someone almost ate it all before I had the chance to try it!
We then had our coffee at The Glade which is located opposite the Gallery. It is a great way to finish the night as the décor is spectacular, feeling like walking into an enchanted forest.
What a lovely evening we had, it was great to be able to go out again and we felt reassured with the measures Sketch has put into place.
Thank you for reading my first review, I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I did writing it.
Do not hesitate to let me know your comments and thoughts.
Au revoir!
Pierre