This is going to be longer than normal, you might want to get a coffee.
"It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future", claimed Yogi Berra, the baseball playing philosopher; we agree and so try to avoid them. Yet when I ate there, I was overwhelmed with conviction that Casamia, the contemporary fine dining restaurant of the Sanchez-Iglesias family, will in due course become one of Britain's most famous and well regarded restaurants, that they will ultimately achieve three Michelin stars, and that should the World's 50 Best Restaurants still be going ten years from now, they could find themselves included in that too. Let's back track a little.
Casamia, meaning 'my house', for it was very much their house, is a restaurant in the Bristol area run by brothers Jonray & Peter Sanchez-Iglesias. Previously, it was run by their English mother and Spanish father as an Italian trattoria (since 1999), but in 2006, they handed over the restaurant to their sons who have subsequently steered their own course of tasting menus, thoroughly modern techniques, and a focus on seasonal British produce. Their achievement was recognised by Michelin who awarded Casamia a star in 2009, and the AA who have since awarded them 4 rosettes. Jonray and Peter therefore are both together, and individually, recognised as two of Britain's outstanding young chef talents, for the punchline here is that all of this has been achieved before either of them has reached 30 years old (Jonray, the older of the two is 29, and Peter 27).
Ahead of arriving at Casamia, I am genuinely excited about the prospect of my meal there, though totally unsure about what I would find. Google Maps shows Casamia four miles from Bristol's city centre in the suburb of Westbury-on-Trym and the restaurant itself is hidden behind gates, and even though I've checked on Street View what I'm looking for, with no real street facade, this restaurant doesn't give up its location easily. Inside however it's a warm greeting from staff and I am taken through into the main body of the restaurant where aside of its seasonal theme (the room decor itself changes with the season), it is an open finishing kitchen at the front where Jonray and Peter can be seen plating up that immediately grabs your attention.
"It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future", claimed Yogi Berra, the baseball playing philosopher; we agree and so try to avoid them. Yet when I ate there, I was overwhelmed with conviction that Casamia, the contemporary fine dining restaurant of the Sanchez-Iglesias family, will in due course become one of Britain's most famous and well regarded restaurants, that they will ultimately achieve three Michelin stars, and that should the World's 50 Best Restaurants still be going ten years from now, they could find themselves included in that too. Let's back track a little.
Casamia, meaning 'my house', for it was very much their house, is a restaurant in the Bristol area run by brothers Jonray & Peter Sanchez-Iglesias. Previously, it was run by their English mother and Spanish father as an Italian trattoria (since 1999), but in 2006, they handed over the restaurant to their sons who have subsequently steered their own course of tasting menus, thoroughly modern techniques, and a focus on seasonal British produce. Their achievement was recognised by Michelin who awarded Casamia a star in 2009, and the AA who have since awarded them 4 rosettes. Jonray and Peter therefore are both together, and individually, recognised as two of Britain's outstanding young chef talents, for the punchline here is that all of this has been achieved before either of them has reached 30 years old (Jonray, the older of the two is 29, and Peter 27).
Ahead of arriving at Casamia, I am genuinely excited about the prospect of my meal there, though totally unsure about what I would find. Google Maps shows Casamia four miles from Bristol's city centre in the suburb of Westbury-on-Trym and the restaurant itself is hidden behind gates, and even though I've checked on Street View what I'm looking for, with no real street facade, this restaurant doesn't give up its location easily. Inside however it's a warm greeting from staff and I am taken through into the main body of the restaurant where aside of its seasonal theme (the room decor itself changes with the season), it is an open finishing kitchen at the front where Jonray and Peter can be seen plating up that immediately grabs your attention.
the view from the kitchen
the view from the table
Menu wise, even though it's lunch, there's a short tasting menu or a longer tasting menu only, a thoroughly brave thing to do, but this is what marks them as special, the conviction to follow their beliefs and do their own food. It's a huge risk, but it looks like they have made it work, and this no compromise approach to what they serve is exactly why in my opinion this restaurant will gain in stature over time, for in an age where we want our best restaurants to provide a personal connection to the chef's culinary vision (think SImon Rogan, Sat Bains, Brett Graham etc), this is exactly what Casamia does.
Menu descriptions are of little help here in guessing what will arrive on your plate as I soon discover, and while 'goats cheese, beetroot tart' sounds a somewhat commonplace way to start the meal here, for I'm expecting fireworks, I'm also instantly wrong-footed. The bite sized beetroot cup that arrives with a dollop of unexpectedly yummy beetroot jam below the goats cheese already make this one of the best beetroot dishes I have ever had. From its size, I also instantly know that they understand the proper way to construct a tasting menu; I'm already very happy.
Menu descriptions are of little help here in guessing what will arrive on your plate as I soon discover, and while 'goats cheese, beetroot tart' sounds a somewhat commonplace way to start the meal here, for I'm expecting fireworks, I'm also instantly wrong-footed. The bite sized beetroot cup that arrives with a dollop of unexpectedly yummy beetroot jam below the goats cheese already make this one of the best beetroot dishes I have ever had. From its size, I also instantly know that they understand the proper way to construct a tasting menu; I'm already very happy.
goats cheese, beetroot tartlet
Breakfast next. London restaurant goers are probably more au fait with breakfast eggs on their lunch (or dinner) menu though I can't imagine that many others are doing this in Bristol. How much can you fit in an egg? Lots it seems: toast, mushrooms, black pudding, pancetta, and of course, aerated scrambled egg. Ketchup; yes, ketchup too. Amazing how much you can get in there, beautifully well done in every way (look at the presentation below), a meal and all the joy that goes with a good breakfast in a single egg shell.
Spelt and parsley, and a spring salad (with 12 varieties of raw and cooked veg, and hot vinaigrette) complete with tweezers for eating follow. While my own favourite dishes occurred later in the menu, the table next to me doing their own straw poll saw at the end of the meal saw these earlier dishes come out on top. To me it highlighted that personal tastes alone will most likely dictate your preferences about this meal because the actual quality of every dish itself is unimpeachable.
Spelt and parsley, and a spring salad (with 12 varieties of raw and cooked veg, and hot vinaigrette) complete with tweezers for eating follow. While my own favourite dishes occurred later in the menu, the table next to me doing their own straw poll saw at the end of the meal saw these earlier dishes come out on top. To me it highlighted that personal tastes alone will most likely dictate your preferences about this meal because the actual quality of every dish itself is unimpeachable.
breakfast egg
Spelt from Sharpham park, parsley
Spring salad
The next dish was my favourite until I ate the one after, but don't let that distract you. John Dory cooked at 42 degrees in oil, finished with a blow torch, overlayed with an apple and lemon gel, then topped with a cider sauce, sprouting broccoli and kale. The fish alone was to shout about, but with the uplift from the apple and lemon gel, balanced with a hot creamy cider sauce, as a fish dish, it's in a heaven of its own.
John Dory, cider sauce, greens
Lamb, allium stew, mint sauce. It sounds simple, it even looked rather simple, it tasted divine. The flavour of each component was incredible, especially the lamb, each forkful was a dilemma of what to mix with what, should you just savour the brilliance of the lamb alone, maybe a bit of mint sauce with it, or a bit of everything; I did all of the above till I ran out of everything.
So sad was I to finish that as I pushed my fork into the last piece of lamb, I relented and took my knife and further halved it, so delaying the inevitable by a half mouthful. I normally rail against large portions in tasting menus and the size of the plate here perfectly fits the bill of what a tasting main should be, but I would have sorely loved to eaten it again right there and then and would have paid to do so. This was my favourite dish of the day in a tough field where everything served is a joyous celebration of food.
So sad was I to finish that as I pushed my fork into the last piece of lamb, I relented and took my knife and further halved it, so delaying the inevitable by a half mouthful. I normally rail against large portions in tasting menus and the size of the plate here perfectly fits the bill of what a tasting main should be, but I would have sorely loved to eaten it again right there and then and would have paid to do so. This was my favourite dish of the day in a tough field where everything served is a joyous celebration of food.
Lamb, allium stew, mint sauce
If the lamb is the 'main', what exactly is 'carrot and thyme' doing on the menu next? Left over veg? Well, it's all a bit clever, probably too clever cooking wise for me to fully understand but not too clever for me to enjoy. It's a carrot microwave sponge with carrot caramel and a thyme ice cream, made earlier at the pass with liquid nitrogen and spooned onto the dessert at the table for the fog effect. Jonray tells me that it is supposed to simulate a sticky toffee pudding, and it does, quite brilliantly. I find myself again smiling at their creative playfulness.
Blood orange, rosemary
dak chocolate lollipop
Finally, and offered as a separate option in addition to the tasting menu, is Apple Pie, their GBM dessert dish. The dessert is especially notable for two things, first, there is vanilla ice cream within the hot apple pie itself, again clever, and second, there's a side pot of cinnamon and nutmeg liquid on which liquid nitrogen is then poured to release at the table the most incredible aromatics. I keep returning to the idea that Peter & Jonray are both very clever and very technically smart but that the idea of enjoyable food never gets lost in that smartness.
apple pie
Throughout the meal, Jonray and Peter bring most of the plates to the table themselves, and when the waitress wasn't nearby, they'd even collect the always empty plate too. Interacting with the diners, they care passionately about whether the meal is being enjoyed. And no, it wasn't just because I am a blogger, the table next to me, holidaymakers who had seen Peter on GBM and decided to book, received the same treatment. They loved their meal too. Admittedly, on an early midweek lunchtime, it wasn't so busy allowing them to spend more time at the tables, but Casamia remains their house and the passion burns.
Jonray and Peter
It occurs to me while I eat the meal that there must be real benefits to brothers running a restaurant. Aside of the old cliches that two minds are better than one and that a burden shared is a burden halved, both of course true, but additionally, to be able to share a vision and get proper feedback through a trusting and equal partnership can only be extremely valuable, and something that I'm sure many chefs would desperately love to have. It puts me in mind of other culinary brothers, especially the Roca brothers of El Celler de Can Roca, Spain, perhaps because I see in Casamia the same original and personal vision be pushed through to the food that we so loved when we visited Girona.
I started by saying that this is a restaurant which could have three Michelin stars in due course: I have little doubt. The food is brilliant currently, the meal a joy, though to clarify, not just yet at the three star level, but Jonray and Peter are so young and are already delivering with confidence such an incredibly high standard of technique and food understanding that if they continue to grow their talents over the next ten years (as it is reasonable to assume they will), then Casamia will go all the way.
Remember how you couldn't get a table at El Bulli, wished dearly that you could have done so before they closed, and heard disbelievingly stories of Adria's early days when getting a table did not mean joining a lottery? Well, we'll make it easy for you: Casamia, remember the name, and if you don't book soon and enjoy this discovery, no complaining in ten years time when you can't get a table period. You heard it here first.
Post script: only three months in, but already I think this is my restaurant of the year.
Click for Casamia website
Follow Jonray on Twitter: @jonraysanchez
Follow Peter on Twitter: @petercasamia
I started by saying that this is a restaurant which could have three Michelin stars in due course: I have little doubt. The food is brilliant currently, the meal a joy, though to clarify, not just yet at the three star level, but Jonray and Peter are so young and are already delivering with confidence such an incredibly high standard of technique and food understanding that if they continue to grow their talents over the next ten years (as it is reasonable to assume they will), then Casamia will go all the way.
Remember how you couldn't get a table at El Bulli, wished dearly that you could have done so before they closed, and heard disbelievingly stories of Adria's early days when getting a table did not mean joining a lottery? Well, we'll make it easy for you: Casamia, remember the name, and if you don't book soon and enjoy this discovery, no complaining in ten years time when you can't get a table period. You heard it here first.
Post script: only three months in, but already I think this is my restaurant of the year.
Click for Casamia website
Follow Jonray on Twitter: @jonraysanchez
Follow Peter on Twitter: @petercasamia
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