Midsummer House: full on flavour

It has been a good year for Daniel Clifford and his team at Midsummer House. Daniel made the banquet on GBM while Midsummer House continues to be recognised as one of the best restaurants in the country, climbing five places in the Sunday Times 100 Best awards to rank seventh. Midsummer was also rated as the best restaurant in the East of England, and the fifth best wine list nationally, a good sweep of awards then. Our visit there is long overdue.

Located on Midsummer Common, the house is so distinctly a house (not a restaurant) that you wonder if you're in the wrong place, but no. A clever use of space, with the dining room in the now extended conservatory and the ground floor of the house an extended kitchen, means that once inside, it offers a light and airy dining room, and levels of comfort you'd expect from one of the UK's top ten restaurants.

Midsummer House. Definitely a house.

On our midweek visit, there's a choice of Classic Menu (3, 4, 5 courses £40, £50, £60 respectively), Market Menu (smaller tasting menu) at £75 and the Taste of Midsummer (full tasting menu) at £95. With this latter menu containing Midsummer classic dishes, having finally made the journey it seemed the only real option. As we discovered though, Daniel believes in feeding his guests so portion sizes are generous, you're guaranteed to leave the restaurant full up.

What we would also discover is that Daniel really knows how to get flavour into his dishes with everything from the amuse (Bloody Mary) to the final dessert (Chestnuts) characterised by the intense flavour extracted from the ingredients: there's never a dull moment or a dull dish at Midsummer. As we reflect on this, it's no doubt why Daniel was able to get a chicken dish to the banquet on Great British Menu when no one else before him had ever achieved that, and that's a real talent. 

Bloody Mary amuse

Two cheese courses to start with, a Cashel Blue with broccoli and fresh pear, followed by Celery, goat's cheese and horseradish. The dishes already highlight three key factors that would repeat through the day's menu: first, the menu descriptions give only the slightest hint of what you can expect to receive, second, even on these early and 'simple' courses, there's real finesse on the plate, and third, those flavours, back to those flavours. The horseradish in the goat's cheese dish comes in ice cream form but full on with flavour, so giving heat in the cold. The vivid red beetroot tube, the item that most prominently catches your eye when the dish is put down, alternately packed here with goats cheese and pickled beetroot, didn't even find it's way on to the description however, so expect here a menu of surprises. 

Cashel Blue, broccoli, fresh pear

Celery, goat's cheese and horseradish (and some beetroot!)

Next comes the scallop, with a lattice of green apple on top. The first thing that strikes you is how big this scallop is, it's enormous, this could be a main course in its own right, can't believe this is only the third course. The second thing you become aware of as you take your knife to it is how well it has been cooked. This is the definitive, text book, perfectly cooked scallop, the heat seeming to have effortlessly and so gently passed through allowing the scallop to retain full texture and flavour. Served with a celeriac and truffle purée it's one of the stand out dishes of the day because scallops don't get better than this.

Sautéed scallop, celeriac and truffle

For the next offering, we're treated, as this is a little extra course from the kitchen. We've been looking out the window at the Green Egg in the garden and seeing one of the team turning a large black half sphere, speculating what it was. It turns out to be celeriac that's spent four hours on the grill, so it's soft and sweet. The grilled blackened root is brought to the table and table-side, has the soft centre cut out. This is then placed in our bowls which already contain ham hock, ground elder, some of the burnt celeriac skin, the stock of the ham hock and some of the diced fat of the ham hock. It's seasoned with a sprinkle of the dried celeriac skin, salt and sugar.

We're so glad we got to try this, it's a truly fabulous dish with the celeriac sweet and smoky from the Green Egg coals. With the ham flavours coming through three ways (hock, stock and fat) and tangy ground elder cutting through the sweetness, it's a wonderful construction. 

celeriac and ham hock

Those with a sweet tooth will especially delight in the next dish of maple caramelised sweetbreads (sweet sweetbreads!), and falling into that camp, I loved it, the caramelisation not only ratcheting up the sweetness factor but lending a sticky textural element also. It is also served up in a playful 'Mork from Ork' egg.

Sweetbreads, pistachio, maple syrup and mouli

In the cod dish, a cauliflower and caviar purée was a star, the sweet salty purée with whole eggs bursting through it, a whole new way to eat caviar.

Cod sautéed in seaweed butter, salad of seaweed, cauliflower and caviar purée, red wine vinaigrette

Braised beef cheek, sautéed tongue, or tongue & cheek as it was humourously offered by the staff. The tart of Paris brown mushrooms on the top was exquisitely made, art with taste, adding also a crunch, but that beef cheek, well. The jus, as can be seen below, offered a perfect reflective lustre and, with appropriately buttered pomme purée, it was another perfect rendition.

Braised beef cheek, sautéed tongue, horseradish, turnip and Paris browns

Pousse cafe next. We both wondered what this could be. A 'coffee pusher', a drink to push you towards the coffee, it's a layered drink of (top to bottom), Jack Daniels and chive cream, pasteurised egg yolk and maple syrup, taking you from chive fresh to a sweet conclusion of maple syrup. 

pousse cafe

the cheese trolley (which we declined)

Three desserts with apple crumble to start, with the tartness of the apple really clearing out any lingering vestiges of the umami beef cheek. Then, kumquats poached in Cointreau, loaded with the alcoholic orange, paired with a delicious lemon thyme ice cream. Finally, chestnuts with chocolate and caramel giving a rich seasonal finish to the menu, in a dish that grew on us as we ate it, becoming really rather more-ish; a nicely complex finish to the meal.

Apple crumble, baked yoghurt, vanilla

Poached kumquats with lemon thyme ice cream

Chocolate, caramel and chestnuts, chestnut frangipane

This was a sophisticated and mature meal by an hugely talented chef: simple at times, elsewhere complex, but never less than perfectly done. The menu (you soon realise) keeps you guessing and when the dish comes, it's almost always a surprise, a good one of course. Service meanwhile was perfectly presented, with the maitre d' expertly balancing friendly with professional, making Midsummer the place to go for a great meal in a relaxed, never stuffy, environment. 

Midsummer House then is fully deserving of its title as the best restaurant in East of England and a national gem, and after a few false starts, we were delighted to have made the trip there to (finally) experience the cooking of Chef Daniel Clifford. It's simply a 'must go to' restaurant.


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