By Chrissy Iley
Cornish Tiger appealed to me for so many reasons. For a start I love tigers. But more than that I love the idea of a cuisine that fuses Cornish freshness with the spices and flair of India. It is described as a neighbourhood restaurant, which means it’s not West End, it’s in Battersea, bordering Clapham. A place where people in that neighbourhood might treasure it as a local gem.
It is set up by a husband and wife duo, Sat Bains and Zia Trench, after they crowd funded the venture with friends and family. As soon as you enter the slightly bohemian, slightly rustic, buzzy, perhaps over buzzy bistro you can feel how hard they try. Their aim is to serve food that is fresh, seasonal, of high quality and that is interesting, deconstructed and reconstructed. They say in their press release ‘minus the gourmet price tag’, but we’ll come back to that later.
I was sent press information about it yet they didn’t want to host me except for a bloggers event later on. No worries, I thought let’s do it the old-fashioned way, an incognito review. Perhaps a bit too incognito. I handed the waitress my online booking number which she requested and after we sat down, and it was extremely noisy, she kept asking me for my name and I kept saying ‘But I printed out my reference number.’ I could tell she was a little off. Or perhaps what was off was the fact that it is Michelin star standard food and less than McDonald’s standard service.
My companion didn’t like the décor. He thought it was thrown together. I thought it was making the point: we are rustic and cosy.
There are various specials from a set menu, Noon-7pm, but we were there at 8.30pm. Every restaurant in that area seems to do a Prosecco Tuesday, Tiger included. So it is possible to go there on a deal, however if you just happen to go there not on a special, it is West End prices. And some. I was starving so therefore couldn’t resist the homemade bread (£4). It was delicious. And Tiger marinated olives (£4). I think I wanted those because I liked the idea of a tiger marinade, it said to me something exotic and spicy. The olives were a little spicy and quite garlicky. They were okay.
For starter I opted for the courgette and chickpea fritters with yoghurt, lemon and tomato salsa (£8). These were a take on an onion bhaji, yet they were more elegant and at the same time cosy. And my companion had almond crusted goat cheese with cumin beetroot chutney, pomegranate and toasted almond (£9). Everything was deliciously balanced and looked pretty on the plate. Everyone around looked like they were enjoying themselves.
All the food on the menu looked good. The man next to me was having a Tiger seasoned rib eye steak with chunky chips, coriander Hollandaise or Tiger sauce. I love the fact their Tiger seasoning is so specific. There is comfort seeing food knowing what it wants to do.
Our main courses arrive. My companion ordered Tiger spiced grilled salmon with baby Gems, rocket, fennel, red onion, cherry tomato salad (£13.50). And I ordered a pea risotto with a crispy poached egg (£12.95). But we weren’t given any cutlery with which to eat it. We waited, tried to attract attention, but the restaurant was rammed and she who wanted to know my name definitely didn’t want to know me any more. I spotted a cutlery drawer in the front room of the restaurant so I just went to help myself. It’s a good thing I don’t care about food getting cold. I really don’t. But I care about exquisite dishes and people who want to eat them not being treated with respect.
After the faux pas several other of the staff came to apologise that we had food and nothing to eat it with. My companion’s Tiger salmon was crazy delicious. Very thin slices, but not at all smoked was somewhere between a teriyaki and a yakitori in that there was a certain sweetness that set off the spice absolutely exquisitely. It was a crispy spice yet at the same time perfectly round and blended.
The salad was as fresh as if it had just been plucked from the garden. My pea risotto was excellent. I loved the creaminess of its texture matched with the crispy poached egg, breadcrumbed crisp on the outside, like a piece of scampi, and runny gooey yoke done to perfection. I have no idea how it was fried crispy and runny at the same time. It was the Baked Alaska of poached eggs.
We had a glass of wine each at the modest end of their by the glass and we started with a couple of cocktails. My companion was thrilled with his. It was called an Apple Pressé. It involved gin, apple and elderflower (£9.50). I was less thrilled with mine, a Cherry Mexicola – tequila, Coca Cola, Amoretto and some kind of cherry liqueur. It tasted like a watery Coke. And they were £9.50 each.
The manager wanted to give us more drinks to apologise for the bad service. We actually didn’t want any more. Instead we shared a deconstructed cheesecake which was perfectly lovely – naughty but nice.
The bill still came to £90.39, which is Ivy prices. Was the food great? Absolutely. They worked really hard. The menu said the chef if he’s not too busy is happy to give tours of the kitchen so we can see they cook everything from scratch every day, buying from small-scale producers mostly in Cornwall.
What was a little sad was the service was so far below the food. If you are a chef obviously you care more about the food, but a restaurant is about the overall experience. You just have to have one or two good dishes on the menu and be nice to people. It’s not that much of a mystical ingredient, but it’s one that was missing from Cornish Tiger. I understand it’s hard when a small restaurant gets busy. I understand that the waitresses haven’t been apprentices at charm school. But is it really so hard to bring people cutlery? Did it spoil the whole evening? No, of course not. But it means I would not go again.
Cornish Tiger
1 Battersea Rise
London
SW11 1HG
Tel: 020 7223 7719
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