A few jokey dishes don’t dim Nick’s appreciation of this seriously good addition to the Esher eating scene

I actually quite like Radiohead, or at least their first album. I wasn’t a fan of their ‘A Moon Shaped Pool ‘(2016) though, but Nick Beardshaw clearly was as this was the name of his winning starter on Great British Menu, and which is now on the menu at his new restaurant.

It is a typical GBM dish, a bit of a throwback to the heady days of Heston Blumenthal when you were never entirely sure whether what was on the plate was edible or not. You could break your teeth on a rock that you’d blithely assumed was a potato.

Inspired by that album’s cover art, it arrives with a ‘skin’ of gelatine over it that dissolves when the green curry style sauce is poured over so that the pool is revealed. This is obviously a proper Instagram ‘reels’ moment and I missed it completely. Somehow in Esher it seemed even crasser than usual to film my food.

This theatre over, it was time to taste the dish and it’s easy to see why it was a winner. So many flavours each complementing each other. A superb Orkney scallop merely waved at the hot plate, as it should be, sliced for easy eating and semi submerged in the sauce. 

A vinegary twang from crunchy marinated cucumber and a slightly fiery kick from the Thai green curry elements all come together. The presentation was fun, but it did hinder me from chasing the last of the sauce around, and I really, really, wanted the last of the sauce.

Nick is a Tom Kerridge alumnus and it shows in our other starter, ‘Crispy pig’s head, poached Vassout pear and pickled celery.’ From experience I know this rather scary sounding dish is not actually Peppa’s head on a plate, but a croquette made from head meat. Pigs’cheeks (guanciale) are particularly delicious, forming the basis of a proper Carbonara.

P loves this dish and I try a small bit. It is very good, the pickled celery cutting the meat well and that pear, from the famous Vassout farm north of Paris, is superbly sweet and tender.

Now looking around a bit between courses, we take in the semi open kitchen where chefs in matching house aprons whizz about with purpose.  Nick himself is on the pass, with a bit of a penchant for nibbling ingredients, I observe.

The room is very nice, cosy and charming. This is Esher and so the customers have money, this lunchtime crowd has a fair sprinkling of Ladies Who Lunch, as well as men who, while not actually wearing pink trousers today, undoubtedly have a few pairs in their wardrobe. The set lunch menu, by the way, is very well priced for those of us not funding hedges.

Mains choice is succinct, but enough to make me indecisive – pork, fish, duck, or the vegetarian ‘risotto, ’ which I can see on another table and which looks wonderful.

Duck it is though, I love duck and Creedy Carver is a farm of note, all their free-range ducks are allowed to grow slowly to produce better meat and live happily in duck five star luxury. Perfectly cooked, perfectly rested, the duck really is superb.

Dobs of cherry ‘ketchup’ are a traditional accompaniment, here more restrained than in the days of Cordon Bleu and all the better for it. Duck leg has been put into small pastry cases and is brilliant; wonderful rich flavours set off by the bitter bite of Treviso, a mildish radicchio. 

Across the table, P’s dish is a visual treat. Cornish brill with seaweed butter and leeks, parsnip crisps and a chicken wing reduction. She raves about it.

We supplement with thrice cooked chips, which are a bit leathery but okay, and a garlic roasted Hispi cabbage that is sweet and melting and yes, garlicky. Very good.

Dessert was one gag and one classic. The creme brulee was outstanding; perfect smooth custard rich with Magagascan vanilla, and for me Balloon Girl, another GBC dish made to resemble the series of stencil murals around London by Banksy  in 2002.

It certainly was an excellent ‘copy’ – the girl made of chocolate and the balloon made of raspberry cheesecake. A lot of skill and effort had gone in, but I think I preferred the crème brûlée, simpler is often better.

And Starling is simply very good indeed, and apparently very busy already. I don’t think it needs the ”clever’ dishes, which I find a bit dated, because the cooking is excellent just as it is. 

www.starlingbistro.co.uk
3, High Street, Esher KT10 9RL England