a return to clapham common for another leisurely lunch with my parents. last time out, the dairy swept us off our feet. how would adam byatt's trinity do?
we arrived hungry at 12.30 and found, for a while at least, that we had a dining room all to ourselves, with windows opening out on to a sunny clapham pavement. yes, that is starbucks, not a delightful independent coffee shop. give clapham a few months.
we went straight for the lunch menu. 2 courses for £22 or 3 for £27 (tuesday-saturday). a la carte is of course available, or you can go for the £50 tasting menu. we ordered a trio of greengage bellinis (one boozy, one water, one lemonade) which were accompanied by a complimentary snack box of radishes, cheese sticks with olive tapenade and roe mayonnaise.
more treats turned up before the starters - a bowl of sourdough that was the product of 14 years of fermentation (!) and triple whipped butter. this threatened to steal the show, and seconds were ordered. funnily enough, the only other place i have been served butter on a rock since starting this blog was at the dairy round the corner. clapham knows how to serve its bread. i shall be triple whipping my butter from now on, but i'm not waiting 14 years for the perfect sourdough.
the starters soon made their grand entrance. staff were balletic in their approach to serving, with plates going down in unison as details of the dish were almost whispered to the relevant diner. a quail's egg sat atop a fort of potted smoked trout whilst watercress soup was poured all around - great presentation with flavours to match. my mother meanwhile had a generous portion of vitello tonnato (a piedmontese dish of cold, sliced veal covered with a tuna-flavoured mayonnaise) which was wrapped around bobby beans, with crackling and ravigote (a lightly acidic, classic french sauce). could trinity keep up this high level throughout?
there was no sign of a dip in quality (or quantity) in the mains. that second portion of bread might have been a mistake (i said might). beautifully cooked warm roast salmon with bonus crispy skin, leaning on a spaghetti of vegetables, was surrounded by al dente agnolotti (another import from piedmont, beef and vegetable stuffed pasta) and a crab vinaigrette. wow. i might have to rush back for more before the menu changes with those pesky seasons.
my dad's plate of lamb offal was an impressive sight - not something that i would order, but right up his street. it firmly got the thumbs up, an empty plate telling most of the story. if you've got lunch plans to eat at heston's dinner (£39 for 3 courses, 2 michelin stars), it might be time to change the booking.
(make sure you look at the attached photos!)
after a brief discussion about sharing desserts, we greedily ordered three separate bowls, spurred on by the superb staff's enthusiasm for their favourite pudding making it back on to the menu.
that enticing, inverted fried egg looking thing you can see is a valrhona chocolate hot pot with salt caramel ice cream. granted, the salted caramel struggled to compete with the gooey, rich valrhona chocolate, but who cares? i was ultimately defeated, but i ate way more of it than i should have.
and then they went and brought us some macaroons on a bed of cocoa nibs. i managed to fit one in - only polite, right?
as you might have noticed, we were rather happy with our lunch. not just the food and drink though as the service was second to none. i shouldn't think it will be too long before we are back for the tasting menu. well done trinity, you (and the dairy) are doing clapham and southlondonproud.
n.b. trinity has some unexpected opening times: lunch is served tue-fri 12.30-2.30pm, sat midday-2pm, sun midday- 3.30pm. dinner is served mon-sat: 6:00-10pm. on monday bank holidays trinity is also open for lunch.
p.s. adam byatt has another restaurant, bistro union, on the charming abbeville road. i might go along for a sunday supper club evening when corkage is free.