trinity

the restaurant was full on our visit for sunday lunch with what looked like lots of well heeled local residents. it's a popular place and i can certainly understand why people are happy to spend lots of money, eating and drinking here. it's a very relaxing venue, the food is good and the service is friendly. i did find it a bit schizophrenic though, not quite hitting the mark as a fine dining restaurant but delivering a lot more than your typical brunch/lunch spot.

the look of the place, the service (on the surface), the food presentation (if not the portion size) are fine dining standard. it's just not quite there, the portions are too large for one thing and we had a couple of minor issues with the service, just little things like clumsy cutlery layout, our bottle of wine being a bit too far away and glasses not being kept topped up as well as they could be, that and running out of towels in the bathroom.

themenuwas a real mix to, with summer and winter fare as well as brunch and lunch style dishes. ironically the summer/winter aspect was not a great problem as the weather outside was in keeping.

we had an amuse bouche that consisted of a hummus dip with radishes and fresh garden peas in their pods and some warm homemade bread. then for starters my companion had the fried ducks egg with scottish girolles, english mustard mayonnaise and toasted brioche - a sort of up market big breakfast, matched with a glass of wild boy chardonnay - kinda of weird, but it worked. i had 1/2 dozen oxtail stuffed snails with garlic butter and soldiers - a nicely presented brunch type dish that was a bit awkward to eat, but very tasty none the less.

for my main course i had the belly of old spot pork, charred spring onions, gooseberries, jerseys and crackling - the portion was huge, but fortunately the pork was nice and light and the gooseberries refreshing, so i had no problem finishing it off. my companions main course was even more substantial, he ordered braised lamb shoulder faggot which came with a rather large pot of pearl barley, peas and mint - very rustic, and definitely not what you expect on a summer menu.

for dessert we had the cherry bakewell tart and the english strawberries, vanilla cream and ginger biscuits accompanied by a rather nice bottle of moscato d'asti.

i've been to trinity before with some friends and really loved it. it's in the 'burbs of south london, so not the most convenient of locations to make a return visit that feasible for the better and half (tbh) and i. but seeing chef/patron adam byatt appear on the great britishmenuon tv recently reminded me what a fabulous meal i'd had at trinity before and i promptly booked a table. it was good as i remembered!

ur fabulous local, trinity has had a rather fabulous re-vamp and now us lucky locals have the opportunity of eating at two restaurants within the same building. what was a store cupboard now houses an excuse to eat here more regularly and also, as it happens rather reasonably!

we arrived to wondrous hello's from familiar staff faces and were zoomed upstairs past the now gorgeous open kitchened, white table cloths and into a gorgeous stripped back-to-basics dining room upstairs.

the small kitchen has a couple of chefs whom dish up the whole room. themenuchanges daily and dishes come as and when they're ready and are made for sharing. think of it as english tapas, if you will and suggest getting as many of the delicious dishes into your feast as possible. we were a foursome this evening so, did just that and went for the whole savoury menu... perfect!

a night at trinity cannot go amiss without sampling some of their decent wine. however, on this occasion we had been rightfully informed that their house is rather drinkable (correct!) and at £19 a bottle it's a bit of a steal!

a couple ofmenuwinners...
firstly,  what can only be described as deep.fried.heaven...

veal bolognese fritter covered in parmesan - what's not to love?! order two of these (if anything similar is on the menu) and enjoy every mouthful... i can promise you, you won't regret it.

the overall table winner of the whole evening was the saddle of hare, chestnut, truffle and drizzled in a gorgeous chestnut honey. the hare being only slightly touched on the griddle so's not to mess with the delicate meat and keeping it incredibly tender each mouthful had us all in complete silence through enjoyment.

trinity upstairs will fast become one of my 'go to' locals for when cooking seems a chore... it seats 18 so, be sure to book as this will some become a hot spot. adam - it's brilliant!

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 themenuchanges 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 south london proud.



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.

food - we had the tastingmenuand didn't leave a scrap of anything. the scallop ceviche and dexter beef fillet with smoked endive were the highlights, but everything was really top-notch technical cooking.

atmosphere - trinity has very modern decor but it has a very warm atmosphere. tables are far enough apart to not feel crowded but close enough to create a buzz.

wine - started with some rose champagne as a treat and then had a caraffe of wine. the wine list is very large and there is a good selection of wines by the glass/caraffe. i liked the fizzy/still water bottles (£1.5 p/p for the night).

so good that i booked for another night on the way out!

our 7-course tastingmenu(new for the autumn/winter season) started with robust nibbles in the form of warm bread rolls and a sinfully delicious whipped goat’s milk butter. this was a first for me – and despite looking like slightly melted marshmallow, this was quite heavenly with a mousse-like texture and a flavour like the creamiest, sweetest fresh goat’s cheese i’d ever tasted.

a gorgeous place to eat. i love trinity for a number of reasons. firstly, it actually feels good to be in this restaurant; it is gorgeous, the setting on the polygon is beautiful and everything has been furnished and finished with quality pieces. secondly the service is fantastic and finally the food is literally sublime. adam byatt knows seasonal food so well and themenuis always such a delight to read and experience. trinity is worth a visit, especially for sunday lunch. a true gem of a restaurant.
food: 8 / 10
service: 8.5 / 10
ambience: 8.5 / 10

frosty reception by the fed-up looking, casually dressed welcomer, but the waiter was great and everything seemed well until the food arrived. 'compressed cucumber' was described as accompanying my mackerel tartare tonight. it was just a slice of cucumber. not only did my plate look like someone had a nosebleed on it, but there was hardly any mackerel to be found. i don't know why i was surprised when the kitchen actually couldn't produce the dream their pretentiousmenuconjures up. after asking where our food was an hour and a half later the chippy gm said with no apology that the restaurant allows up to 2.5 hours for diners. that was not a good way to deal with the situation. once it did arrive, the braised beef tasted like it has been boiled in a kettle. yum. totally over-hyped and boring.

trinity is one of my favourite restaurants in london. i love the focus on british ingredients and their style, which is one of sophisticated comfort food. the sunday suppermenuis a lot more rustic than the regular

i last visited trinity, the latest venture from the brains behind the much-missed thyme and the not-so-much-missed branch in covent garden, some time last january, and had a reasonably enjoyable if not spectacularly accomplished tastingmenupaired with w