We revisit the Blue Mountain School restaurant, which has a new Head Chef
We first visited Cycene last year, once it had been awarded a Michelin star (something that only took the restaurant five months) and when Theo Clench was leading the kitchen. This has been a year of evolution for Cycene as Taz Sarhane (ex-Brooklands and Claude Bosi at Bibendum) is now Head Chef and he’s brought a greater focus on seasonal British ingredients to the restaurant by working even more closely with farms across the UK, going out foraging and utilising more fermentation and preservation techniques.
Eat This
Though the dishes have changed, the format of a meal at Cycene hasn’t, which means it’s still a tasting menu and the experience still starts in the bar, with aperitifs and the bread & broth course. Homemade sourdough and whipped butter is served alongside a vegetable broth enriched with chicken feet, pork fat and 50-year-old sherry vinegar, giving it a luxurious mouthfeel and intense flavour. This is soup and bread, one-star style.
Then it’s up to the kitchen with a quick pit-stop at Cycene’s impressive dry-ageing cabinet, filled with tuna, wagyu, foie gras and other delights. Taz serves the next two snacks, made from said tuna, in the kitchen, including a raw tuna tartlet and thin pieces of otoro, slightly warmed on a block of Himalayan salt block and dressed with foie gras fat and wasabi. This is not a restaurant that holds back on fat, and that’s our kinda restaurant.
You’re then taken through to the dining room, which still has the same homely vibe with its wood panelling, Persian rugs and candlelight, for the rest of the meal. After a final round of snacks, including a stunning smoked eel sandwich with laver, the savoury courses start coming. These include an incredible lightly barbecued lobster, brushed in wagyu fat, and served with fermented tomatoes and an aerated bisque; a beautifully iridescent piece of steamed dry-aged Shetland cod with a dill sabayon and a pot of coco bean and pork (and yes, pork fat) stew; and buttery Highland wagyu with an intense shellfish sauce and fermented apricot purée, and a deep-fried beef cheek suet dumpling and a bone broth, with added bone marrow to punch up the viscosity, on the side.
There are two sweet courses to finish, our fave being the tart and refreshing blueberry sorbet with wild blueberry compote and elderflower wine foam, so by the time a trio of pretty petit fours lands on the table, you’ve been very well fed.
Drink This
Go for one of the batched cocktails, like the chamomile gin & tonic, in the bar downstairs and then move up to wine in the dining room. Cycene does a half-and-half pairing, featuring some really inventive soft drinks, including a blood orange and toasted buckwheat juice and a fermented milk and honey concoction. The wines are just as interesting, particularly the quince and green apple-heavy Winnica Niemczanska Blanc de Noir from Poland, served with the early courses, and the vanilla-rich Mileştii Mici Noain Moldovan red paired with the wagyu.
Why Go
We were fans of Cycene when it first opened and the standard and quality hasn’t dropped one bit. The entire team is super passionate and knowledgeable about the produce the kitchen is using and it really comes through on the plate. If you’re a tasting menu fan, this is one to have on your list.
Key Information
Address | 9 Chance Street, London E2 7JB
For more information | bluemountain.school
Photo credit: Rebecca Dickson