Inamo: Hi-Tech Eatery of the Future.

www.inamo-stjames.com

How badgerifical is this? A restaurant where your table is an interactive space (projected from above) where you can browse the menu, place your order... use the "chef cam" to view inside the kitchen, keep track of group and individual totals and even choose your "tablecloth" design and play games either on your own or with the other diners.

I would be lying to you if I said we came here because the food sounded great. I had read an article about this "dining experience of the future" and could not wait to have a go. I do have a reputation for being a bit of a technophobe, but the appeal of ordering your food directly off the table top, without interaction from "a humble human" was too much to resist. At first I still found myself waiting or at least expecting service, but there is the beauty of it... they cannot rush you... because you decide when to place the order!  As soon as you embrace the power of ordering the chef around without interference from the usual mediator, a whole world of opportunity opens up before you. 

I found myself ordering more than I usually would and not keeping to the conventional pace of the meal. I could order mine without waiting for the other diners, and if I wanted another drink, I did not need to raise it as an item for discussion by the whole table, I had the power to simply do it! 

The table of the future.

Cherry tomatoes with ginger, chili and avocado. This was a delightful eastern twist on an Italian classic!

One of the biggest surprises for me was when the food arrived. It was beautiful! All of it! Modern and elegant and really quite delicious! The cocktails were also a great find, and I could easily see how on a Friday night you might be in serious danger of getting quite drunk drinking cocktail after cocktail without trying to hail down a waiter (which on a weekend evening in a bar is like trying to get a taxi in the rain) and lose valuable time waiting between drinks. No maths at the end of the night either, regardless of you group size, sobriety or moral preference as the table "knows" what you ordered and your total bill.

Truffled marbled beef fillet. Another beautiful twist on a carpaccio this time.

Duck with pancakes and hoisin sauce... no cucumber and spring onion though... instead a box of fragrant herb salad.

"Vegetarian Lunch Box" Consisting of miso soup, pickles, edamame beans, rice and a vegetable curry for £14!!!

Pandan macaroon, white chocolate and Yuzu mouse with candied Yuzu and homemade coconut and lemongrass ice cream. This was exquisite and I WILL have this again. What a badger! p.s those dots are the chocolate sauce, lol.

The beautiful stone bar.

The other wonderful thing was how beautiful and serene the restaurant was. The quality of everything was superb, from the onyx panels in the walls to the bamboos sprouting out of the ground. There is no missing the Japanese influence here. The clever use of sliding panels, and the sharp modern simplicity of the lines. Even the projectors were in funky hexagonal ceiling pods that added to the futuristic appeal of the place.

My trip towards the restrooms (which were also lovely).

The sake cabinet.

The most interesting thing that you realize about this new techy restaurant experience is how much of restaurant dining culture is tied to service. The pace of your meal, the ordering in rounds, and even the discussions around who will have what. Plates were arriving at the table and I did not even know they had been ordered! This style of dining (and the games!) definitely draws out an introverted sense of self and pushes you back into a personal space where your dining choices are not democratic and the idea of waiting on someone else to get your order in is driven out by the emergence of one's own internal voice saying "order it, order it now...".

L'Etranger: Style meets food

www.etranger.co.uk

We had eaten at l'etranger only once before, but decided to take our friends there for dinner. We thought it would be a great place to get a taste of London, as we all live out of town. Outside of London you can find wonderful 'country park' and 'boutique' hotel restaurants. If you are looking for something that is edgy and cool, with oodles of sophistication, but without the starch collared structure of a fine dining establishment, then London is the place you need to go.

I suppose it must be the wealth in the city that allows this kind of place to exist. The kind of place where you can have an informal semi-reasonable meal or spend over a grand on tasting menus and wine, a truly flexible dining experience. To give you an idea of the coolness factor, we are all in our twenties, and although we didn't see anyone in there younger than us, I felt a tinge of 'out of towner'. All diners were dressed well, 'rich/pseudo-intellectual sports casual' if that means anything to you.

L'etranger describes itself as a fusion restaurant - Japanese meets French, which personally, is not something I look for in a meal. If it doesn't sound like your bag either, do not let it put you off. The most Japanese element of my steak with truffled polenta chips and peppercorn sauce was the Japanese plate it was served on. If however, nipponch cuisine is exactly what you have been missing in your life, then there were curiosities (like Tuna Tataki with Foie Gras Shavings & Truffle Ponzu Jelly) on the menu to appease you.

The thing that impresses you the most are the quirky theatricals you witness, from the elegance of the olive bread sticks to the presentation of the courses. The attention to detail really served to prove that money had been spent on the right things and that you were somewhere a little special. The cutlery and glassware were über-sleek, the menu (sadly I did not photograph this) was printed on pearlized paper held in a handsome wallet.

Black and green olive pastry sticks.

Every time a course arrived there would be something at the table you had not seen before to capture the imagination, like the deconstruction of foie gras with foie gras lolly pops, foie gras creme brulée, and a test tube of plum wine!

Scallops with Parmesan purée in a shaved wood strip.

Foie gras three ways, with mushroom brioche and plum wine.

Calamari with lime and chilli sauce.

Five tomato salad with burrata, basil sorbet, and truffled balsamic pearls.

So we went to town, we started with cocktails, then we had starters, then we had mains with wine (from an extensive list) made more alluring by the fact that we could espy the glass walled wine room from our table.

All four of us chose the fillet for the main course.

We then shared a dessert 4 ways, which may seem impossible to you, but it was a platter of chocolate in 7 different incarnations including a mousse with orange, a bitter chocolate sorbet, chocolate fondant, an opera cake, and even a dark chocolate and truffle ganache.

Death by chocolate - seven ways.

To top off our night we had a flight of 6 dessert wines (which we also shared among us).  They had carefully selected 6 wines of increasing intensity. Starting with a light semi-sweet apple nosed wine to an aged pedro ximénez that clung heavily to the sides of the glass, a tar like nectar with the deep sweetness of liquorice, treacle and raisins.

They brought all the bottles to the table for us to see... and check out the cool table lights!

The holders for our flight of dessert wines were very fun and futuristic.

We were there for hours and we had truly taken advantage of the spectrum of delights they had to offer. The service was what you might expect at the finest establishments, the food was rich, delicious and comforting yet sharp and thought provoking. If you are looking to have a unique 'London' night or just want to be fed well and in comfort, then this place is for you. An intimate and classy joint that tickles with its play on food yet does not compromise your stomach's enjoyment in the process!