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About last night. This month is the annual London Restaurant Festival and we were lucky enough to get a table at Adam Handling Chelsea to check out their menu with cocktail pairings by Martin Millers Gin. Every year, the festival’s “Top Ten” series celebrates leading cuisines by inviting top chefs to create an exclusive menu for one night only in their restaurants. Adam Handling has recently won Restauranteur of the Year at the British GQ Food and Drinks Awards.
We were already huge fans of Adam Handling’s food, and massive fans of Martin Millers gin, so a 5-course tasting menu paired with signature Martin Millers gin serves would be just too good to miss. When we arrived, Adam himself was in the kitchen adding the finishing touches to a plate of a dish we know and love, his amazing signature cheese doughnuts. We had dined at Adam Handling's restaurant The Frog in Hoxton before and both loved the cheese doughnuts and their homemade bread served with chicken butter topped with fried chicken skin, so we were thrilled to see those two familiar dishes again. Honestly, the chicken butter is just the nicest thing ever.
The first course arrived which was a delicate salad containing crab, pink grapefruit and kohlrabi. This was paired with a refreshing Martin Millers gin and Fentimans tonic. The citrus in the salad married well with the G&T.
Next up was a really delicious dish and Mrs Bandit’s favourite course of the evening, the Mushroom Agnolotti withroasted girolles and pickled garlic. This dish was full of flavour and paired with an Eve Bar Grounded Negroni. If you love Negronis and you’re a fan of coffee, then you will love this serve. Coffee washed Martin Millers Westbourne Gin, Martini Rubino, Campari and Amaro Averna.
Now, the next course was one we were very excited about - Lobster Wagyu 😍. The serve is very simple, just the lobster on the plate without any sauce or garnish, and that is because it doesn’t need anything at all, the lobster is amazing on its own. The lobster is boiled and then cooked in Wagyu fat before being finished on the BBQ before being plated with a drizzle of the Wagyu fat. This is lobster at its finest, the meat is sweet and smokey. The drinks pairing for this course was our favourite cocktail of the night, Strawberry Infused Martin Millers Gin, Ancho Reyes Red, Martini Ambrato.
Then it was time for the star of the show, the melt in the mouth Lamb Wellington, neeps and tatties, paired with millionaire chips. The dish was rich in flavour and the millionaire chips were to die for. The cocktail paring for this course was a Westbourne Martinez. Martin Millers Westbourne Gin, Noilly Prat, Cocchidi Torino, Luxardo, Angostura Bitter. Again, they absolutely nailed the drinks pairing with this course.
Lastly, something that took Mr Bandit back to his childhood, the battered Mars Bar. Although Mr Bandit isn’t from Scotland where the deep-fried mars bar originated from, it was something he would regularly get in his local fish and chip shop in Essex, he even still talks about the battered Topic they used to sell. As to be expected, Adam Handling’s battered Mars bar was a lot better than the ones Mr Bandit had as a kid. This version was divine, served with salted caramel, crispy honey, honeycomb and malt ice cream. This for Mr Bandit was the dessert of all desserts. The drinks paring was a Chocolate Moon Martini. Martin Millers 9 Moons Barrell Aged Gin, Crème de Cacao, Noilly Prat. We thought it might be too sickly after the dessert, but it was perfect.
Another thing we love about Adam Handling’s restaurants is the wide range of wine and beer choices. At their old restaurant, The Frog in Hoxton, Mrs Bandit found a bottle of wine which she hasn’t stopped going on about since. So, after we had finished our meal, we decided to stay for a few more drinks, it was well before the 10pm curfew after all. After a couple of glasses of Chablis, a few more cocktails and some Tiny Rebel IPA, we decided to call it a night and head home for a nightcap, which was kindly supplied by Martin Millers from the little goody bags they provided.
We just wanted to say a big thank you to Martin Millers for the invite, we had a fantastic evening. Also, thank you to Adam Handling and his team for being outstanding as always, and Sara for the awesome cocktails. We felt totally safe during our time there and all covid precautions were in place. A special shout out to Kelvin who somehow remembered us from The Frog over a year ago, thank you for looking after us, we will definitely be coming to Covent Garden to see you soon.
To follow the Adam Handling restaurants and Martin Millers social media accounts, please see the links below.
Martin Millers - Instagram - Here
Martin Millers - Facebook - Here
The Frog by Adam handling - Here
Adam Handling Chelsea - Here
P.S. HOT OFF THE PRESS, Martin Millers Winterful Gin goes on sale tomorrow (18th Oct) at Amazon and Waitrose. Winterful is inspired by the botanicals commonly used in home-made mulled wine recipes, such as cinnamon, mandarin and others like cardamom are added using a third distillation, making for a richer, deeper and more complex gin. We are very excited to try this release. You can find out more about Martin Millers Winterful Gin HERE
Happy Ginning - The Gin Bandits
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