Kia ora, so finally after weeks of waiting I hit this popular Chelsea eating spot, this time with an entourage of London-town Food Bloggers! Now if you haven't guessed already it was an event organised by leading restaurant commentators, Square Meal, and the lovely folk at Bumpkin restaurant. Although this was by invitation, (hint: I didn't pay zip, nudder, null) to be honest, I totally lucked-out here. Bumpkin is exactly the place I love to eat, and exactly where I would normally go had I known about it previously and for that I am grateful to Square Meal in choosing to invite me along :).
The folks at Bumpkin had us seated at a table in their secret garden patio, this is tucked away to the back of the restaurant. The restaurant location itself is within decent walking distance of South Kensington and Sloane Square stations, the street is off Kings Rd and Fulham Rd in Chelsea. Bumpkin are also all about British food and use the best ingredients sourced by farmers who operate using ethical and sustainable methods, this shows in the quality of the produce - that you'll see, the food kinda speaks for itself.
Trio of Freshly Pressed Juices
To kick off the evening's meal we were given a trio of freshly pressed juices. The first was cucumber, lime and apple - probably my pick of the bunch. The next was watermelon, with cucumber and mint and lastly, the 'kick' of the bunch (due to its spiciness) grapefruit, carrot and ginger ... hmmmm very healthy and great for a Sunday brunch.
Pan Seared Scottish King Scallops with Pea soup & crispy bacon
I really enjoyed this plate, the scallops were soft and fleshy with mild sweetness and sat nicely in the pea soup which was sweet, and perfectly balanced with the salty crispy bacon. Other starters:
Asparagus with truffle and poached egg
Dressed Cornish crab served with Avruga caviar on toast (toast not pictured)
MAINS - Line caught Sea Bass with braised chicory and fennel crab salad
This Sea Bass main had a lovely crispy skin, nicely seasoned not over salted what I really enjoyed was the fennel crab salad tucked away underneath the bass. This had accumulated all the juices from the fish so it had the sweetness of the crab, aniseed from the fennel and saltiness from the fish. This was all balanced out by the cubed cucumber. Such a lovely well balanced dish of food. In fact, all their food was in similar vein. Below is the monk-fish which had an incredible aroma from the light curry sauce as it was presented and my fellow foodie gave it the thumbs up. All of the mains went down a treat, I wasn't too sure of the vegetarian option, Mozzarella tart with elegance tomatoes and lovage. I thought this looked like it was slightly lacking in comparison to the other mains served but nothing a side of potatoes wouldn't fix.
Roast veal chop with mushroom and tarragon, Golden and Elegance tomatoes & mozzarella salad
British Cheese Board
The selection of cheeses were served with an apple pear mustard chutney. This was better than most other British cheese boards I have had, but I still find the quality of the French & Italian cheeses better at most restaurants than that of the British ones. I'm not sure why that is because there are some amazing British cheeses around, they just don't seem to make it to the restaurant menu's. In this round we have Wigmore, Shropshire Blue, Cornish Yarg & Ragstone.
SWEETS
Meringue with lemon curd, cream and summer berries (front)
Bitter chocolate tart, honeycomb & salted caramel mousse (back)
THE BLOGGERS
Bloggers be Blogging - pictured Square Meal's Ed Warr
Smiling, happy people - The Food Bloggers enjoying the evening and the pretty setting in the secret garden.
Bumpkin was a lovely place, I think I'm safe to say most if not all of us enjoyed the evening. We were well taken care of by staff, a special mention to our waitress Katia who was exceptional throughout the night. It was great to meet fellow food bloggers, I'll post a list of their twitters handles below so be sure to follow them! Bumpkin run events here all the time, they do wedding receptions, party events, you name it. They do breakfasts from 8am to midday - I mean what better way would it be to sooth your head with a Bumpkin Healthy Cake or an English Breakfast in the lovely garden patio after a big night of football. Thanks to the staff at Square Meal for hosting the night Ed, Ben & Ed(?) and to Bumpkin for the lovely food.
Bumpkin Chelsea, Chelsea, 020 7768 1292
Food Bloggers on Twitter
https://twitter.com/Littleofwhatyou
https://twitter.com/gffoodie
https://twitter.com/kskinbags
https://twitter.com/driftingepicure
https://twitter.com/MissEJP
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