The Chameleon Group's latest endeavour has enjoyed a menu makeover since we attended the opening night last year. We revisit to find out if it's all the better for it.
MEAT & GREET
As you'd expect, The Meating Place does one thing well, really well - meat! If steak and mixed grill are your thing then you'll have effectively died and gone to heaven so, you'll forgive us if, on our recent visit, we strayed from the carnivore's path.
Oysters! Yes, oysters to start. It might sound a touch strange but surf and turf works for us and very enjoyable they were too. Were we missing the point? No. Next was wild mushrooms, with perfectly poached eggs on sour dough with Hollandaise - nicely prepared although, for a starter, a little generous in size we thought.
The third person in our party enjoyed a really nicely prepared rabbit and ham hock terrine, again with sour dough and fresh salad leaves. This, on its own would have made a perfectly proportioned lunchtime snack. It was impossible for one of our group not to order one of The Meating Place's trademark hanging skewers - chunky lamb leg pieces in this case with cumin, coriander and garlic.
It might sound a tad spicy but was only very delicately so and most enjoyable. This was accompanied by an excellent platter of superbly prepared cous cous, roasted vegetables, green salad and flat bread. A baba ganoush sauce topped it off and The Meating Place's theatrical hanging skewer reputation remains intact!
Wishing to try some fish, I tucked in to John Dory, cockles and caper berries. The John Dory was very tasty but I thought this dish was trying too hard. Too much sauce ensured the samphire and greens were a little swamped and there just seemed to be too many cockles and caper berries. Good flavours and a good dish but one I think needs a second look at.
Although not a vegetarian, one of our party enjoys veggie dishes so plumped for aubergine, red pepper, goats cheese and crispy basil. This was rewarded with an immediate thumbs up but, again, the balance of the dish weighed too heavily in favour of the goats cheese. Are we really complaining about there being too much of something? It would appear so.
And then on to the desserts. The spiced cranberry and orange pana cotta was quite simply stunning - utterly creamy and complemented by the sweet, sharp cranberry surprise at the base. The dark chocolate mousse with expresso cream was equally smooth and scrumptious. An excellent cheese board arrived to bring proceedings to a close and we tucked in to some delicious cheeses while enjoying good conversation.
We liked The Meating Place. In some respects it tries a little too hard and, perhaps, the background music needs some attention. We love the theatre of the meat skewers and the desserts were simply divine. Service is excellent. Prices are very reasonable and portions are generous. If you like the other restaurants in the Chameleon Group, you're really going to like this one too.
