Rock Salt Cafe & Brasserie
31 Stonehouse St.
Plymouth, Devon
PL1 3PE
31 Stonehouse St.
Plymouth, Devon
PL1 3PE
http://www.rocksaltcafe.co.uk/
You have to know about Rock Salt to go there. Unless you happen to be looking for an automated garage door, a hire car or gym. It's in the kind of place you'd never imagine a restaurant to be. However, having been to La Cigale Égarée which has a Peugeot dealers on one side, forest on the other and serves some pretty incredible things, this had promise. A vintage-type room full of pale worn woods, natural light, cream paints and mismatched crockery made it feel halfway between a village tea-room and beach cantina - pleasant. Water coming to the table in a stoppered bottle and a very extensive menu on a wooden clipboard kept that impression. A glass of sparkling cranberry and some paper napkins later, we were just a sausage roll short of a picnic. One look at the menu totally changed this - Head Chef David Jenkins isn't a man for plating up uninspiring, insipid variations on the crowd. Pork, skate and peanuts. Cauliflower velouté, tandoori onion. A kitchen of three putting bold, quirky and fun plates out like that is fantastic. It says a lot for the dining scene nowadays that I expected pork, skate and peanuts to be a large white plate, or possibly slate, on which I'd find a cube of pressed pork belly, a seared skate cheek and crushed peanuts as a garnish. Microgreens could feature. What I got can only be described as a cauldron, containing oh-so-soft pork belly, beautifully cooked skate and peanuts in a deep and intense broth. Pleasant picnics aside, this was a £6.50 ticket to heaven, stopping briefly in South-East Asia. A silky-smooth cauliflower soup came and was poured over what looked like an onion bhaji with 'it's my restaurant and I'll cook what I want to cook' emblazoned on the side of the pleasingly generous dish. I lied about that last bit, but it might as well have been there. No infantile scribbles of puree on the plate - things are about flavour here. Thankfully, Rock Salt doesn't feel the need to say their meat is from Dartmoor, their seafood from Cornwall and everything organic or free range. Such things should be a given in restaurants. May we see more like this...
You have to know about Rock Salt to go there. Unless you happen to be looking for an automated garage door, a hire car or gym. It's in the kind of place you'd never imagine a restaurant to be. However, having been to La Cigale Égarée which has a Peugeot dealers on one side, forest on the other and serves some pretty incredible things, this had promise. A vintage-type room full of pale worn woods, natural light, cream paints and mismatched crockery made it feel halfway between a village tea-room and beach cantina - pleasant. Water coming to the table in a stoppered bottle and a very extensive menu on a wooden clipboard kept that impression. A glass of sparkling cranberry and some paper napkins later, we were just a sausage roll short of a picnic. One look at the menu totally changed this - Head Chef David Jenkins isn't a man for plating up uninspiring, insipid variations on the crowd. Pork, skate and peanuts. Cauliflower velouté, tandoori onion. A kitchen of three putting bold, quirky and fun plates out like that is fantastic. It says a lot for the dining scene nowadays that I expected pork, skate and peanuts to be a large white plate, or possibly slate, on which I'd find a cube of pressed pork belly, a seared skate cheek and crushed peanuts as a garnish. Microgreens could feature. What I got can only be described as a cauldron, containing oh-so-soft pork belly, beautifully cooked skate and peanuts in a deep and intense broth. Pleasant picnics aside, this was a £6.50 ticket to heaven, stopping briefly in South-East Asia. A silky-smooth cauliflower soup came and was poured over what looked like an onion bhaji with 'it's my restaurant and I'll cook what I want to cook' emblazoned on the side of the pleasingly generous dish. I lied about that last bit, but it might as well have been there. No infantile scribbles of puree on the plate - things are about flavour here. Thankfully, Rock Salt doesn't feel the need to say their meat is from Dartmoor, their seafood from Cornwall and everything organic or free range. Such things should be a given in restaurants. May we see more like this...
Onto the mains then: a lamb, pea and mint with hollandaise, and a kashmiri chicken sandwich with a side of chips. We didn't do wines, but rest assured the list is a document of both New World and European bottles and glasses by the ml. There is a small group of stickies for those that way inclined, and there are also some unlisted bottles. The lamb was unbelievable - perfectly pink, seared on the outside and actually tasting of lamb. A deep-green minted pea puree, wilted greens and charred spring onions held their end up well, and the hollandaise was a luxurious touch that worked a lot better than I thought it would. I never had to go near the scallop shell of extra seasoning on the table. The chips were standard brasserie sides - that's crispy, fluffy, salty and hot. Nothing wrong there at all, and it meant that the children eating in the restaurant were a) happy and b) introduced to great food. Which leads to the clientele. The diversity was fantastic! I've never eaten in a place with only 40-odd covers and seen young families, lunch clubs, older couples, young couples and individual diners all in the same service. The great service could be a reason why: run front-of-house by the chef's wife Chantel, all waiting staff were friendly, helpful, knowledgeable and really, really wanted to please. This included going to find out what wood the boards were that food came out on, explaining the finer points of panna cotta and entertaining children. They can do it all. As can the kitchen, judging by the kashmiri chicken. Generous, well presented and above all come-on-get-stuck-in tasty, mounded onto bread that wasn't hard, dry or soggy and actually tasted of bread. Lime mayo. Just yes. And it was less than six quid. It's very Rock Salt - why use raitha when something else that does the job of being delicious could go on instead?
As was the case with the desserts. Chocolate fondant is always a good test of the kitchen, as is vanilla ice cream. Even better though is an unbelievably decadent fondant served with popcorn ice cream. This was a fondant in the true sense of the word: I ended up using the popcorn on the plate and dipping it into the oozing centre. Popping candy didn't add anything, but was there in a quantity that didn't assault the chocolate either. It was still an awesome tour de force, and on par with my Grand Marnier soufflé at Brasserie de l'Est, a Bocuse operation in France's gastro-capital Lyon. The panna cotta was everything you'd expect - gorgeously indulgent, well accompanied (passionfruit and honeycomb) and rounded the meal off. A macchiato (the prettiest cups I've ever had coffee from in a restaurant) and the bill later, I was still hugely impressed and still smiling. A three-course lunch for two with coffees and no wine for £52.90 at what TripAdvisor says is the best restaurant in Plymouth. Right now, so do I.