If the White Company ever forayed into the hospitality arena, St Villa would be the type of place they'd create. A contemporary restaurant with stark white walls, marble finish to the furnishings, cut glass tumblers, olive trees and foliage throughout the restaurant, and thin, breezy, white, floor-length curtains at every door. It was so pristine and clinical that I was worried to eat there and make any kind of mess. But the menu looked fab and I was heading out for my first non-baby, non-husband dinner with a friend in over 3 years!
We met up on a Saturday night to find the restaurant about three quarters full, mostly with people on dates. An over-zealous waitress came to take our drink order pretty quickly, followed by another waitress coming to do the very same thing two minutes later. Drinks arrived, but they weren't ours; they were for the table next to us. Five minutes after that, our drinks order was offered to the table on the other side of us....we began to feel like we were perhaps in a Fawlty Towers episode.
As mentioned, the menu looked fab. There is a wide selection on there for all appetites and cuisine preferences. For the starters, there's everything from a charcuterie board to burrata to the kind of thing you'd see on an Ottolenghi menu: Black Sesame, Ginger and Honey Lamb Ribs. For mains, there are pasta dishes that look airlifted from Padella's developmen kitchen all the way to pub classics like steak, burger and chicken supreme. There really is something for everyone.
For starters we ordered the black sesame, ginger and honey lamb ribs, and asparagus with truffle & parmesan gratin. The highlight was certainly the lamb ribs. They were slow-cooked to perfection with a sweetness just glancing through each mouthful without being sickly. They were topped with crispy lamb which was almost like the gloriously scraggly bits of Chinese roast duck. They provided a great texture and were salty and most welcome. The sesame, ginger and honey glaze was slightly jarring with the harissa sauce.....an odd mix of two cuisines that didn't quite work as the harissa was quite bitter yet offered no freshness to the almost-asian style lamb. However the lamb itself was so delicious that it didn't really matter. The asparagus was underwhelming-it was undercooked and quite woody, and the gratin on top was congealed and rubbery. The truffle had a stored, tinned aroma which gave the gratin a slightly metallic note. In principle, this dish could have been fresh, seasonal and light, but in practice it felt quite heavy, and it definitely lost out to the lamb ribs.
For mains we decided to share the chef’s famous pappardelle duck ragu and the pan-fried salmon. The salmon was served with what should have been king prawns but were a little on the small side and were quite tough and lacking the juicy bite I would expect. The saffron and baby leek sauce was pretty bland and lacked ay saffron aroma or taste. The salmon was nice though-moist and flakey with a nice crispness to the skin and edges. The duck ragu was pleasant. It was mild and meaty with fairly thick al dente pappardelle. It lacked finesse but made up for it in comfort factor; I could eat a lot of bowls of this pasta dish.
The highlight was actually pudding. We shared the crumble of the day. It was strawberry ("in a crumble?" you say. "Yes" I say!) with black currants. It actually tasted like Christmas- there was a clove, nutmeg and cinnamon note that was incredibly warming. When spooned into salivating mouths with a dash of vanilla ice cream, it was a perfect sweet/tart, soft/crunchy medley. Definitely a delicious highlight and perfect way to round off the meal.
St Villa is slightly jarring for me; on the one hand it feels high-end with the furnishings, atmosphere and ambience, but the extensive but not entirely harmonious menu, and the slightly clumsy dishes that ever so slightly miss the mark, confuse me. I do think I'd go back...I'm intrigued by more of the dishes, and I liked the variety on offer, so it's a great place to go when you don't know what you fancy.
Service:
Eager waiting staff who are always on hand, friendly and accommodating; although at times, over-eager but under-attentive.
Price & Value:
London prices but in Hertfordshire. Mains came in in the high-teens to late twenties and starters didn't give much change from £10. Seems a bit steep, but the ambitious menu, big airy premises and the amount of staff on hand do somewhat justify those prices. I just wish the quality matched up to what I was paying....
Quality:
...and it slightly missed the mark for me. There is certainly the ambition, skill and the capacity for high quality from this restaurant, but for us, it just missed out on this occasion in the attention to detail.
Overall:
GOOD- St Villa is definitely worth visiting for a fun night out with friends. The menu has something for everyone. Plus they have heated "igloos" on the garden terrace which are pretty cool, so even if its thrashing down or chilly, you can still eat a decent meal outside in your own private dining bubble!
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