Apricity

Sustainable food , low waste , foraged ingredients , creative menus using the finest british produce , fabulous wine list and amazing service. If this is something that appeals to you then a visit to Apricity must be placed high on your list. They are also now the proud owners of a Michelin Green Star. This was our first time hear and rest assured it will not be our last.

We’d only had the pleasure of enjoying the food of chef Chantelle Nicholson once before when she was at Tredwells but have always been following what she was up to since. Unfortunately it’s been a year since the opening of Apricity before we managed to get here. But I’m so glad we’ve made it now. The restaurant is situated on Duke Street which is literally a short walk from Bond Street station.

We arrived on saturday lunchtime and on entering received a lovely welcome from assistant manager Zoe. She gave us the option of a couple of tables so we opted to sit by the window. Once settled she came over to explain how the restaurant works. This starts by the menu to which you have to scan the QI. Code on your phone (don’t worry if you haven’t got a phone they will offer you the use of their IPad). It’s all part of the low waste theme. The menu consists of a Five or Seven Course Tasting Menu , A la Carte , Lunch Menu , Sides , an extensive wine list and a drink list. We decided to start with a glass of Manzanilla Sherry and a Old Fashioned Remy Cocktail of remy martin xo and apricot caramel while we looked at the menu.

We opted for the seven course tasting menu where there is an option of two dishes for each course. This was great as it gave you the opportunity to try virtually all the dishes. Now for the wine where we were very interested in the Orange wines and after some advice from Zoe chose the Brisat Vermell 2021 from Entre Vinyes which was a delightful pairing for the food and one that I would recommend if your trying orange wine for the first time. We started with some Toklas Sourdough with hollis mead butter and citizens of soil olive oil. This was brought to the table along with a Chickpea Doughnut snack.

Now it was time for our first courses. Here we began with the Braised Walmstone Farm Onion with an onion broth and chilli as well as the Venison and Pork Sausage with barbecued cabbage , wild garlic and a venison jam. These dishes were both excellent and very clever cookery that left us eager to see what was coming next. This was in fact mushroom heaven in the form of Crispy Oyster and Lion’s Mane Mushrooms with XO and wild garlic veloute and the Cornish Pollock Tartare with preserved wild garlic capers and hollis mead creme fraiche.

The next courses were the Regent’s Canal Alexanders Tempura with cashew cheese and hampshire leaves. The other dish was a fabulous London Red Butterhead Salad with miso , rhubarb and almond. The flavour combinations are very different to what we’re used to but they are amazing. This led us to the main course where we both decided to choose the Rhug Estate Lamb with braised royal oak carrot , vadouvan and long lane sheep’s curd. If this dish wasn’t delicious enough we accompanied it with two side dishes of bedlam purple sprouting broccoli with black garlic emulsion and the heavenly mac ‘n’ roasted cauliflower kimcheese. With our main course we were treated to a glass of L’archetipo red wine from puglia whis paired beautifully with the lamb.

Now we head to the Cheese Course which was a Rollright with preserved blackberry and a digestive crumb. Here Zoe treated us to a sample of La Calmette D’Vries Amour from France to try with the cheese and a delight it was to. This led us to the pre dessert a delicate Rhubarb with oat custard and crumble.

We’ve made it to desserts and two more fabulous dishes were about to arrive. The first was a Meadow Sweet Custard with a magnolia granita and the second was the Chouxnut with baked apple and hollis mead double cream. These were just a great way to finish.

We finished with a coffee to bring to an end a most enjoyable dining experience. The food created by chef Chantelle and her team is not only very clever but a absolute joy to eat. The service not only from Zoe but also Millie who it was also a delight to meet and looked after us superbly throughout our lunch. This is a restaurant I would highly recommend making a visit to. It was a real pleasure to try lots of new flavour combinations that was a credit to british produce.

Thank You Chantelle , Eve , Zoe , Millie and all your team for a fantastic dining experience and look forward to seeing you all again soon.