PaiGu

The Only on King has quickly become one of the most well-known restaurants in London, thanks to a review in Canada’s enRoute magazine (the magazine for Air Canada), and subsequent media coverage of Paul Harding and Jason Schubert’s endeavour to run a restaurant where all food is locally sourced. That means the menu changes according to season (and what they can get from their farmers), which is a challenge to explain to today’s “I get what I want” customers. However, one bite of their French and Italian inspired dishes will keep those whining mouths shut, and keep customers coming back.

I first heard about The Only from some foodie friends, who mentioned there was a new restaurant on the block rapidly rising to stardom after being named one of Canada’s best new restaurants. At the time, I had no idea they were also one of the only restaurants attempting to “do the sustainability thing.” It wasn’t until we invited Paul and Jason to speak at a sustainability event at the business school that I really understood, and came to appreciate, their unique venture. Paul and Jason get all their ingredients from local farmers, who they have established great relationships with. However, this means their menu is completely dependent on what is “in season” or what they can get from their farmers that day/week/month. Obviously, costs are going to be higher for ingredients that are local, organic, or both, and it can be reflected in their slightly higher prices. However, they claim to offer top-notch service on top of great tasting food, so you get what you pay for.

I made a reservation for six people on a Monday night, but unfortunately, only three could make it. Before I had even taken off my coat, the waiter scolded me for not calling ahead of time to let them know our reduced party size. It wasn’t so much what he said that put me off, it was how he said it – as if I was a human being lacking in basic decency. Well, sorry if half my party decided not to show up at the last minute. Did that give him the right to scold me? Did that give him the right to ruin my meal before it had even begun? Was this the great service they prided themselves on?

I was quite miffed as I sat down, and wondered if he would have scolded another customer the same way if it had been a 50 year-old man as opposed to a 20 year-old girl. I decided to ignore it, since I had been looking forward to coming to The Only for quite some time. Besides, he wasn’t our server for the night, and our server turned out to be very nice, and even humoured us when we started talking about premium gins¹ by bringing some out.

Between the three of us, we ordered three appetizers, two intermediates, and one main. The serving sizes were quite reasonable, and the meal turned out to be more filling than we anticipated, so none of us had room for dessert by the end.

The artichoke soup was first to arrive.

I have never had artichoke soup before, so it is hard for me to judge the quality of this particular bowl of liquid cream. Other than the fact that it was very creamy and not too flavourful, the soup made no distinct impression on me (certainly not my favourite dish of the night).

Then came the winter vegetable salad. My friend ordered this because she was curious what would constitute a “winter vegetable” as opposed to a spring/summer/fall vegetable.

I was amused with the “really good Tuscan olive oil” description on the menu. I am not sure if this was the same olive oil that they used on the rest of the dishes, but I realized by the end of the night that I did not like this “really good Tuscan olive oil.” At the time though, the taste of the salad suited me just fine. Unfortunately, we could not identify most of the ingredients, other than winter cabbage, carrots, and radish.

My appetizer was a quail, which out to be more of an “intermediate” than an appetizer.

It was very well-seasoned, and the meat was not too tough even though the skin was toasted to a crisp. The “boneless” part was a lie, as you can obviously tell from the photo, but I actually prefer bone-in meats, because meat near bones tend to be more tender². Smoked capicolo is basically bacon, and it is actually not in this photo because the chefs forgot to put it on the dish when they first brought it out. Our waiter later brought me a few pieces, which was quite yum. And for a creative finish, the sour cherries were a delightful twist.

The first intermediate to arrive was my friend’s house-made gnocchi.

Naturally, this dish did not appeal to me because of the abundance of cheese. Nonetheless, I tried some, and discovered a surprisingly unhappy aftertaste, to which my immediate reaction was “nyech!”

While we tried to deduce what made me react negatively to the dish, I found that my own intermediate had the same unpleasant aftertaste.

Despite how I tried to enjoy my dish, I simply couldn’t. We finally pinned down my cause for displeasure: it was in the olive oil. Something in the olive oil did not agree with my palate. And as much as I enjoyed the raw trout and the tender potato chunks, I could not develop an appreciation for this “really good” olive oil.

Instead, I shared the rest of my friend’s duck entree, which was delicious.

Maybe things flavoured with sauce as opposed to olive oil agrees better with me (which would make sense considering my palate is accustomed to the strong flavours prevalent in Chinese dishes), or maybe the chefs here are just really good at game meats. Either way, the duck breast was tender and savoury with a crispy skin. The meat was medium rare and lightly seasoned, yet it was very xian³. The cabbage and peas tasted great in the calvados sauce. Like the sour cherries in my quail dish, the poached apricot gave this dish a sweet twist.

The restaurant is small, but the ambience was mixed. It wasn’t quite homey, but it wasn’t quite upper-class either. There was a sleek elegance to its understated wooden furnishings. The bar was very well-stocked with some premium liquors and a varied wine selection. I would say they delivered quality service if it wasn’t for the initial lecture I received. The servers were well-versed on the background of the restaurant, but you can tell the chefs are the one running the show (the servers could not withstand prolonged questioning on the ingredients of particular dishes).

Would I come back? Certainly, but not often at these prices. And next time, I’ll steer clear of anything infused with olive oil.

Rating:

1. She realized she had the bottle(s) we had been discussing, and brought them over to our table to show us, since we’d forgotten the name(s). [↩]
2. There are three reasons for this: 1) because it’s buried down inside the meat, the bone and its surroundings don’t get as hot and cook as fast as the outer parts do; 2) there are more tendons and connective tissue near bones, and the collagen protein in these tissues turn into gelatin when heated, and 3) sometimes, there is more fat near bones, and we all know how delicious animal fat is. Reference: What Einstein Told His Cook by Robert L. Wolke. [↩]
3. Xian is Chinese word to describe a particularly savoury taste, of which there is no English equivalent. In Japanese, it is called umami. [↩]

Legal Sea Foods is a well-known restaurant with locations across northeastern United States. I did not know this while I was in Boston though; I knew it only as the restaurant near our hotel that had the funky vertical sign. Our group of eight walked in without a reservation on Saturday night, and at first they said we would have to wait at least 40 minutes, but when we turned to leave, they ended up seating us in a private dining room. Our waiter was amazingly accommodating. For example, after we’d placed our orders, we noticed on our informative place mats that Legal was known for their clam chowder, which none of us had ordered. So we called our waiter back and he brought us a bowl and eight spoons to share. In a matter of seconds, the bowl was empty and we were fighting over who got to lick the bowl¹.

Their assortment of seafood was overwhelming, and it took us a very long time to decide what to order. When the food came, none of us regretted our choices, although I attribute that more to the fact that everything at this restaurant was nothing short of delicious.

I chose rainbow trout from their list of grilled fish, which you can pair with your choice of seasoning/sauces. It tasted great with shandong sauce, as the fish itself was lightly seasoned, with flaky but tender flesh. I could tell it was quite fresh, as there was no “fishy smell” that comes from fish flesh decomposition when the fish has been sitting on land for too long.

We were so full after the mains that no one could manage dessert, but how could we leave without trying the Boston cream pie? So again, our waiter brought us one Boston cream pie and eight spoons, and again we fought over who got to lick the plate.

In hindsight, the mains may have been delicious simply because of the fact that their seafood is fresh (good relationship with suppliers maybe?), since most of their dishes ranked low on the creativity scale (except the almond-crusted salmon). I mean, when you have a plate of fresh mussels, lobster, and scallops, who cares how you make your tomato base? On the other hand, thumbs up for good supply chain management!

The restaurant is large and fairly noisy, probably because there are two bars in addition to its dinner patrons. Our location had a very modern interior, with winding staircases, pleather couches, and hanging spiraling glass. Their wine selection is quite long and varied, with very reasonable prices by the glass, half-bottle, and bottle. I chose a 2006 German Riesling to play it safe with the crowd, but a medium red probably would have been more suitable for our meal. There are not as many high-end wines, mostly wines in the low to mid price range, which is perfectly fine with me. Our waiter was very amiable, although he was slow to get us the bill, especially considering he knew we were in a hurry to get to the Boston Symphony Orchestra on time (it seemed like their customer to waiter ratio was on the low side, or maybe it was just Saturday night).

All in all, it was a lovely meal to complement a lovely evening.
Rating:

1. For both the soup and the dessert, I did not get a “before” picture because I was fighting off the masses for my spoonful of heaven. [↩]