kaberett | [food] David Bann (Reply)

shortcipher and I went to David Bann on our last day in Edinburgh. My overall verdict: interesting and tasty, but nothing I couldn't identify and nothing I'm not confident I could (work out how to) make to equivalent standard, and nothing so utterly baffling I'd never have considered putting it together and was astonished by how well it worked and how much I liked it. I'd happily go again and enjoy myself, but it's not something I'm going to spend time thinking about starry-eyed and dazed in the same way I do Vanilla Black. Which is an unfair yardstick, because by any other measure it's very good!

(At this stage, I'm afraid this is going to be brief notes rather than anything more in-depth, in a slightly desperate attempt to get it done before I forget everything. Sorry also for the terrible phone camera photos; still very much suspiciously getting the hang!)

To start, we collectively shared Thai fritter of broccoli and smoked tofu - fritters of home smoked tofu and broccoli with peas, fresh ginger, green chilli, lime leaf, lemongrass, sesame and coriander; with fresh banana chutney and plum dressing and chunky chips with fresh rosemary and thyme, served with homemade apple and tomato ketchup and sour cream. I did not hate the ketchup! They were tasty chips. The fritters were sort of interesting, in that they were textural and the smoked tofu despite being right there in the name was something of a surprise; the star of this as far as I was concerned, though, was the banana chutney, which was extremely fresh and extremely compelling.

For mains,

sebastienne had chilli pancake with grilled sweet potato, courgette and chocolate sauce - a light chickpea pancake failled with butter beans, kidney beans and vegetables in a rich chilli sauce, served with grilled sweet potato, courgette, creme fraiche, salsa and chocolate sauce; the actual bean portion of the chilli was as

sebastienne observed fairly plain, but then it was deconstructed: combined with everything else it worked very nicely, and the fine-chopped fresh-vegetable salsa was lovely. My useless ex had risotto of roasted butternut squash, celery and lemon - our own broth with leek, white wine, mascarpone, Lyburn Farm mature cheese, celery and tarragon, topped with roasted butternut squash; which I didn't try.

David Bann: beetroot mousse — "A light baked mousse of beetroot, apple and Dunsyre Blue cheese, served with polenta basil cheddar chips, pea sauce and warmed spinach with butter and nutmeg."

I had a light baked mousse of beetroot, apple and Dunsyre Blue cheese, served with polenta basil cheddar chips, pea sauce and warmed spinach with butter and nutmeg. I thought I'd probably got the best out of the deal: I'm normally slightly dubious about beetroot but felt up to taking a punt, and its earthiness blended right into the blue of the blue cheese in a way I was honestly quite surprised by - I hadn't considered that that was a continuum! - while the texture was light and fluffy and an excellent contrast to the actually crunchy polenta chips, while getting out of the way for the flavours. Good combination of textures; good thread of earthiness throughout the whole, which is not normally something I'd consider a compliment but in this case do (I think the spinach had been steamed in beetroot juice to add to the effect, and the amount of nutmeg was spot on); yes good.

David Bann: desserts — In front: hot peach and vanilla tart with raspberry ice cream
At back: "Whole raspberry jelly served on thinly sliced caramel pineapple topped with rum coconut sorbet. Served with Amaretto soaked figs."

I had the hot peach and vanilla tart; chocolate ice cream (on the menu) was very obligingly switched out for raspberry request, and for my purposes (not keen on chocolate ice cream, very keen on raspberry under all circumstances) this was the right call: the slight tartness (... whoops) played very nicely against the smooth-and-rich. Neither

sebastienne nor I were quite convinced that the Amaretto figs actually went with the rest of the plate, but I happily consumed them anyway; s. thought the balance of components was a little off, but it was all tasty. My useless ex's ice cream was deliciously bright and went very well with the cake; he was mostly just happy because there was chocolate (it was very kind of him to get this so that I could try it, basically).

... yep, everything was tasty and I would happily go back. :-)