Weekly Review: The Ninth
Michelin caliber set-lunch that’s affordable, intriguing, and delicious.
Quick hit: A Michelin star place that you could visit every week.
Details: Booking essential. Fitzrovia.
Restaurant website. More on Instagram and Michelin Guide.
Find it on Google Maps. 22 Charlotte St., W1T 2NB.
When you learn to scuba dive, the instructors invariably harp on a valuable bit of marine safety advice: If something looks pretty, ugly, or doesn’t flee, don’t touch it. That advice will hopefully save you from undersea punctures, bites, and poisonings.
On that basis, if I encountered a turbot while diving, I wouldn’t go near it. First, they are huge. Much larger than typical flat-fish like flounder or plaice. Then there are the eyes. The stuff of nightmares. And those big, long spikes in upper and lower fins, sure to draw blood, even through neoprene.
Thankfully, somewhere along the line, someone worked out that turbot tastes delicious. With careful carvery, their fillets are one of the true delights of the sea. And the fish get so big that the fillets can be cut into steaks, at which point they become a vehicle for a modern chef’s brilliance.
Jun Tanaka and Filippo Alessandri, the culinary leaders at The Ninth, are both brilliant modern chefs, and they have crafted a dish for their a la carte menu that includes simply grilled turbot, mussels, and a creamy vin jaune sauce.
But wild turbot are a delicacy and necessarily expensive. So the modern chef, especially an environmentally conscious one who respects their ingredients, will try to make the most of the rest of the fish.
The bones are easy: Into stock, the base for sauces.
But what about the heads? They sure don’t look very appetising. Most people would put them straight in the bin. But in the hands of Tanaka and Alessandri, the heads are for lunch.
My lunch, as it happens, on a recent visit.
I think anyone who loves food has moments that they will remember for a long time. A discovery of something new and wonderful. Or a call back to a faded memory of something delightful.
Turbot head was a supremely fun new adventure for me, and one that I will not soon forget. Needless to say, most of it is inedible. So the experience is a bit like eating a whole crab or lobster. You have to work for the good bits. But it’s so worthwhile. Because the rewards are soft, flaky, buttery morsels of fishy delight. It was served with a bisque made from langoustine shells, the by-product of making langoustine ravioli, another highlight of the a la carte menu. But this bisque was a bit unusual. Calibrated to pair with the fish, it wasn’t rich and decadent. It was a little sharp and full of darker shellfish flavours. They were the perfect compliment to the rich turbot.
The presentation was wonderfully, hilariously unapologetic. A visual dare. Note the strategically placed cabbage leaves to cover the bits — eyes and gills — that might be slightly off-putting to some diners.
It was also an anatomical dare. If you’ve never eaten turbot head before, you have to looking around for the meaty bits. And there are more than you might first assume. My lunch companion, more experienced in the ways of the turbot, helpfully pointed me to the tongue.
We did eat other things.
We opened with a snack of “Crispy Sardinian Artichoke & Tree Corner Leek Aioli,” which was another exhibition of taking something ordinary and transforming into a culinary delight. It was crispy on the outside, but the interior remained soft and vivid with flavour.
My starter was beef strozzapreti, a fantastic ragu that would have been at home on a table in Florence. With the turbot, we enjoyed delicious cabbage and a wonderful roast pumpkin.
For dessert, I was firmly steered towards the pain perdu with tonka bean ice cream, a house specialty. It starts with bread which is marinated for a few hours in crème anglaise. It’s then pan fried. Right before service, it’s baked to give it a gently crispy exterior to go with the soft and gooey middle. Sinful doesn’t begin to cover it.
We also tried the rice pudding, which was nicely decorated with citrus and the top brûléed. The combination was a fantastic blend of sweet and sharp.
You might be wondering why I sound so bowled over to have discovered great food at a place that’s had a Michelin star since 2016, and is helmed by two top chefs with proven pedigrees.
I dwell on it because the strozzapretti, turbot head, and desserts were all part of The Ninth’s set lunch menu which was priced at £33 for two courses and £38 for three. There were fantastic wine recommendations with each course, as well. You could have all of them and still say under £60 per person.
Compare that to the a la carte menu where the langoustine ravioli, grilled turbot, and pan perdu will cost £96, not including any wine or drinks.
This sort of set lunch is becoming a much wider trend in high-end restaurants across London, and one which Josh Barrie explored for the FT Magazine as part of the lunch issue in September.
The economics are fascinating, and the creative challenge for chefs even more so. I marvel at the thoughtfulness and skill required to take less-than-prime produce — like fish heads — and turn them into Michelin star caliber food.
Indeed, in many ways, I find this sort of magic even more sublime and inspiring than the extremes of culinary gastronomy that are on show at places like the Fat Duck.
But set menus like the one at The Ninth make it possible to visit more often rather than treat it as a special occasion place. It’s a clever economic and culinary innovation. (Yes, I know. The daily ‘menu’ has been a thing in France for ages. And this a twist on it. I don’t care. It’s still innovative.)
At the end of my own experience, I was even more fortunate. I was invited by a friend who does brilliant PR for The Ninth, Trivet, and a number of others, and the restaurant very generously (and unexpectedly) covered our meal. I very much appreciate their doing so.
Regardless, I’m happy to recommend The Ninth for Professional Lunch and to rave about my experience there. I struggle to imagine better value in the context of lunch than a clever, interesting, Michelin-star lunch for £38.
Thanks so much for reading Professional Lunch. I hope you enjoyed this week’s review. Let me know what you think of set lunches (and turbot heads) in the comments. And please subscribe if you haven’t already.