Number Twelve Restaurant
Review – By Clifford Mould
Number Twelve
12 Upper Woburn Place
Bloomsbury
WC1H 0HX
tel: 020 7693 5425
Who's still afraid of Virginia
Woolf? Don't be, because Bloomsbury
is no longer all blue stockings,
though it is still a bit of culinary
desert. I was pleased therefore
to notice this stylish new restaurant
that opened in October. We went
for a very leisurely lunch, and
I can say in all honesty that this
was one of the best meals I've
eaten out for quite a while.
The dining room is elegant and
spacious and the tables are decked
out with inviting napery. There's
a comfortable bar area and the
dining space has been divided into
two, giving a more intimate feel.
The chef is Santino Busciglio,
and although clearly Italian and
having cooked recently at Alloro
and Zafferano (the A-Z of Italian
restaurants!), his menu at Number
Twelve seems to be as much modern
British as modern Italian.
Although the lunch menu priced
at £15.50 looked quite attractive,
we were in it for the big time,
so we chose from the a la carte
menu. Santino and his brigade bake
all their own breads as well as
smoking and curing both fish and
meat. Shortly after we were seated,
a marvellous selection of Italian
breads came out, together with
a bowl of bright green olive oil.
We struggled not to eat too much
of it as we needed to save space
for puddings.
Santino’s home smoked Gressingham
duck breast was really moist and
deliciously cured, decorated with
a generous fan of multicoloured
segments of grapefruit and lemon.
My favourite was the Irish salmon
served in three different ways:
a terrine en gelee (where the fish
was not overcooked), a timbale
of salmon tartare, and his tasty
cold smoked salmon wrapped round
a concasse of tomato and zucchini.
The tiny pieces of vegetable that
made up the concasse were all of
an exact matching size, a mere
detail perhaps, but one that demonstrates
the care and attention paid by
this chef. Presentations were beautifully
done, not over elaborate, but with
a sharp definition of the various
components of each dish.
The menu changes daily, but on
the day we visited there was sea
trout, skate, rabbit, Welsh salt
marsh lamb, pasta and risotto,
the now ubiquitous pork belly,
and sirloin steak. My guest’s
fillet of native seabass was served
(as fashion demands), skin side
up, well browned but with tender
and flaky flesh, served on a bed
of white beans with a garnish of
ceps and purple sprouting broccoli.
I had mallard duck served two ways,
which is the only way I believe
you can cook virtually any kind
of duck. If you roast the bird
whole so that the legs are cooked
then the breast will be overdone,
and vice versa. Here the leg meat
fell off the bone almost meltingly,
while the breast had been excised
and grilled to perfection, well
burnished without, but still rosy
within. The dish was generously
garnished with Savoy cabbage and
pancetta bacon. The bread sauce
was a nice idea, but it needed
a bigger kick of cloves and more
of a bready texture.
That's the trouble with things
your mum cooked at home, they are
never quite right somewhere else.
This was true of the Scottish Raspberry
trifle - amaretti biscuits do not
a trifle make -at least not in
Bloomsbury. I was hankering after
sherry soaked sponge at the bottom
of the glass, and thicker custard,
a trifle more vulgar perhaps? But
seriously, this was a very nice
trifle and it made me think that
perhaps I was sitting in a cafe
in Perugia. The deep chocolate
tortino was a raving success, complemented
by some rosemary scented ice cream,
what a great combination!
This is a restaurant to which
I would gladly return to try other
things on the menu. My first visit
will be to test out the set lunch
menu.
Service was friendly and extremely
competent, and the wine list is
contemporary and provides rewarding
opportunities for all pockets.
Prices: starters £6 to £8;
mains £13 to £16; desserts
around £6
Opening times: Monday to Friday
midday to 3 pm. (last orders 2.45
pm)
Dinner Monday to Saturday 5.30
pm to 10.30 pm (last orders 10.15
pm)
Reservations: 020 7693 5425 www.numbertwelverestaurant.co.uk
Number Twelve
12 Upper Woburn Place
Bloomsbury
WC1H 0HX
tel: 020 7693 5425
Clifford Mould
