Please note that since writing this blog post, Stork has closed down
Those of you who are signed up to the Dining City/SeatMe mailing list will know that fish restaurant Stork currently has a promotion running (I believe until the end of April), which offers a seven-course tasting menu for €35. Seven courses for €35? Now that’s the kind of offer a foodie can’t refuse.
Of course, what started out as €35 ended up costing €65, what with wine and water and a tip… But then I should know this about myself by now: promotions are just there to tempt me to spend more money on the accessories that come with them.
We started with a glass of Prosecco, which tasted a bit cheap if I’m honest. The first course of oysters with spring onions, coriander, chilli and soy sauce was a little on the small side (given that you couldn’t eat the mountain of seaweed that they came on) – but then again it’s worth pacing yourself when you know you have six more to come.
The second dish was possibly my favourite: two perfectly cooked scallops with a buttery sabayon and wilted spinach. Simple and delicious.
Next up came blinis with smoked salmon, crème fraîche and herring caviar – not the most creative combination, but nothing wrong with the constituent parts. I just could have been at a 90s dinner party.
Then there was a sort of crab duo: one cold, with mayo and apple – it reminded me of coronation chicken but then with crab instead of chicken, and no curry powder. Ok, so maybe it was nothing like coronation chicken. The other crab was of the soft-shelled variety and had been deep-fried and served with grapefruit marmalade. I liked it, but it didn’t go with the Riesling we were drinking.
At what felt like possibly the wrong point in the meal, out came a fish soup – but it was the kind of rich, highly thickened soup that you’d eat a bowl of on a cold day, not the kind of light, palate-cleansing broth you’d want to punctuate your seven-course fish extravaganza. I wasn’t crazy about it.
Our last savoury dish was cod with mash and shrimps. The fish was good, but swimming in butter – again, not something I was really big on at course six. Dessert was a classic chocolate fondant, which was fine. But only fine.
My biggest disappointment was the wine. The ‘arrangement’ consisted of four glasses and cost €22 (or €7 per individual glass) but to me it tasted uniformly cheap and identical. I wasn’t quite sure how it was possible for a Riesling and an Albariño and a Chablis to all tasted basically the same, but somehow they did. To me, at any rate.
It wasn’t that there was anything particularly bad about Stork. It was just that – with a couple of notable exceptions – it was all a bit, well, meh. The question is whether it would be better or worse when what you’re eating isn’t on promotion… and there’s only one way to find out.
