The Sportsman- Great expectations
I first heard the name of Sportsman in a radio interview where Stephen Harris talked about his restaurant Sportsman about two years ago. I didn’t recall what precisely attract me to google the restaurant with such unassuming name but its website is unexpectedly mesmerising. I loved the ethos of the restaurant ‘we let the area around the pub dictate what we cook’ as well as the fact that it’s somewhat off the beaten track. I’ve consulted a few Londoners to make sure it’s worth the trip. Their responses vary from:
‘haven’t heard of it’---- Fritha, well-travelled Londoner
‘can be interesting if you’ve never been’--- James, chef, Lyles
‘don’t know; don’t care restaurants outside London’------Alex, chef from a luxury hotel in London
No matter; I've made up of my mind of going. The road to make reservation in Sportsman is a long and winding one as described in my previous post but eventually I managed to get one table before our trip to London, being told ‘we have re-arranged the tables to accommodate you’; Lucky days!
So has the Sportsman lived up to the high expectation that was being built up during the last two years?
Overall I think it has, all things considered including the bill which is fairly reasonable (250 Pounds for two including tasting menu, one glass of champagne each and a decent bottle of 2014 Louis Jadot Beaune premier cru)
The restaurant can be remotely compared to Kobe’s In de Wulf both in terms of location and ambiance, though qua flavour the latter is no doubt more refined. The Sportsman itself is surrounded by restless sea at one side and undulating fields with sheep grazing on the other side. Now bear this poetic image in your mind because that’s how the food served here is inspired. The day is blistering cold; we took a small walk along the shore but then decisively run back to the restaurants, the only entity in the proximity that seemed to be able to ward off the cold and damp. I could imagine it would be very lovely in the warmer days.
Inside restaurant things are clean and well maintained. As it’s still a working pub, there’s naturally no table cloth. Instead, each diner has a small wood chopping board where dishes are getting served. I found this arrangement is wonderfully to my taste. There are plenty spaces between tables. Me and Felice joked how we would use up every inch space like what we did in Rossi if we were to run the restaurant.
The flavour of Sportsman is quite unique in a world where different food cultures influences, mingles and fuses (sometimes confuses). It’s distinctively British or even as its website suggested location-specific. More than often you find the produce of the sea and field come hand in hand, mostly augmenting each other though at times also jarring with each other such as crab carrot salad, brill with smoked pork, even the oyster dish which I imagined a purer version since Whitstable is famed for its oyster festival; yet we are served with a jaw-dropping combination of chorizo and oyster! A buttery note through and through, no trace of umani/salinity.
We met both brothers who run the Sportsman. Stephen appeared in the bar around 16:00 holding his mug, as if he’s just awake from his winter slumber and Philip (looked like someone from the The Archers), knowing we come all the way from Belgium to worship the restaurant, commented that ‘you see that’s part of the problem, people have such high expectation’, which I laughed and nodded.
