Murano

In December 2011, we went to Murano for my hubby's birthday. We went to Angela Harnett's restaurant when she was still at the Connaught but we had never been to Murano. We were looking forward to our meal as we enjoyed our meal at the Connaught when Angela Harnett was Head Chef there.
Unfortunately, this blog doesn't have any pictures of our meal at Murano as I forgot to bring the camera!!!

For dinner, the restaurant offers a Piemonte Tasting Menu at £85 or A la Carte. For the menu a la Carte, we had the choice of having 3 courses for £65 or 4 courses for £75, and they left the choice of the courses entirely to us as they are very flexible. We chose to go for the 4 courses A La Carte as my hubby didn't fancy what was on the Piemonte Tasting Menu and it was his birthday afterall!
We chose a starter, a fish course, a meat course and a dessert. Both of us chose different dishes so we had a good idea by the end of our meal about the kind of food they served.

As Amuse Bouche, they brought us some kind of deep fried croquettes which were very nice. Then they brought us some charcuterie presented on a little board with a basket of bread. The charcuterie was very nice. The bread was OK. One thing I would say is that for restaurants of this standard, generally we expect them to give us some warm bread (as if they were baking just for us) but it wasn't the case.
Still the Amuse Bouche followed by the Charcuterie and the bread were a nice surprise and we were looking forward to the rest of our dinner.

For starter, my hubby ordered Pumpkin, Tortelli, sage butter, crushed amaretti - the Tortelli was itself adequate but the whole dish in itself was very dry.

The starter I chose was Scallops Castelfiorito lentils, apple, fennel, Pata Negra - this was a disappointing dish. I was wondering why they decided to put a tiny bit of apple fennel salad and very tiny piece of Pata Negra on the top of the scallops as it didn't go together. It didn't bring anything to the dish and OMG the tiny piece of Pata Negra wasn't even of the best quality!!!

For the fish course, my hubby ordered Monkfish Braised, baby leeks, cuttlefish "risotto", salsify - The monkfish itself was good but rather on the small side. This dish overall was OK but not more.

My fish course consisted of Halibut Bread purée, pear compote, white onion fondue, scallop velouté - The Halibut was good but the bread puree, the pear compote and the white onion fondue didn't really work altogether! There was too much on the plate and it gets too confusing for the palate.

For the meat course, my hubby ordered Venison Grilled foie gras, parsnip, pancetta, pearl barley - this dish was much better than my meat course but in terms of originality, there wasn't anything to write home about.

My meat course consisted of Partridge Jerusalem artichoke, wild mushrooms, walnuts - this dish was extremely disappointing as the Partridge was very dry. In fact, a few days before we went to Magdalen and my hubby ordered Partridge which was much better cooked than at Murano. The Partridge at Magdalen was moiste and juicy unlike at Murano.

For dessert, we ordered two different desserts to share between us:
A Soufflé Caramel, fresh mint chantilly - this was probably the best dish of the evening as it was enjoyable but having said that it was not the best souflle I ever had!
A Buttermilk Pannacotta, sorrel granité, hazelnut mousse - This dessert was very weird, it was like having three desserts on the same plate! We didn't quite know why they decided to put these three components on the same plate as they didn't go with each other! It reminded us of Masterchef, we were wondering what Michel Roux, Greg Wallace or the food critics would think about this combination!!

When I booked a table for this occasion, I mentioned to them that it was to celebrate my husband's birthday. Just to show that they know about my husband's birthday, when they served the dessert they just wrote in chocolate on the plate: Happy Birthday. I thought that was very cheap, they may just as well not bothered! In other restaurants of this standard, they generally give us an extra dessert to celebrate the occasion.

Another bad point that I would like to mention was the fact that one of my dishes was served on a chipped plate (actually the plate was chipped at two places even!). A Michelin star restaurant serving food on a chipped plate???? I was wondering what a Michelin inspector would think about that!

The service was nice, efficient and friendly...but sorry this is not enough to make us come back as the food was ordinary and so unmemorable! The dinner was rather expensive for a meal of such ornidary quality. The bill came to £240 for the two of us including half a bottle of red wine (and we had tap water). Not cheap for ordinary Italian food!
My husband thought that the wine list was on the expensive side comparing with other Michelin star restaurants. The mark up on wine was enormous.

Needless to say, our dinner at Murano was very disappointing. Maybe Angela Hartnett is too busy writing books and appearing on TV programmes etc... and doesn't have the time to keep an eye on the standard of food served at her restaurant???