Mytton and Mermaid Hotel, Atcham
The Mytton and Mermaid, at Atcham, in Shrewsbury, offers itself up as one of the county's finest. But it falls short of brilliance, writes Andy Richardson.
Star rating: **** Oh good. Normal service is resumed, writes Andy Richardson. Letter-writing readers of the Shropshire Star's restaurant reviews have been moved to prose in recent weeks by critiques of local eateries.
Not for the first time, paid-up members of the oh-so exclusive Shropshire Restaurant Reviewers' Club have been damned for all manner of crimes. We're foppish wastrels with a devil-may-care attitude and tastebuds made of marble and we're ne'er-do-well guttersnipes who didn't have any parents.
Strangely, one recent correspondent, an angry gent from Craven Arms, cared less about our honest assessments of gastronomic craft than the quality of our diction.
It's not enough, he said, to receive our fearless and honest recommendations on where to spend hard-earned wages. Nor, indeed, should we be thanked for revealing kitchen horrors at short-cut-taking eateries with a disdain for value, provenance and service.
Instead, like naughty schoolboys who don't pay attention, we should wear a dunce's cap for using expressions of dubious literary merit.
Our critic has a point. So, in response to the man who offered to eviscerate our vernacular and proffer lessons in erudition, we'll drizzle our hand-picked reports with a soupon of linguistic class. Allcomers can pull up a chair to dine on Michelin-starred metaphors, saffron-infused similes and idioms fit for a king. We'll cater to those with a banality allergy and assume there's a regionwide cliché-intolerance.
But back to the more important business of this week's restaurant. The Mytton and Mermaid, at Atcham, in Shrewsbury, offers itself up as one of the county's finest.
Head chef Adrian Badland's team has won two AA rosettes and the creative cuisine on offer is presented with flourish. Ingredients are of high quality and good provenance.
But the Mytton and Mermaid is also one of the county's most maddening venues. While some dishes soar, others are clumsy and ill-judged. Examples of real skill are marred by a lack of restraint, which leads to poorly balanced plates.
Service, meanwhile, is inconsistent. Booking a table at the Mytton and Mermaid is like playing culinary roulette. It can offer one of the county's most enjoyable evenings but, just as easily, it can make for one of the most underwhelming.
Badland is a chef who should have Michelin-starred ambitions. He displays touches of technical excellence and an appreciation of good combinations that are beyond the wit of many contemporaries. But there's a chasm to cross before - or, rather, if - Badland is to achieve the highest level of recognition.
My wife and I dined at the Mytton and Mermaid on a balmy Saturday evening. Tables on the hotel's lawn were full of appreciative diners enjoying standard pub fare from the hotel bar. Inside, restaurant guests were choosing from a much more delectable menu.
I started with a pressed duck and foie gras terrine with golden raisins, peppery salad leaves and a sweet, sticky reduction. The duck was delicious but the foie gras was still immersed in yellowy, cloying fat, which made the dish too rich and dense.
My wife selected a chervil panna cotta with pancetta. The panna cotta was huge, the size of one that might be served as a dessert. It dominated the dish and overwhelmed other ingredients. A much lighter mousse, or more equitable proportions, would have increased her enjoyment.
For her main course, my wife chose the lamb. It was served, somewhat bizarrely, in a circle of fat on top of crushed potatoes, seasonal vegetables and a savoury sauce. The lamb was well cooked but the presentation was just plain odd.
If a dish has classical origins - and it's difficult to get more classical than meat, vegetables, potato and sauce - why not serve it classically too? The ring of fat should have been rendered for another use or thrown in the bin.
I selected a fish dish, which was a little overcooked and otherwise unremarkable.
We both ate portions of the same dessert, a chocolate delice with a butternut ice-cream. In isolation, both elements were great. But together, they simply did not work. There was nothing tart to cut through the heavy sweetness of the delice, save for three garnishing raspberries and a swish of coulis.
The butternut ice-cream, while expertly made, compounded the fault and made the dish heavier. A salted caramel inside - a trick used by the Michelin-starred David Everitt-Matthias - or an accompanying sharp-tasting ice-cream, like raspberry, would have made it more palatable.
The Mytton and Mermaid ticks so many of the right boxes that it deserves your consideration. It's suppliers' list reads like an A to Z of great Shropshire food, with Corbett's, Wenlock Edge Farm, Grove Farm, Wall's, RT Jones, Aroma Coffee, Troughles Fine Foods, Newport Farm and Willo Game providing ingredients.
There are standout dishes available on week nights too - a pressed terrine of guinea fowl, foie gras and local ham hock with golden raisin purée, marinated beetroot and port-wine syrup reads like an absolute winner, while crispy local belly pork with marinated clams, pumpkin purée and girolle mushrooms is a tried-and-trusted classic.
But the attention to detail is just not there and service lacks finesses. The sommelier was a knowledgeable and charming chap but our waitress was less convincing. She appeared to have a pierced tongue, or be chomping on a ball bearing, a sight welcome in bars and clubs but distinctly offputting at dinner tables.
Providing exceptional food is not just about putting great ingredients on a plate. It's about making sure those ingredients are in tune with others on the plate. There should be balanced flavours and the right quantities on the plate. Those are lessons yet to be learned.
Badland and his team are full of ideas but their execution is poor.
That the Mytton and Mermaid is among the finer restaurants in Shropshire is not in doubt.
But it's miles behind venues like Ludlow's Mr Underhill's and La Bécasse, Church Stretton's The Studio and many more besides. The technical skill of the kitchen team means it should be among the finest. With a lighter touch and a greater awareness of how ingredients work together, maybe it soon will be.
CONTACT
Telephone 01743 761220
www.myttonandmermaid.co.uk
MENU SAMPLE
Starters
Pan-seared scallops, cauliflower purée, apple salad and cumin velouté (£7.95); Artichoke, black truffle and parmesan tart, pommery mustard sabayon, wild rocket and aged balsamic dressing (£7.25)
Main courses
Grilled sea bass, Devon crab crushed potatoes, minted peas, cauliflower purée, stuffed tomatoes and horseradish velouté (£16.95)
Sides
Roquefort mash (£3.25); Puréed root vegetables (£3.25)
Desserts
Lemon and pistachio iced nougat, fromage blanc and black pepper sorbet with lemon curd (£5.95)
ATMOSPHERE
Relaxed and convival.
SERVICE
Hit and miss.
DISABLED FACILITIES
Facilities available and staff also help.
