Casamia’s confidence shows in their menu, with just one tasting menu on offer, which changes four times a year with the seasons (I realise how obvious that statement was). The décor also changes with the seasons, just one example of their amazing attention to detail. For the Summer menu the feeling was very beach-esque – with pictures of what we decided were of Weston-Super-Mare on the walls, although not the muddy parts I remember from childhood.
Each course was brought to the table by one of the chefs, who described the elements with an obvious passion for what they had created. A fantastic touch!
On our visit, first up to tantalise the tastebuds were some gorgeous pieces of rosemary focaccia served with Arbequina olive oil, so delicious that the usual balsamic vinegar accompaniment was superfluous. With so many courses on the way the head was saying that I should limit my bread intake, but this was too nice to stop eating.
A teensy quiche Lorraine came next , which melted away on your tongue as it was popped in your mouth. The only criticism is that we could have eaten far more of them; the small pieces of ham provided a lovely salty flavour to smooth egg filling.
Chilled broad bean soup was the greatest bonus, as it was originally meant to be cucumber and my taste buds are not the greatest fan of that long green vegetable. A cool bright green liquid was matched with frozen zingy mint powder and topped with pea shoots. With mint being amongst my favourite foods, I lapped this up in seconds. We were both completely fascinated by the pure whiteness of the minty powder too.
A simple sounding ‘tomatoes, mozzarella’ has since inspired the dinner date into looking into buying a dehydrator he loved it that much. (I’m quite scared I’ll come home one day to everything in the fridge being changed into its dehydrated form). A variety of tomatoes were served with the softest mozzarella I have ever sampled. Tomato jelly was made from the extract of tomatoes – the painstaking process to produce its extreme flavour of tomato was descried to us by the waitress – these guys obviously put a lot of effort into making sure each dish is exactly right.
Summer salad was a bowl of approximately 18 ingredients served with a cider vinaigrette; tweezers were provided to encourage the eating of each ingredient individually in order to fully appreciate the intense flavours of each carefully chosen element. This dish was met with surprising “ooo that tastes like aniseed” and “do you think that’s cabbage?” A mystery taste bud tour through the garden.
Perfectly cooked salmon sat on pepper puree and were topped with a collection of fresh circles from the capsicum family. A gorgeous fresh dish.
The piéce de resistance for me, and dare I say it, up there with one of the best dishes I have ever had, was the duck served with carrot and fennel. Beautifully tender slices of duck sat on a carrot puree with different coloured carrots adding prettiness to the plate. The fennel was initially a surprising addition, but the perfect balance to the dish.
Transitioning us from savoury to sweet courses, an almost cheesecake like dish consisting of peas and ricotta atop a lovely dollop of lemon curd was served. Mixed reviews from us. As a massive fan of all these ingredients, I was loving the fresh flavour combination. The dinner date’s taste buds however were somewhat confused by the salty and sweet effects going on.
Peaches and cream was our first dessert to be served. Not my favourite as personally the peach factors low on my list of favourite fruits.
Amedei chocolate topped with toast with flavours of lavender, was the description that most intrigued me when I read the menu. The toast added some great textures, creating a dish that I can only really describe as eating a pimped up coco pop (I hope they don’t hate me for this description!). Truly satisfied by chocoholism! We may have accidentally showed ourselves up my getting caught smelling our plates as we tried to work out where the lavender aroma was coming from on our plate. Whoops!
A final dish of strawberries and tarragon left us too full for the famous ‘Apple Pie’ as seen on Great British Menu. A taste of summer with its burst of English strawberry flavour in the jelly.
Being a school night, we chose not to do the wine flight, but wished we had at least shared one between us after talking through what would have been served with the somellier. We were snuck a little taster of the amazing tomato liqueur. 🙂
Just a fabulous evening all round. It’s a restaurant that just stirs up an excitement in you about every single thing you are eating – I must have had a silly grin on my face the whole time as I mmmmed my way through each dish….Now to work out how I can make it a feasible option to try out their new menu every season. I’ll be keeping an eye on the menu and cannot wait to see what these inventive brothers come up with! 🙂
