St. John (*) – London

Usually, when I travel, I like to try new places, but every time I go to London, I ALWAYS go to St John. It's my favorite restaurant in the world, and every time I go, I love it even more. I go to London fairly often since I have a lot of families there and they're very picky eaters, so I can rarely convince them to come with me, but this time I was able to convince two cousins to join, so we were able to order a bunch.

I've been to all the locations and usually prefer Bread & Wine, but I went to the OG location this time. The meal was excellent, as always, and aside from a dessert and the bone marrow, everything else we tried was new to me.

Lamb Rissole and Ketchup:
This was a delicous kind of lamb burger that was fried. The "ketchup" was an old-world one, similar to one I once had at Dinner by Heston. Eating lamb in Europe is always a joy because it's so much better than the lamb we have in the US.

Bone Marrow and Parsley Salad:
This is the only dish that's always on the menu. I usually don't order it but since my family had never tried it we had to order it. It's delicious but something that everywhere seems to have now so not as special as it used to be.

Beef Broth:
I'm not a soup guy, but this was so good. It had so much complexity and depth, which I was expecting from just a broth. The pieces of meat in it were also perfect.

Smoked Cods Roe on Toast
I love roe, and this was a break from the more meat-heavy things we ordered. The bread at St John is great. It was simple and very nice.

Lamb Heart
This was the special of the day and they only had 2 left so we had to order it right away. It was easily my favorite dish of the night. It was perfectly cooked and had those offal flavors you look for. My family were a little squirmish about this but after one bite they were convinced that they should be more minded. We all thought it was the dish of the night.

Welsh Rarebit
This is a nice dish, but it stood out the least. The fried version at the Marylebone location is much, much better, and had my family not really wanted it, I would have skipped it.

Pigeon and Braised Red Cabbage
We really don't get much pigeon in America so I was excited to try it. While the flavors were good it was a little tough and a fair amount of effort to get the meat off the bone. The sauce was excellent and the cabbage went together very well.

Beef Mince on Dripping Toast
While this was definitely the ugliest dish of the night, it was one of the most flavorful. My cousin described it as "the best bolognese" he's ever had. While it's obviously not that, it did share many flavor profiles and was just straight-up delicious. The horseradish sauce was very strong and very good.

Sweetbreads, Bacon & Wild Garlic
I love sweetbreads, and St John kills it with them. They were good, but, to be totally honest, not as good as other sweetbreads I've had there.

The Desserts:
People rarely talk about the desserts at St John but they're literally some of the best I've had anywhere. We orded a bunch was weren't disapointed.

Date Loaf & Butterscotch Sauce
I've had a version of this before, and it's one of my favorite desserts I've had anywhere. The great date flavor, the rich butterscotch sauce, and the whole thing are sweet as hell but pretty much perfect.

Burnt Cream
This was basically a creme brule which is really my thing. Having said that it was the best one I've ever had. Creme brule is one of my cousins favorite desserts and she said it was the best she's had.

Coffee Ice Cream
It was delicious, but it was late, and I only had a bite since any more would have kept me up all night.

Madeleines
This is their signature dessert and its excellent. It's the only place I've had them hot out of the oven and it brings it to another level. It’s a must order.