Skip to main content

Thomas Carr at the Olive Room, Ilfracombe - Christmas Lunch!

Thomas Carr at the Olive Room was recently rewarded a Michelin Star for its use of fresh, local ingredients and superb flavours, and it is certainly very popular. I was wanting to try the food here, but the restaurant is currently closed at lunchtimes and closed on my only day off! So…I have been waiting a long time! On their Facebook page last year, they announced they had late cancellations for Christmas lunch, so why not try something different to your usual Christmas fare?
When you arrive, it is not what you would expect a Michelin Star restaurant to be like. It is quite a small restaurant, we almost drove past it! Inside there were only two other tables and the owner’s family seated for Christmas lunch. I can’t imagine a lot of people can be seated on a weekend night. The other Michelin restaurant I have visited was Castle Terrace Restaurant in Edinburgh, where the restaurant was huge, grand and the staff professionally trained. The Olive Room resembles a more smaller and cosier affair, where the staff are friendly and not afraid to talk to you.
The restaurant is simple and clean inside, and of course, decorated for Christmas! We had crackers on our table, complete with little toy and bad joke!
The restaurant is nothing fancy inside as I have said, so there seems to be a big emphasis on the food. After our drinks, we received some homemade bread with butter.
On Christmas Day, the restaurant was only serving a six course taster menu for £80 per person, so we were in for a long afternoon! We spent a good few hours here enjoying the food!
First up was some crab mayo on bacon and cheddar toast decorated with watercress and fresh apple. This was so delicious, I could have happily eaten more!
To follow, we had scallop with hogs pudding, artichoke crisps and artichoke foam. Again, the flavours and texture were divine!
Next, was a stone bass fillet with prawns, tempura squid rings and a bouillabaisse sauce. I wasn’t overly keen on the sauce, which had orange citrus flavours to it, but the seafood was cooked well, and the squid rings were lovely.
Afterwards, we ate the roast beef, served with potato truffle terrine, mushrooms and oxtail. The flavours were lovely, my only criticism is that we were asked how we wanted our beef to be cooked. Although we asked for medium, it came out very pink!
At this stage, we were feeling very full! But now was dessert time (with a pot of tea)! I am not normally a fan of lemon but this lemon posset was really nice. It was lemon jelly, under a lemon cream with biscuit crumbs topped off with a yoghurt sorbet. This also comes with a shortbread biscuit on the side.
Sadly, I couldn’t make it to the end and finish everything! The last dessert was a dark chocolate torte with burnt orange puree, honeycomb pieces and clotted ice cream. This is a nice dessert, very rich! However, I was too full to finish!
All in all, I enjoyed my visit. The restaurant fully deserves its Michelin star. The use of ingredients and combination of flavours is really inventive and tasty. It seems a lot of thought goes into every dish, and it is a credit to North Devon! Of course, the price is expensive, but average compared to other Michelin establishments.
I would like to return again, depending on their opening times, but I would probably opt for ordering off the standard menu rather than the tasting menu. I would definitely recommend The Olive Room to those who are visiting or live near Ilfracombe! Fantastic food and service!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Edinburgh - National Museum of Scotland

The National Museum of Scotland is a vast building filled with exhibitions and displays covering nature, history, art, literature and science. There are also sections dedicated to Scottish history and culture. There is so much to see, I could possibly see one spending the entire day here! Another bonus is that it is free admittance. We were only here for a few hours, so unfortunately we didn’t get to see everything. My particular favourites were seeing the displays on different world cultures, natural history and the environment and the pivotal role Scotland has played in popular culture and art through the ages.

Hey Pikachu!

On the back of Pokemon Go, there seems to be an increase of Pokemon merchandise everywhere. I got this Pikachu portable phone charger from Currys at £17.99, perfect for on the go (and playing Pokemon Go!)  Pokemon XYZ has just ended in Japan, and it is a fantastic ending (I won't give it away!) - the last few episodes are especially emotional and a great end to what has been an action packed season! A lot of people say it is the greatest season since Indigo League! The Sun and Moon anime trailers has been appearing online, and it seems like a big backward step in terms of the storytelling. A lot of people have mocked the animation style, in particular, Ash's design. Time will tell if the anime can gain as much fans as XY/XYZ...

Bideford Christmas Lights Switch On 2016

On Sunday December 4th, Bideford Quayside was closed for the Christmas Lights Switch On event. Due to work, I wasn’t able to see the lights switch on, but I visited the fair beforehand. It was very cold but that didn’t stop the many visitors from getting into the Christmas spirit! There was an opportunity to have a “steam train” ride around the town and free reindeer antlers and Santa hats were being given away for free! There were lots of rides, hot food stalls and games. We won a teddy! There was also live music playing from the stage. Well known characters, including Batman, Peppa Pig and one crazy looking Pikachu walked around greeting everyone. It wouldn’t be Christmas without a few reindeers! They attracted a big crowd and mostly did some eating. The event closed with some spectacular fireworks from the riverside.