Latest opening: Greg Clarke at The Pass
What: West Sussex hotel South Lodge has once again switched things up at its The Pass restaurant. Based within the hotel’s kitchen, The Pass is billed as a ‘truly unique and immersive dining experience’, allowing up to 28 guests to watch their dinner being cooked. The Pass has seen a number of chefs, err, pass through over the years. Matt Gillan launched the restaurant for South Lodge’s owner Exclusive Hotels in 2008 and went on to win a star there (he now runs his own restaurant, Heritage, just down the road). More recently, The Pass was under the direction of former Bonhams chef Tom Kemble, but his tenure was cut short due to the pandemic (he now runs itinerant pizza business SOPI). Even more recently, the space was taken over by Masterchef: The Professionals winner Steven Edwards while his Hove restaurant Etch was being refurbished (it reopened this week, in fact).
Who: But the kitchen is now home to former Midsummer House development chef Greg Clarke. He’s well-qualified for the role with a CV that also includes senior posts at The Ledbury, Restaurant Tom Aikens and Norway’s Maaemo and head chef roles at Pidgin and 108 Garage. Clarke’s senior sous chef is Joe Gray.
The vibe: The space was refreshed in 2019 when Kemble took over and little has changed since then. The small, brightly lit room has a mix of pink leather-clad banquettes and stools that give (most) guests a panoramic view of the chefs at work. Though nicely done, the feel of the space is a little at odds with Clarke's progressive food (and indeed Kemble before him).
The food: Clarke impresses with distinctive dishes that are clever without being over the top. Though billed as eight courses, the evening tasting menu (£95) feels generous with a dozen or so different things coming to the table once snacks and petit fours are accounted for. The former include mini Baron Bigod tarts, and trotter and cep doughnuts dusted in blackberry powder while other dishes that appear early on in the meal include late summer corn with smoked eel and sea buckthorn, and a soft Derbyshire oatcake topped with lardo and Westcombe cheddar that’s somewhere between a taco and a pizza and feels like a late-night chef's snack (in a good way). Other dishes include 10-day-salt-aged duck with duck heart ragu, beetroot and preserved elderberries, and a genius squid dish that sees frozen rings of the cephalopod defrosted at table in a punchy broth made with mushroom, dulse and bonito vinegar that changes temperature as you eat it. Sweet dishes include Charentais melon, lavender sheep’s milk yoghurt and caramac. A five-course lunch menu is also available (£50).
And another thing: Clarke’s residency is initially six months but one gets the feeling it might be extended with Exclusive Hotels likely to want to bring some stability to the hotel's food offering after several years of chopping and changing.
