A Summer Menu Tasting at Bumpkin Chelsea

The secret garden at Bumpkin Chelsea is a relaxing, welcome place, with colourful tables, trellis strung with fairy lights, the whole place surrounded by plants. We spend far too much time there already, it being so close.

Being a seasonal restaurant that works with local ingredients, they often change their food offerings. They launched the Summer menu last week. We’re having our wedding party there this coming weekend and it was time for a tasting.

Last Thursday, we went and spent four hours eating our way through some top options. We expected bit-sized canapé style food, but the cook insisted in full dishes for most of it to show us what the presentation would look like, not just how it would taste.

Of course I brought my camera. I won’t tell you what we selected for the menu (nor will I tell you what I thought of everything because that will give it away) but I’ll show you a few of the dishes we tried. But of primary importance, the cocktail.

I practically have their cocktail menu memorised by now so I started with one of my favorites – The English Garden, a gin-based drink with cucumber, elderflower, mint, apple, lemon juice and a hint of soda.

We had a few starters to begin with, the first being a slab of BBQ pork ribs (when you actually order this, it’s twice the size).

Then we dove into a lovely chopped allotment salad with a ton of different flavours that keep unfolding and changing as you eat.

And our third starter was a crayfish cocktail mix – like something out of the 70s.

Then came three mains, all of which we shared. The first one we went for was the sea bass and braised chicory with fennel crab salad.

Then there was the free range chicken breast with baked Jersey Royals and mixed beets.

And finally, a vegetarian mozzarella tart, with elegance tomatoes and lovage.

It was time for another cocktail.

I went for another favorite – The British Martini, a sweet mix of gin, berries and lemon.

It was also time for a bit of a break before dessert. We were already beyond stuffed.

By this time, the sun had just about gone down and the atmosphere with the fairy lights was lovely.

Photo quality, not so much! Eventually, it was time for the dessert tasting. We shared two of these, also full sized portions. The first was the baked vanilla custard with poached rhubarb and hazelnut crumble.