Fera is in the gorgeous Claridge’s hotel in the Mayfair section of London and just opened in May of this year. Simon Rogan is the chef and co-owner but splits his time between here and 3 other restaurants he runs. We visited his first London restaurant, Roganic, on our last trip and loved the place, so we went with great expectations.
The room is splendid and large which is bad for a noise factor on the floor and fortunately we were on a raised level by the wall which helped our experience. I also have included several shots of the ladies room as it was so lovely it just had to be shared, but this is Claridge’s not just Fera. The service here was friendly but less than I would expect, attentive-wise. Although they did make up some ground with a kitchen tour and a visit with the manager and executive chef.
The menu offers a 7 course tasting or a la carte options for dinner. We took the tasting but it seemed that most were doing otherwise. They started with a mixed group of amuse bouche. The lightly fried rabbit was delicious but I thought the blue cheese should have had more of a pop. The smoked roe came in a creamy emulsion with some lovely crisped duck bits on top. The bread was nice but the caramelized butter was the star – it tasted just like you spread it with browned butter – YUM! The dumplings were tender and the truffles reasonably strong and the raw veal was tender and nice. The sea bass was bland but well cooked and the razor clams were lost in the mix. Of the desserts, the fig seemed unripe or just not flavorful and the chocolate malt was uninspired. There were no bad tastes but the there was not enough of the “lick your plate” clean offerings for a restaurant of this caliber.
