I knew that there was a bit of a buzz about Arbutus, before I suggested that I, Miss R and Mr & Mrs N meet there for a late Sunday lunch. What I hadn’t realised, was that it not only got the Timeout restaurant of the year 2007, but was awarded a Michelin star earlier in the year, too. The fact I wouldn’t have guessed either until I found out those facts after we’d eaten there, says it all, really.  I don’t think any of us understood what everyone’s been raving about.

The decor was nice enough, brown tables and chairs with cream walls and the odd eclectic piece of art (none more so than the male loos, where there were several 1930’s photos of naked women), if a little close in places.

The menu was also quite interesting, if inaccurate in places (the crushed pumpkin with goats cheese turning out to be soup, which wasn’t at all obvious) and I did have a dilemma of what to choose, which is a good thing. I eventually went for the pig’s cheeks with lentil vinaigrette, which were fine, if a little uninspiring. I thought Miss R’s squid & mackerel burger was quite tasty, having little chunks of perfectly cooked squid compacted in the mackerel. The roast squash with wet walnuts and sheep’s ricotta looked very good indeed, although I didn’t get to taste that one, so can’t comment if it was as good as it looked.

My bavette of beef with red wine sauce for mains was excellent and I really enjoyed the red cabbage that accompanied it. The risotto of red wine, radicchio and taleggio, however, looked like one of those pink rice puddings I used to get at primary school and tasted even worse. The red wine and radicchio combined to leave quite a bitter taste in the mouth and it was a dish I would have been embarassed to put in front of anyone. The special of roast haunch of venison was a generous portion and went down very well. The traditional bouillabaisse had a rich, strong taste, as one would expect and the pieces of white fish that went with it weren’t bad, but it did feel as though something was missing. I was under the impression that bouillabaisse comes with shellfish as well (I may be wrong), and if so, these were noticeable in their omission. I also thought the soup itself was lacking some depth in flavour, perhaps some pernod or fennel would have given it a much needed boost.

Despite being unexplainedly harried for our choice of dessert (there were several other tables that were a course behind us), we settled for the Chocolate soup with caramelised ice cream, the honey and milk junket and the floating island with pink pralines (if only so the island could be poked to see if it wobbled! It did). The chocolate soup turned out to be mousse, even if it did taste nice. The floating island was an interesting invention, with the island consisting of an unset meringue, floating on what looked and tasted like custard. The island and praline didn’t taste bad, although it was a bit sickly and wasn’t all eaten. My milk junket (sort of semi-set yoghurt) tasted fine, but I didn’t like the way the honey had sort of set on top, leaving a gelatinous layer on top of the junket. I don’t know if that was meant to happen, but it wasn’t particularly appealing.

Overall, the food was definitely a hit and miss affair, with some excellent dishes mixed with a few ill conceived ones. The service, which I have only briefly mentioned up until now, was not that great. Almost all of the several staff that served us were acting as they didn’t want to be there themselves and didn’t particularly want us to be there either, and a couple of times only took drinks orders for half the table. One of the services that Arbutus offers is to serve all their wines in a carafe, which means you can have a different wine with each course without having to plough through a whole bottle. I do think that is an excellent idea nd would like to see more restaurants do that. I can’t believe it is a michelin starred restaurant, as there were so many things not of a high standard that I would not be at all surprised if it loses it’s star next year. I can name at least 6 or 7 non-starred restaurants that I’ve had consistently more agreeable experiences at.