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Verge

Restaurants with a sense of their mission and identity are rare; those, like Verge, that manage to pair this sense with exciting yet accessible food are even rarer. Dallas Cuddy continues to ask polite questions of diners, teaming a Japanese sensibility and ingredients with their European equivalents to great success. The wagyu tartare, hand-cut beef with spring onions, quail egg and umeshu jelly, is a case in point, as are shiitake dumplings paired with the earthiness of truffled tofu and the tartness of cute little ponzu “pearls”. Accompaniments, such as the soy-milk “noodle” that snakes around a piece of sea bass, topped with smoked eel and puffed rice, can seem purely aesthetic, but, in general, flavour is the watchword. Desserts such as strawberry soup with rockmelon sorbet leave the palate singing, and the wine-matched dégustation menus allow the knowledgeable staff to shine.