I had high expectations of Bacchus Restaurant before I even got there, as their head chef Nuno Mendes had worked at El Bulli before, and it appeared that everyone was raving about this young restaurant (only opened in October 2006). Russell decided to book the restaurant for a Friday night and give it a try.

It's located in Shoreditch, on Hoxton Street, not exactly where you'd expect a fine-dining restaurant to be located. In fact, the restaurant looks more like a trendy pub. We quickly settled down at our table and then the first thing was to debate whether to go for a glass of champagne or cocktail. We both opted for the "Bacchus Bubblebath" which was a vodka and lime juice based cocktail - a martini glass topped with a hemisphere of bubbles. It was very refreshing - if I wasn't driving I could easily drink a few glasses even before dinner (and the nice thing was, I was not allergic to that vodka either).

The menu was simple enough with just 9 different dishes. The choice was either all 9 courses, or a subset of 6 courses or 3 courses. The choices were as follow:
Warm Tuna Toast - Cherries and their juices, hijiki-fennel, ginger sponge, rosemary gomasio.
Yuzu Crab - Tobiko, herbal broth, lemon grass gelee, baby shitake, coral crumbs
Calamar a la Plancha - Squid ink porridge, slow roasted coconut, lime leaf oil and powder, aire de tailandia
Confit Potatoes and Ceps - Black olive migas, yogurt foam, coffee, quail eggs, roasted potato jus
Hot Foie Gras Mousse - Mango ravioli, whipped macademias, pickled green papaya geleem, Szechuan pepper paper
Wild Sea Bass - Cripsy mange tout and nori crust, smokey aubergine consomme, roasted sweet lemon, kogiku leaves
Crispy Suckling Pig - Fresh and dried figs with their caramel, Iberico ham, mascarpone cubes, almond-basil powders
Roasted Nectarines - Fromage Blanc sorbet, Champagne gelee
Creamy Pistachio Custard - Wrapping of milk, rhubard compote, pistachio coffee, pear syrup

We went for the easy option of all 9 courses. All the dishes looked so interesting that there's no point in potentially missing out on a few dishes along the way. This turned out to be a very good strategy as every dish was cooked to almost perfection, despite this was the first day they changed to this new September menu. The restaurant manager came to the table to apologise a few times for the slow service and the long gaps between the dishes, but to be honest I was not at all bothered - I'd much prefer a nice unhurried meal to enjoy the food, rather than being rushed through all the dishes just because the restaurant was trying to squeeze in a second seating.

I had difficulty choosing a single dish that I like, because every dish was a masterpiece on its own - the beautiful presentation of the food was accompanied by the pleasant aroma coming off the plate, and that's already halfway to success. The combination of the more unusual ingredients in each dish blended well together, without being overpowering in any way. It's kind of experimental cuisine without the Fat Duck over-the-top style (not that there's anything wrong with Fat Duck either). The tuna was fresh and cooked how it should be - still raw inside (I never forgave Zilli for cooking my tuna steak so thoroughly that it tasted like cat food and I got charged for £21 7 years ago). The Yuzu crab had a certain Thai influence to it, and the aroma reminded me of dining at the beach in South-East Asia - now that's an achievement on its own. The flavour of the squid ink porridge was unforgettable and pleasantly intense.

OK, up to now I seem to just praise about everything in this restaurant. So if I really have to pick some faults (in danger of being branded as nit-picking now), here they are:
- The sea bass was slightly overcooked. It's not as if it ruined the dish, if it's cooked a few seconds less, it would have been perfect.
- The champagne gelee that came with the roasted nectarines should be served in a separate cup (eg an egg-cup or something), while the base for the roasted nectarines should have a stronger sweet flavour. I think that would have worked better.

The petit fours that came with the coffee were interesting too. The best was the chocolate truffle which had a hint of sea-salt flavour, and the truffle simply melted in the mouth - it was simply divine.

And the bill? The 9-course meal was £60 per person - considering the quality of the food, it was very good value. Put it this way, Fat Duck or Gordon Ramsay would be happy to charge over £100 for this, and even Jamie Oliver's Fifteen in the same area charged more than that for an inedible 7-course meal. The restaurant was only half full which was a surprise to me - maybe it's still relatively new and it's located off the beaten track, but this is a real hidden gem. The good thing about this restaurant is that the menu changes every month also - and so I don't think it would be long before I head back to Bacchus again.

Food = 9 / 10 (near perfect, but I need to try it once more before I want to give it a 10)
Service = 5 / 5 (keeping the customer informed about the kitchen problem goes down well with me - much prefer to know what is happening rather than wondering why everything's slow)
Atmosphere = 3 / 5 (music a bit loud and it was a bit too hot in there)

Overall rating = 17 / 20
(See My Chow With Chau restaurant guide for a full explanation of my rating system)