Fraiche

4 Reviews on “Fraiche”

• Helen B

  A little piece of heaven in Birkenhead. Blinder of a meal last night. It’s the weirdest place – a cool oasis, serving exceptional food, whilst at the end of the street, as you get into North Birkenhead, a fight was breaking out. Compare and contrast.Front of house is young, enthusiastic, quietly efficient and with that lightness of touch that means they know when you want to talk, and when you don’t. Impressively the young manager told us about all his foodie research trips that he goes on in his spare time, including L’Enclume the week before. Business must be doing well…I wasn’t taking notes and the menu is quite terse, so from memory:Moreish spiced and sweet pecans to nibble, followed by, at the table, a liquid nitrogen granita of cucumber, mint and apple which was very well balanced, and then an urchin shell of a sort of mussel chowder with yuzu jelly. The starter proper was a slow poached egg in a cauliflower soup/foam with bits of smoked eel. Bread is a real strength and I especially enjoyed the cheese roll when accompanied by their home made goat’s butter and pink Hawaiin salt.The vegetable course was sherry braised salsify with chicken skin crisps, verjus and truffle shavings. Mop the plate good.Mr Wilkinson is a dab (pardon the pun) hand with fish. Exceptionally well cooked monkfish came with squid, textures of olive, and blood orange.Meat was barbecued Dexter beef rib with artichoke mousse, shavings, a hazelnut snow and braised shallots.Then the epiphany that is ‘fizzy grapes’. Apparently, the grapes go in an air compression unit and then when they’re exposed to air they burst and the fizz is created. I really thought he’d injected them with super bubbly champagne, because that’s what they tasted like. VERY grown up sweets.And then you choose between ‘salt’ and ‘sugar’. Salt brought some goats curd done with radish leaves and mandarin, followed by a wonderful cheese chariot, from which I particularly enjoyed some well kept Tunworth and Epoisses. They have well thought through accompaniments too, so pickled blueberries with goat’s cheese, and a chablis jelly with blue, for example.Sugar was an oh so fragrant and wobbly lemongrass panacotta with sour cherries, then ‘textures of pear’ which came with popping candy, something of which I will never tire, and a bowl of perfume, and then a burnt white chocolate mousse with coffee meringue.Absolutely stunning, every mouthful, and at 62 a head very good value for cooking at this level. For anyone struggling to book, it’s an electronic system, and tables (only 8-12 covers) come available on the 1st of the month for 3 months in advance. Because it’s electronic, the 1st of the month means a minute past midnight, so if you stay up late, it IS possible. We’ve got another 2 bookings coming up by doing just that. It’s also worth following Marc on Twitter as he tweets last minute cancellations. SOOOO worth the effort!

  June 7, 2013, 9:21 am

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• Trac Binns

  I’ve been twice now and I love it. It’s great having a Michelin starred place on The Wirral

  January 11, 2010, 8:21 am

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• Mark Wilkinson

  What an experience in my top 3 favorite restaurants!

  November 11, 2009, 7:30 pm

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• Mike Burkitt

  Fantastic innovative food in an excellent friendly environment

  July 13, 2009, 5:48 pm

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