Molton House is a new club brought to you by the illustrious Nick Valentine of Cuckoo Club (read our review) fame.
Molton House was previously home to a club called 43 South Molton. It was an okay venue, done on the cheap, and went belly up pretty quickly, not needing so much as a helping hand from the recession. Valentine has gone the opposite way in every respect other than keeping the largely members only policy. Clearly a huge amount of money has been spent on this site, from the downstairs club area to the upper floors housing the restaurant and bars.

The restaurant is housed between two rooms on the third floor of the townhouse. The decoration is largely snakeskin seating, what appear to be velvetine walls, feather boa adorned lampshades. It looks rather like Jordan has crashed into a sale at land of leather.

My guest, the wine merchant and I enjoyed the walnut bread that was presented to us with the menus. The menu combines an appealing mix of seasonal produce, and simple cooking. Once menus had been taken a butternut squash amuse bouch arrived, the scent filling the room with the wonderful pong of truffle oil.

I started with the scallop dish. Three scallops perched on a basil emulsion base and a foam topping. The scallops were cooked well, remaining translucent at the centre, and the basil contributed to a nice combination, but the foam, like so many of them remained a tasteless unnecessary aspect to the dish. The portion was on the small side, as was my companions starter of butternut squash, a very simple dish to put together, but tasty none the less.

Main course choices were; veal done in three ways, and for the wine merchant, beef with truffled chips. He declared his beef to be extremely good, and cooked as requested. The truffle was a bit lost on the starchy potatoes, but a hint could be detected fighting its way through. My veal was an accomplished piece of cooking, sous-vide cooked fillet, pan fried sweetbreads, and Kidney. It was a strong dish and cooked with some skill. I couldn’t help but feel that the dishes were gastropub style food, with added touches of luxury to justify the very high £24-32 main dish costs.

My guest and I didn’t fancy the puddings so chose to share the cheese board, three Neals Yead cheeses, presented well, if a little cold when served.

The previous Club incarnation closed on this site without a recession on, and Valentine has opened up in the eye of the storm as it were. I'm sure Molton House will still be standing in years to come with it's oasis away from the credit crunch, and escape from the ordinary.