The advent of summer can only mean one thing – new menus being launched to augment sunny days and balmy evenings.
Premium bar and restaurant The Alchemist has announced the arrival of its much anticipated new food and cocktail menus. Now available in all venues, the new menus will cover breakfast and brunch right through to dinner and after work drinks.
I’m really feeling brunch these days. It’s so nice to not feel restricted to a set eating time (brunch providing that “in between time sandwiched in the middle of breakfast and lunch). Somehow, I always feel brunch as a treat, because I don’t do it often enough (rendering it a sort of novelty), and brunch menus typically include my favourite ingredients of smoked salmon, waffles, pancakes (plus Eggs Benedict for Him).
The updated food offering includes a host of delicious and nourishing dishes in time for summer, featuring a selection of vegan options, such as a fragrant Keralan curry with chickpeas and cauliflower rice.
This shawarma cauliflower steak served with harissa yoghurt and an energising mixed grain salad looks tasty and healthy too. I spy puy lentils in the background (one of my favourite grains), meaning this dish is what I’ll have when I visit the Alchemist imminently.
The Alchemist are also delighted to announce their partnership with Foodinate, a charitable organisation that works to end local food poverty by running a ‘meal for a meal’ initiative. The Alchemist has pledged to cover the cost of a hot, nutritious meal to a local person in need every time a customer orders the Duck Gyozas or Keralan Curry. This curry sounds delicious, with ingredient du jour, cauliflower rice. I also have my eye on the Bang Bang Chicken Salad, which sounds light yet filling.
I love cotton candy in all its forms, which is why this stunner of a dish is what I’ll need to kick off the nice long bank holiday weekend.
I love seafood too, and this dish of east meets west is intriguing. Have you ever tried tandoori seabass?
If duck is more your thing, then this pan-fried number should you have ogling you the screen for the next few minutes.
As I have a growing fascination with cheese (white Stilton is one of my favourite), this locally sourced cheeseboard is just the thing to whet my appetite. That fruit bread sounds like an interesting addition, I can’t wait to try that too. Looking at the new menu, there are around five dishes that I can see, that off the top of my head, sound delicious and which I can’t wait to try out.
As for the drinks, the updated cocktail list follows six months of innovation and experimentation from The Alchemist’s in-house expert mixologists to create its unrivalled theatrical serves. The new additions are Alchemist twists on old classics, using new techniques and ingredients.
The menu welcomes nine new magical additions bursting with complex and fresh flavours. Highlights include the ‘Pot O’ Gold’; a flavoursome and refreshing rhubarb gin and grapefruit juice combination, served alongside a beaker of pineapple gin jelly, as well as the ‘Iced Charcoal Latte’, an Alchemist take on the Espresso Martini. Guests can also expect mainstay favourites such as The Lightbulb Moment and The Colour Changing One.
Simon Potts, Managing Director of The Alchemist, commented: “We’re extremely proud of the new menus; our teams work tirelessly to provide a memorable drinking and dining experience for our guests. It’s a big task for our teams to create the next big thing but their creativity and passion never falters. We hope visitors of The Alchemist love the new additions as much as we do.
Talking about the charity initiative, Simon added: “We are always looking for new ways in which we can give back to our communities and we love the work Foodinate do. We’re the first national restaurant brand to partner with the cause and we’re immensely proud to work alongside such a fantastic charity. It also allows our customers to be a part of the initiative and we look forward to seeing the difference we can together make to our local communities.”
Being at The Alchemist is experiencing pure theatre. I’m an Alchemist fan – are you?