La Trompette is one of my regulars; I booked last minute for a Saturday lunch, which is a great bargain at £29.50 for 3 courses, (£24.50 for 2).
The meal started off with a couple of little extras. First of all were little pastry puffs filled with gruyere cheese. I never tend to go for these types of nibbles if given a choice – although I’ll always go for cheese – so never really sure what would be good or not with them. But they were OK, light with just enough of cheese hit for me. Second was Artichoke Soup with chestnut which I loved. It had deep rich creamy taste with the chestnut providing the right level of nuttiness. There was a choice of bread and I chose the warm walnut and raisin, sweet and nutty and lovely.
My first course proper was Mackerel, squid, pickled cucumber, which greens. The cucumber cut through the oiliness of rthe fish perfectly, and the grilled squid had just the right amount of char to add the grilled flavour. It was served with bonito cream, which i think was flakes of fish emulsified with rapeseed oil. A pleasant surprise instead of a more normal sauce.
My main was the Pork Belly, pasnips and chestnut spaetzle. More chestnuts but treated differently here to form the carb base for the pork belly piece. Nothing wrong at all with this and I left the perfectly cooked crackling until the very end to enjoy.
I’ve never had a bad meal at La Trompette and the service has always been excellent. Combine he great food with the reasonable prices (for this standard of cooking), then will always recommend it if you’re out Chiswick way.
