Restaurant Roots - lunch to go — The Adventurous Glutton

In many ways I’m like a goldfish because the latest thing I’ve had is always the best, but MY GOD…can we just talk about the Mother’s Day lunch I had from Restaurant Roots in Southbourne? It’s taken me a while to write this because I just keep thinking about how my words will ever do it justice.

We’ve eaten at Roots once before (you know, back when we were allowed to go out) and it was memorably excellent. We’ve tried to order their lockdown takeaway boxes a couple of times, but we keep missing the boat. They sell out quickly - and quite rightly so. Of all the excellent things my husband did for me on Mother’s Day, ordering us lunch from Roots was a stroke of genius.

The menu was so thoughtfully put together so we had minimal work to do - just reheating and plating. Here’s what we ate:

Starter: Pea velouté, mint and mascarpone agnolotti, mange tout and peas

Main: Salmon and lobster coulibiac, champagne velouté and caviar, mixed vegetables

Dessert: Lemon tart, citrus crème fraîche and raspberries.

The starter was right up my street - definitely something I’d order from a menu. “Pea with mint tastes like England in June,” according to my flavour thesaurus. And yes, that’s right - it’s a clean, bright and fresh flavour combination. The velvety texture of the velouté combined with the pasta bite and crunch from the peas and mange tout made for an absolutely delightful dish. Perfection, in fact.

The main was coulibiac, a type of Russian pie. The salmon within was cooked to perfection, and the lobster gave it a pleasing sweetness. We were happy to get a decent portion of mixed veg (carrot, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, spinach and what we guess may have been kohlrabi), as sometimes it can be more like a garnish. The champagne sauce with caviar gave the dish an indulgent finish.

And the dessert, OH THE DESSERT. The number of processes that had gone into it was mind boggling. Each element was its own little piece of perfection. There was a sweet pastry case. There was a layer of raspberry jelly. There was a baked lemon curd, which was flawlessly dipped in white chocolate. Then there was a raspberry compote and a citrus crème fraîche. What a lot of work, but that’s what elevated it from lemon tart to one of the best desserts I’ve ever had. The differing textures, the contrasting tart and sweet flavours…it was incredible.

I posted a photo of the lemon tart over on Foodim, and Nigella - yes, Queen Nigella - commented “beautiful.” And NO-ONE argues with Nigella.