Feeling Spiced-Up at MKB Bar and Restaurant

The Radisson Blu Edwardian in Guildford has 2 restaurants; Relish - the British cuisine restaurant - and MKB, that may be a a lot of bistro-style, informal restaurant with a separate workers and kitchen from Relish.

Get here on a Friday night and you may notice it's buzzing - it will a giant native trade at the weekend. The vibe is youngish, though customers span all ages, and there are some fun style options, like motion sensitive flowers projected on the wall, that stop working if you get too shut. Aubergine and purple are sturdy colors here, and there is conjointly a quieter space with gauze curtains dividing up the area.

The menu features a Mediterranean feel, with sharing platters outstanding further as larger dishes - a kind of meze or tapas feel. A Spanish chef was utilized to assist style the menu - head chef Steve White says "I will do a tortilla or one thing with chorizo for instance, however he will tell me whether or not it's meant to style specifically like that" - however there is a north African feel to lots of the food too, with spices like cumin and coriander abundant in proof.

We opted for handmade lamb koftas, that came with an enormous pot of mint yoghurt sauce, and an outsized crunchy mixed salad. No pussyfooting around - these were well-spiced koftas, enough to form your lips tingle. I hate it when English chefs tone down African and Asian food to middle-of-the-road blandness - this wasn't a retardant here. The salad even had wickedly hot inexperienced peppers in it, further as tomatoes and peppers and a powerful mixture of completely different salad leaves. better of all, the koftas were chubby, generous sized, and juicy - not dried out in any respect, as is thus typically the case, and not fatty either. i used to be impressed.

That's all ok, however what extremely ratchets up a meal at MKB into another gear is that the cocktail list. There are some fairly ancient cocktails, however variety of them are given a replacement twist to travel with the food, using spices, herbs, and much of mint. therefore the ancient fruity flavours are created that tiny bit drier with thyme, rosemary, or cumin.

The bar manager told us that the place of cocktails has modified. rather than simply being one thing to drink before a meal, they are currently increasingly drunk with the food - which suggests that you've got to match the food, simply as you'd with wine. "Cocktails are not on the subject of drinks and mixing, it's regarding matching the food and also the client and also the spirits, and infusing it all into a beautiful expertise." She added that each one the senses ought to be concerned - a cocktail ought to look smart, smell good, and style smart.

We tried a handful of spicy twists on the classics. A pear and ginger mojito was contemporary however conjointly spicy, and packed with flavour - gingery enough to tingle however with those deeper, riper notes of pear. The casablanca julep with dried plum infused bourbon, lemon juice and Moroccan spices appeared alittle harsh and troublesome to induce used to initially, however once a handful of mouthfuls I started obtaining the sweetness of the syrup returning through too - and it worked alright with the lamb koftas.

Most in style, I was told, is that the Surrey Spritzer - tanqueray gin and elderflower liqueur, with pomegranate and lemon juice, topped up with prosecco. positively a lot of attention-grabbing than the standard tired white wine and soda.

With the bill returning to alittle over £20, this was smart worth as a lightweight meal; the sole downside I will see MKB posing is that after you have had one cocktail, it's quite troublesome to refuse subsequent one...