York is a small town and that means a smaller selection of restaurants than larger towns, naturally, but because we are used to all the restaurants London has to offer, we decided to cook ourselves for most day. One evening however we visited the Blue Bicycle which was mentioned on Via Michelin’s website.
The restaurant was charming in its interior design with red walls, blue glasses and colourful china. The menu was both intriguing and rather boring.
There was no ordinary bread basket instead we got a little clay pot each with a bread baked in it. A nice touch. And so wash the baked garlic to have on it. The bread was nice and crusty on the top, but a bit too doughy in the bottom.
Christopher chose French onion soup for his starter, which was nice but not fantastic. The bread on the side was really nice though and would have been better than the bread in clay pots to start the meal.
I chose a crayfish, spring onion and gruyére bonbon, which turned out to be a large croquette with these three ingredients. It was crispy on the outside and had lovely melted cheese on the inside. Unfortunately the rest was mainly mashed potatoes and it only contained one crayfish. A great idea that lacked in execution.
Less potato and more crayfish and spring onion would be the way forward. And a vinaigrette instead of just oil with the salsa and salad would have been a lot fresher.
Chritopher chose the steak for his maincourse which looked lovely. It came with new potatoes, fried cauliflower and a mustard hollandaise. Till varmrätt beställde Christopher biff med nypotatis, friterad blomkål och senapshollandaise. Biffen var lite för välstekt för att vara blue-rare men var ändå god.
I chose seabass and got two large fillets on my plate together with a giant fondant potato that was very nice. The sauce was roasted garlic and quite nice and the fried ball was some kind of olive mash that to be honest was a bit weird in taste. I would have prefered some fresh vegetables instead.
We were way too full to have dessert (I had to leave quite a lot of my maincourse) so we decided on a walk to digest the food.
I don’t think the restaurant was all bad, even though I am quite critical in my review. This seem to be one of the better restaurants in York and it was very popular. Around 15 people was turned away while we were there and we got the only walk-in table for the evening. I do think the restaurant has potential. It was nice inside and they certainly can cook, it is more when it comes to creating daring dishes were it doesn’t really work. I think a more traditional approach with English and French well-cooked food would work better.
Scandelights 