Bourgee Review

June 9, 2015 by Rich - Foodie Reviewer

Bourgee Review

The great British seaside! Normally, a mecca for families seeking thrills and spills on the white knuckle fun park rides, or trying to win that must have soft toy from those thieving grabber machines, which you’ll stand no chance of winning as the grabber can barely pick up a feather, let alone that huge soft toy! Stag and Hen parties, they always enjoy a seafront, and I speak from experience, I’ve been on a few, stag parties that is! Finally, not forgetting the good ol’ jolly boys outing, all swilling copious amounts of lager, and wearing the height of seafront fashion, the obligatory ‘Kiss Me Quick’ hat, a classic! To be honest I rarely visit our very own golden mile. As with any seaside town in the UK, if you dig a little deeper and go off the beaten track there are always hidden gems to be found, and our seafront is no different to this. As a result the golden mile has never really been up there as one of my go to gourmet destinations. Until now!

The old Tiffin’s Indian restaurant near the Kursaal had shut its doors, thankfully Bourgee decided to move in. Opening last November, these guys really meant business with their star-studded launch party. I can’t believe it has taken me this long to get in here. I had heard some great reports of this place, and it soon become famed for three things, steak, Lobster and service, and we all know how important service is at a restaurant. So, a couple of weeks ago it was my Birthday, so I needed no better excuse than to head out for some serious fine dining, and Lou was paying, even better!

We’d booked for Saturday lunch, the sun was shining so we decided to wander down rather than get a cab. Once we had navigated our way past the amusement arcades, donut and fast food joints, Bourgee came in to view, a welcome gourmet oasis! The moment we walked through the door the staff were incredibly welcoming. A pre lunch drink at the bar? Why not! Not a bad selection of beers, wine and champagne by the glass. What’s even better, the bar had place settings allowing you to eat right there from the main menu. I love a bit of bar eating, it’s so relaxed and you seem to interact more naturally with the staff. I started off with a Goose Island IPA, a great American beer from Chicago. Lou went for a glass of LPR (Laurent Perrier Rose) and a big plus point here, the champers was served in a 1920’s style saucer, very retro! At the end of the bar was a whole leg of cured ham, I was tempted to ask for a few slices, it would have been great with the beer, but I resisted temptation, and decided to make our way to our table. The great service continued, as the waiter insisted he carried our drinks to the table.

We were presented with the set lunch menu and full ala Carte. The Lunch menu looked good and great value. Bourgee burger, New York strip steak around the £10 mark or why not splash out £15 for half a lobster! However, we had been perusing the menu online a few days earlier and knew exactly where we were going; a sharing platter to start, and the 800g Tomahawk steak to share, now doesn’t that sound like a serious piece of meat! We were torn between three sharing platters to start; do we go French, Italian or Spanish? Each sounded good with cured meats and other delights associated with that particular area, but there’s something on the Spanish platter which caught my attention, and when I see this nothing else will do, there it was, CHORIZO!!! Guess which one we had!

At this point, our waitress arrived at our table holding a platter of steak and proceeded to explain each of the cuts. Even though we were sold on the Tomahawk a few days earlier, it was lovely to hear a detailed explanation of the other cuts available. By the way, the Tomahawk looked huge in its raw state, I was so hungry I could have eaten it there and then, maybe a little too rare though! So, we ordered the Spanish sharer to start and the Tomahawk, rare with garlic butter. On the side? Well it just had to be fries with a steak, also cheese and bacon butter mushrooms, which I thought sounded very interesting. What’ll we drink with all that meat? Red wine I reckon. The Allegory Shiraz from Western Australia I thought would be perfect.

The starter arrived served on a rustic board, the meat and olives tasted great, perfect to share. To be honest, I thought they could have done slightly better on the bread. I know its advertised as sliced baguette and that’s exactly what it was, but I reckon something a little more rustic would have suited it better. But putting that aside the starter was good, but the star of the show was the aubergine caviar! Which is basically roasted aubergine chopped and mashed with other herbs and spices; superb on a piece of bread, delicious!

Now things got really serious when it was time to welcome the steak to the table. Our waitress presented us with a box, when she opened this it contained steak knives. We were asked to choose our knife, kinda like choose your weapon! Well I inspected the knives and picked one that looked up to the job. Shortly after, the main event arrived. Wow, it’s huge! At Bourgee they cook all the steaks in a Josper 400 degree charcoal oven. I wont bother trying to describe this, just Google it, you will see this is a serious bit of kit, and can only add to the flavour of this fine looking hunk of meat. Well it did! With the melted garlic butter, this steak was succulent, juicy and perfectly rare. Remember, this steak is cooked on the bone, so you are free to pick up the bone and gnaw off every last meaty morsel. One problem here, the bone resembles something from the Flintstones, so it doesn’t look very dignified if you decide to get stuck in. You may also get some odd looks from your fellow diners! The fries were good, but too many, we ordered enough for two, but I reckon one portion would have been more than enough. I’ve never seen mushrooms served with bacon and cheese, but they were great. All this, together with the steak, made for a very substantial and rich lunch! Needless to say, we were beaten, the remains of this beast of a steak were taken away, I loosened my belt, sat back and finished off our wine

Puddings! I really am trying here now guys! I couldn’t have put away any of the puddings on offer; Mars Bar cheesecake, donuts, chocolate fondant, they all sounded great, but as I always seem to say, it would have been a course to far! BUT, Bourgee have catered for me to a tee, the Bourgee 3 shooter sounded perfect. Baileys Crème Brulee, Gin and Tonic Jelly and Orange Vodka Pana Cotta, all served in three small shot glasses. Perfect when you have over indulged but fancy a pudding, all three were wonderful, and the G&T Jelly incredibly refreshing after all that meat! At this point the waiter presented us with, what looked like a tablet on a saucer, what the hell was this? He proceeded to pour hot water over this strange tablet; this was like some sort of magic trick as it turned in to a hot towel, quirky touch I thought!

It was time for us head off as we both needed to stretch our legs along the seafront after all that food. Some would say £125.00 for lunch is expensive, and on the face of I would agree. But come on, we started with champagne, a sharing platter, a huge steak to end all steaks, bottle of wine, and pudding. All topped off with great service from start to finish. So bearing all that in mind, and it was a special occasion, my birthday no less, you get what you pay for, so ill start again, £125.00 for lunch? Well worth it! Remember though, the set lunch menu, you can get a steak or burger for a tenner, you’d probably pay nearly the same in Wimpy down the road.

I admire Bourgee, they have certainly taken a gamble here, opening a fine dining restaurant along the golden mile, which is more renowned for burgers and doughnuts, rather than Michelin guide quality food. But it’s really working. So much money has been invested in redeveloping our seafront and its great to see this investment is now recognised by business owners, and wonderful restaurants such as Bourgee are opening up. I just hope this confidence will now create a domino affect and other savvy restaurateurs will follow suit, who knows we could soon see a seafront dining revolution, lets hope so!