A new menu for a new season at Barracuda

The first storms have lashed the island and most of us are at least considering putting on a jumper. With winter just around the corner, Barracuda will be serving up dishes from a new menu, to be launched in November, that’s sure to keep the foodies happy this season.

It wouldn’t be Barracuda without a sizeable fish menu. When you’re named after one of the most impressive fish in the sea, it would be strange not to focus on the wide variety of ingredients the ocean can produce. Of course, ingredients are nothing without masterful attention to turn them into fully fledged dishes. Chef Andrew Pace has taken on the task with gusto, carefully balancing richness and subtlety in flavour, stark visual contrasts and minute detail to create inspiring dishes with plenty to appreciate in every bite.

Start with the prawn tartare wrapped in nori – two seaweed-wrapped creations, stuffed with raw prawn and hiding a hint of truffle beneath the surface. A small dish, the focus here is on unfurling the flavours within and the challenge is to keep each component from outshining the others. On both points, this dish excels.

Another captivating dish to start with is the steak tartare. Visually speaking, it’s a stunner - the rich red of the meat, coupled with the egg yolk, it’s certainly an eyecatcher. This dish, despite the flair, keeps the flavours simple. Enjoy the complexity of the meat, with only the tiniest hint of citrus acidity to distract from the satisfyingly viscous yolk. 

Taking home the prize for most photogenic dish, the seared scallops with truffle caviar are just dying to be Instagrammed. Chef Pace’s expertise really shines through here - scallops are often criminally overcooked but in this dish they are just right, letting their delicate flavours emerge. The truffle caviar adds not just an interesting contrast to the pale molluscs but another element to savour. The truffle sauce is undeniably moreish and was, quite widely, used sparingly, to avoid overwhelming the other flavours. 

If we’re considering dishes architecturally, the black pasta with goose foie gras and speck definitely stood out. A tower of linguine, fortified with strips of speck and topped with a glistening slab of foie gras, the pasta sat in a superb truffle and goose fat sauce. This is definitely the dish for you if you are hankering after those rich winter flavours that we missed over the hot months.

Choosing the main dish can be a challenge at Barracuda. Try the grilled calamari, perched on a blue potato puree, for an interesting combination of colours and a sublime collection of flavours, including ginger, lemon grass and coriander. The perfect scoring and grill marks just remind you how much attention is being paid to your food behind the scenes. The Barbary duck breast, accompanied by a blueberry and ginger jus, reaches a wonderful compromise between the savoury and the sweet. 

You may be full to bursting at this point but it’s no use protesting - there is still room for dessert. Try the triple chocolate mousse with creme cognac for a final, decadent indulgence at the end of your meal. You may not want to share. 

194/195, Main Street,

St Julian’s

Tel: 21331817

Web: www.barracudarestaurant.com

Facebook: BarracudaRestaurant