Everyday, Restaurants, £££

Going Gluten-Free at M RAW

October 24, 2016

I’ve lived in Victoria for around ten years and for much of that time the area was a wasteland of chain restaurants and generic coffee shops, crying out for a cool bar, great steak place or edgy eatery. And then came M Victoria and with one swoop all my problems were solved.
M Restaurant is a multi-functional space encompassing a wine shop and tasting room, a bar, a members’ area, a grill restaurant, a raw restaurant and private dining areas. Literally what more could you need? As it’s so close to where we live Mr S and I have visited several times and are on first name terms with the staff. It’s actually our favourite local which was why I was excited to be invited to the relaunch of M RAW, a restaurant that promised a totally gluten-free menu with food the same quality as any fine dining establishment.
M RAW is smaller and more intimate than it’s sister restaurant in the complex, M GRILL, and has an open kitchen so you can peer inside and see the chefs at work.
We started off with some delicious snacks, I love kale chips, they’re such a healthy alternative and still have the satisfying crunch of potato crisps. I haven’t see them on many menus so I was pleased to see them here along with some tasty vegetable crisps and a guacamole sauce perfect for dipping.
The sashimi at M RAW is a real highlight and Lauren and I loved the kingfish with a slightly tangy ponzu sauce and edamame. The fish here is all caught using the ike jime method, which is widely known as the most humane and ethical way to kill fish.
Our other sashimi course was open blue cobia, a fish known to be one of finest of ingredients, M RAW is one of the first restaurant in the UK to serve it. The dish itself was delicious with a good kick from the green chilli.

I’ve come to know Chef Michael Reid personally and he always says hi whenever we come in. Michael returned to London after a stint in Melbourne working with Shannon Bennett, at his restaurant Vue de Monde, one of our all time favourite restaurants. He’s also worked at both The Gavroche and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay and alongside Heston Blumenthal at The Skinny Duck in Melbourne.

Next on the menu are M’s signature tartare dishes. Meat is a big deal at M Victoria, with the grill serving some of the finest cuts from around the world and some incredibly high quality ingredients also used at RAW. The Galician beef tartare was an absolute highlight for me and I enjoyed the combination of red Scilian prawns, egg yolk and garlic chips, it’s definitely the must-order dish.

I’ve mentioned before that Wagyu is the highest quality beef that you can get, here it’s sourced from Australia and is less rich than the meat that I tried in Japan. We throughly mixed the hen’s egg with the meat which had the perfect consistency having been cooked at 62 degrees and we loved the contrasting texture of the apple. There was another layer of richness running through the dish with the addition of foie gras.

Personally I found the next two dishes disappointing both visually and in terms of taste. Portuguese king prawns are cooked in black rice tempura flour, it’s a unique idea but I found the prawns bland and missing a citrus kick. Fermented vegetables were a little better as had an interesting smoky taste but still lacked in the looks department.
The Asian bowl is perfect for the very health conscious, containing a vibrantly green mix of bean sprouts, lettuce, steamed greens and cucumber salad.
Not all food here is RAW and the restaurant is more about purity of ingredients than everything being uncooked. A great dish for a body builder is the protein bowl with Argentine sirloin steak, courgette spaghetti, avocado, sweet potato, spiced tomato salsa and a buckwheat taco. The meat was a little fatty but I really enjoyed the overall combination.