The last day in Jersey was upon us, but that meant one last michelin starred treat before we left the warmth of Jersey and grabbed a plane back to cloudy London. The Atlantic Hotel was one of my list of hotels to visit, especially as it’s part of Small Luxury Hotels. I couldn’t have gone all the way to Jersey and not visited right? So off we went for lunch at Ocean Restaurant.
We arrived 30 minutes early for our reservation, so we took the time to scope out the hotel’s grounds and those stunning views across the beach. I was so jealous of the house that was parallel to the hotel on the cliff, with their balcony overlooking the beach. Pure natural beauty…
Ocean Restaurant is The Atlantic Hotel’s resident hotel that gained it’s michelin star back in 2007, having retained the star for the past 11 years but for all the right reasons. Mark Jordan is evidently a culinary genius, but I was soon to have a taste of his creative ideas for myself.
We settled down outside under the beautiful hot sun with some olives, nuts and a couple of pomegranate mocktails whilst we waited for our table.
The weather was so beautiful, we decided to have our table set up outside instead. The waiter came over and laid a complete outdoor setting, including a white table cloth. Which essentially made us feel like the restaurant had been moved outside, with the sky being our natural cover.
We started with a vegetarian starer with potato and garden herb gnocchi, shiitake mushrooms and parmesan cream. It was a heavenly and light dish that made us almost feel like summer hasn’t quite left us. It was just scrumptious!
The Ocean restaurant’s sommelier paired us with a white dessert wine 2013 Clos Uroulat from Jurançon, France, to compliment the food but also to cater for our love for sweet wines.
I ordered the assiette of Jersey beef with Jersey lobster ravioli, dauphinoise cappuccino and a red wine jus. It was garnished with a lobster claw which was Mark Jordan’s take on surf and turf. A slightly heavier dish, but was finished within a blink of an eye!
I felt like I needed something a little more refreshing to pair with my beef, so I ordered a glass of Taittinger champagne to accompany it and it worked amazingly.
My sister ordered honey roasted breast of Gressingham duck with celeriac purée, compressed apple and vanilla jus. Much to her disappointment, she didn’t enjoy the dish because of how the meat was cooked. The flavours were all there, but the duck was a bit too undercooked which completely put her off. Shame, but it must have just been an off day.
However, we were onwards and upwards onto the sweetest part of the meal… dessert!
Our lovely waiter brought us out a surprise dessert, which completely overjoyed my sister. She loves little surprises. We both got to enjoy the tarragon dessert which was tarragon snow and yoghurt ice cream. I loved the concept on the tarragon snow which made this little ‘pre-desert’ so enjoyable.
As for our main dessert, I had the white chocolate mousse with cassis sorbet and kalamansi foam. It was literally just what I needed, something sweet and refreshing at the same time. The sorbet gave the dessert a nice tang and was extremely cooling.
My sister ordered the Mojito. Which was flavours of Mojito, Bacardi and lime jelly with calamansi foam and mint ice cream. I think the completely clean bowl spoke a thousand words.
I’m the sort of person that does thoroughly enjoy a coffee after a meal (except in the evenings, that turns into an espresso martini instead). My go to is a latte with vanilla syrup if it’s available, but I instantly have it on ice as soon as the weather gets hot. As Jersey had let the some come out to play, I couldn’t resist having an ice latte. Our coffees were served with perfect little petit fours which ended our meal at Ocean on a very delicate and sweet note.
I have never experienced such wonderful service from a hotel restaurant, so I was truly blown away by my experience at Ocean restaurant at The Atlantic Hotel. I definitely feel it deserves a second michelin star without a doubt! Fingers crossed for next year.
After what was a truly scrumptious yet filling lunch, we chilled out on the sun loungers by the pool until it was time to get a taxi to the airport.
A special thank you to to The Atlantic Hotel general manager Andrew who took such an interest in what I did and came to meet me personally.
Jersey, you had been so great!
Until next time…