Alex Dilling, 7 course Tasting Menu | Uncover the Secret of Gaining 2-Michelin Stars in 6 Months

Possibly the best dessert I've had. It's a really really nice restaurant. They got two stars within six months. This restaurant called Alex Ding Ling that opened last year in September and it got two Michelin stars just in six months time and I booked it so long ago and today I'm here to celebrate my friend's birthday, Becca. Just waiting for them to bring us the menu I think. Hiya there. So here we have our five and our seven course tasting menus. They just changed the menu today. The new menu is like five course for £165 and seven course for £195 and I think we're going to go maybe with the seven. So for our welcoming canapes we have our bacon bread with a truffle jus and comté cream on this one. We have a warm mackerel brindad on smoked paprika aioli, duck grenades with a potato and black truffle tuli, tart of aubergine caviar, this one has buffalo mozzarella, both have a confit tomato, finally a corn gazpacho with fennel sabayon and espelette powder to finish. So start with the warm bacon bread and the warm mackerel brindad, on to the cold stuff and then the gazpacho as a palate cleanser. So they say that we should have the hot stuff first because it smells so good and it's crispy and opened my lunch perfectly and then you're supposed to have this one. It's so good. It's a very light touch, they have a very specific type of flavour when you first bite it. The crispy combines with the tenderness of this fish, the monkfish on top. Plato with burrata, two of my favourite things. And look they're very cute as well. The fennel is so fresh, the outside is very crispy as well. If you bite it together it's like a different layer of texture and different layer of taste. And finally on to this gazpacho. It's so good. Sourdough and then mini french baguette. I have the sourdough. What's inside? Salty butter and cheese. So right in front of us we have our Cornish Crab Burglars. On the bottom is a cauliflower purée and then the Cornish Crab is mixed with some creme fraiche, olive oil, lemon and it's finished with fresh cauliflower and pickled cauliflower. On top we have aged kohlrabi caviar. This is the first dish, caviar with crab and creme fraiche on a cauliflower base. It's just a very beautiful dish. Let me eat this. It's so good. Oh this is sweat bread. It is indeed. What is that? Mushroom. It looks so nice. So on the base we have Girond mushrooms with our Limousine Ville sweet bread. Then for yourself we have our Mortar Sausage. Then the Ville Jus. The Ville Jus mixed with creme which is a blanquette sauce. And our Limousine Ville sweet bread. I got a mushroom for my friend's plate. And I got this sweat bread. This looks so beautiful. It's like a secret menu. I tried sweat bread several times in other restaurants. I think it has a very interesting taste and texture. It's very nice. With the sauce together on the sweat bread, it smokes a little bit. And then put the sauce together. It's smooth and out the texture. Like very soft and has a rich texture. Then I have this sausage as well. Salmon and the caviar on the top is a crispy potato. So they swapped the salmon for us. Look how beautiful it is. It's like flying. Delicate and fresh. With the sauce on the side. You know you can get small salmon almost everywhere. But not like this. It's so good. Our blue tail lobster comes with a lobster jus infused with lemongrass. Cornish squid stuffed with shrimp. And then a Thai basil jus on the side. We have our wild turbot. This comes fast with the skirt and tail. A brown butter Australian black truffle and hazelnut sauce. And the pattern is made by squid ink. What is this? Oh squid ink. I'm going to have this lobster. I can smell it. It's very good. How is it? 10 out of 10. I got this super cool turbot. On the top, it's squid ink. Like a piece of art. No wonder they got two stars. It's like this inside. It's so good. The turbot itself is just perfect. There's some vegetables inside. And then you can combine it together with the sauce. I love the plate. Thank you. So you have the cutie cover duck. On the side is duck fursy. Which is basically foie gras with duck leg. And then you have the jus. Which is smoked duck. Duck jus with zirons. This is perfect. And then you have the mushroom. They have the duck foie gras. This is the duck. That's the duck breast. It's good, right? The skin is perfectly grilled. It's so good. It's crispy. Just the right amount of smokiness. I'm not kidding. It's so good. It's not super rich, the foie gras. It's a good combination of the texture. Because the duck breast has a very solid texture. And the foie gras is a little bit smoother. The foie gras inside is like this. There it is. Begin with a little palate cleanser for dessert. A sorbet based on yellow peach. So you have three different ways of cooking yellow peach. So you have yellow peach sorbet on the right hand side. A yellow peach marmalade on the left. And then below as a base, you have the jus of the marmalade. Thank you. This is our pre-dessert. It's like a palate cleanser. Different kind of peach, basically. It's like a real peach. This kind of dessert is worth the calories. You can taste this. There's no extra sugar. It's a very natural taste. It's so good. So you have the chocolate dessert. So you have three layers. You have the chocolate, vanilla, and then coffee. Coffee sauvignon, buckwheat crumble, and top is coffee. For you, no dairy. Obviously, all our chocolates. Dessert. It's like chocolate, vanilla, coffee. I can smell the coffee. It's so good. You know when they do something crispy? Ice cream on top. I can almost see how they do that crispy thing. The taste and smell of the coffee is so penetrating. Immediately wake up from this seven course meal. This is like pure chocolate. It's really dark chocolate. Ice cream is so good. Possibly the best dessert I've had in the past month. It's a really nice restaurant. They got two stars just in six months. So don't wait for them to get another star before you book here. But if you're ever going to come to London, don't miss it. The dark chocolate is all good for you. 70% dark chocolate with sea salt. Then white chocolate ganache. They're held on by caramel. Which goes lovely with both of the chocolates. I'd quickly get this. They're preparing for the dinner. This is Josh. Hi, Josh. Nice to meet you. I love the food and everything. What's your favorite course today? Turbo. It's really cool the way they do it. I like the duck as well. I love the ice cream. The coffee ice cream. Peach ice cream. Only in May for a few more weeks. The peach is coming off. The lovely watermelon berries. I'm looking forward to it. It's coming into game season. Thank you so much. We're leaving this place. The last customers. We finished the lunch. It was super nice. We're the last ones to come out of the restaurant. They got two stars. Yay!