One might be forgiven for thinking a trip to Seasonality, a new restaurant in Maidenhead, would involve a seamless, super-fast trip along the spanking new Elizabeth Line. After all, we saw Her Majesty in a big hat, dutifully cutting a ribbon, heralding that Maidenhead and the likes of Twyford and Slough are now in extra-fast reach of the capital. Puzzlingly, this is not the case.
Seasonality is very much up and running, serving smoked lardo rillettes and peach bavarois on Queen Street in the town centre. But it will be 2023 before the Elizabeth Line starts to do the useful, commuter-enticing, home buyer-attracting things it promised, as it is still a thing of three separate parts. Presently, Seasonality, by Wesley and Francesca Smalley, has the feeling of an intimate house party just before things get a bit hectic.
On the day we visited, we were one of just three tables, and Wesley was serving the food as well as plating it up, on a gorgeous, highly covetable freestanding island in the centre of the room. The menu was dainty, ornate and thoughtfully sourced, similar to the sort one might get in a fancy, arduous-to-book, London spot. The Smalleys offer the likes of sea trout tartare flecked with cucumber and ginger, sweetened with a white soy ponzu; and ginger-cured mackerel with oyster custard, radish and lemon verbena.
Seasonality is more than a restaurant, incidentally. It first opened as a carefully curated produce store, from which you could – and still can – leave armed with posh balsamic and jars of exemplary cashews. They also offer meal delivery boxes at weekends, which have been a local hit. Now, however, is the time for Seasonality the restaurant to shine. This is patently a small, independent set-up, operating in tricky times; a true labour of love, involving much perspiration, pivoting and grit. At some point, after a round of Carlingford oysters laced with shichimi togarashi spice, then moving on to a bowl of very good aubergine caponata, I thought: this is a place that deserves to prosper.
Caponata is a perilous thing to get right because it is little more than a ratatouille with delusions of grandeur, made with capers, olives and garlic. We all know how hard it is to make ratatouille or caponata presentable to anyone other than oneself, and maybe the dog. Oh, we begin with fine intentions, but 10 minutes into stewing that aubergine, we’re left with a pile of dark, bitter mush. But at Seasonality, the caponata was a feat of architecture, gloriously generous on the black garlic and littered with a vibrant sesame crumble. I’ve never eaten anything like it before and possibly won’t again.
Other mains included a rather brief but delicious piece of Denver steak, sitting on a puree of parsley with fresh peas, garnished with summer truffle. Portions are certainly small, albeit perfectly executed, which is the tale across the land as prices of ingredients shoot up and energy bills increase. Nevertheless, we raved about a chunk of Cornish bass, now served with a lettuce velouté, a soft stew of earthy puy lentils and datterini tomatoes. When we went, the bass came with a shellfish lasagne filled with scallop, mussels and cockles, which was gloriously rich, chewy and soft in all the right places. This is delicate, imaginative and painstaking cookery.
There’s a two-course set lunch for £18, featuring those homemade rillettes and the option of orecchiette with lamb ragu, which feels like decent value to me – although, it would be a travesty to miss out on Seasonality’s pudding list because there’s a lot of joy to be had there. The fine art of making a fuss over pudding is in a slippery state across the British restaurant scene (such is the pressure to turn tables), so praise should be heaped on Seasonality’s poached cherry, marshmallow and pistachio financier option, which is dreamy and homespun.
We ate a dark chocolate cremeux, sticky with fragrant banana caramel with vanilla ice-cream made from scratch. There was also a bowl of English strawberries with a daiquiri sorbet and a boozy rum mousseline, but Three-Pudding Grace was reined in for the day.
Maidenhead town centre may not be a destination dining spot like nearby Bray or Windsor, but Seasonality is a positive addition to a town on the brink of big change. And it may not be entirely simple to get there, but I suggest you focus on those pistachio financiers, make like Oleta Adams and just get there if you can.
Seasonality, 26 Queen Street, Maidenhead, Berks, SL6 1HZ, 07507 714087. Open Weds-Sat, 12-2.30pm, 6.30-9.30pm. About £40 a head, including drinks and service. (Set lunch menu £18.)
The next episode in the third series of Grace’s Comfort Eating podcast is released on Tuesday 12 July. Listen to it here.
