The beautiful thing about Plateau are the floor to ceiling windows with views over Canada Square Park. Two and a half years ago a visit to the Grill half of Plateau with Sandra got us views over the ice-rink, tonight with Jenny we had views over the British Heart Foundation Canary Wharf Jog – quite a site to watch the runners run their laps … as we sat in the comfort of the restaurant eating our fine, rich food!

Later on there was also a band … though it was a bit sad that only three people were watching / jiving!

Plateau is very trendy in that city way – it even has gambling chip type coat check tags just for fun. As I mentioned Jenny and I dined in the restaurant section of the venue where the a la carte menu was a lot more intriguing than the set menu. However, the manager was still happy to comp us our aperitif which was very nice of him! In fact service tonight was superb – the waitstaff were engaging (they actually seemed interested in making conversation with us – even to the extent of making teasing comments like saying the truffled mac was simply too good to share), impressively they brought over spare plates so that we could share starters and desserts even though we hadn’t asked for them and they didn’t try to push us out of the restaurant once we were done. Admittedly on this last point they weren’t hugely busy but it was still nice to be allowed to sit there and chat even with nothing on the table.

And the food! This was absolutely gorgeous. Fresh and warmed and served with yummy butter (I think that’s part of the reason why I was so full even after only two courses …) For a starter I was enticed by the English parsley risotto, sauté of snails with garlic butter. I’m not entirely sure what the dark sauce was on the plate but it was quite delicious and just on the right side of well-seasoned. Jenny passed on starters to finish with dessert.

For our mains it was Seared fillet of sea bream, aubergine caviar (interesting), slow cooked onions and peppers for Jenny and I simply could not go past the Poached and roast corn fed chicken, truffled macaroni, baby leeks, jus gras. Yes – it was definitely the truffled mac which made me choose this dish. Would have been a tough call had pork belly been on the a la carte menu! The corn fed chicken was perfectly tender and juicy and the truffled mac – do I need to say anymore!

To finish Jenny had a beautiful Warm bitter chocolate tart (more chocolate fondant than tart), kalamansi sorbet (yay for a Filipino fruit) and Oreo cookie crumb. Even I was intrigued by this dessert … shame I was too full to indulge!

If Plateau was more centrally located (I was over Canary Wharf side to visit Jenny at her new workplace) I would definitely eat there more often. Guess I’ll just have to satisfy myself to occasional treats!

Seventeen, one of my local Chinese restaurants, was 50% off on top table and I thought why not give it another go – see if the reason I didn’t rate it on my last visit was because Pat and I hadn’t chosen the right dishes.

Well, I’m still not convinced … certainly not enough to pay the full price at any rate.

Tonight no cocktails but tea. Tea which came in the cutest littlest teapots and the cutest littlest teacups – I’d be surprised if there was more than a few mouthfuls in the cups! At least they were pretty good at refilling our pots!

Without really thinking about it we ended up getting three dishes which were deep fried. For starters Crispy Soft Shell Crab tossed with garlic, chilli and sea salt and Golden Calamari tossed in mixed herbs, pepper and garlic. Quite similar in flavouring to each other to be honest.

For mains it was Taste of the Sea which consisted of Lobster, king scallop, cod fillet with soft shell crab. Served with asparagus, red onion, baby corn and spring onion, in the chef’s special sake sauce. I quite enjoyed this dish, which was surprisingly sweet, but was very disappointed to find that the soft shell crab had been fried. I guess its not often served unfried but still. Along with this we chose the Mango duck (duck breast stir fried with mango, mixed greens in orange dressing.) This wasn’t bad but duck probably wasn’t the best meat to go with the mango.

Overall the food was okay but not stunning. I guess we still didn’t really challenge the Sichuanese aspect of the restaurant though we did try a couple of dishes with some twists to it Good value for the 50% but portions are still relatively small otherwise. I can’t say I’d become a regular but would keep it as an option as long as the 50% offer was around.

Awesome weather, awesome company, awesome food – a great combination for a relaxed Sunday barbecue at Nate and Caro’s.

Gaspar is going up so quickly now – running around, playing football, playing rugby (though he hasn’t quite worked out how to catch the ball yet) and helping out with the barbecue …

“You Want This?”

And it wouldn’t be a traditional barbecue without Nate dropping something on to the floor … ha ha!

Here’s the food! That’s right. Two plates of good stuff plus dessert 🙂

Bob Bob Ricard has been on my to-eat list for over two years! Can’t believe it has taken me so long to get here – its so much fun! How does one describe Bob Bob Ricard? It describes itself as serving luxury English and Russian to an eclectic clientele in London’s most glamorous all-booth dining room.

The dining room is certainly one of the must glamorous I’ve seen – come on, it even has a button you press to call for champagne (although in reality what it does is simply beckon your waitress to the table.)

Great deco both in the dining room and the bars below ground (love the backgammon flooring in one of the bars) though I do wish there was just a touch more light in the dining room!

Everything is Bob Bob Ricard branded – from the coatcheck tag, to the placemats, to the deco and to the butter.

Food-wise the menu is kind of exciting. They have this Vodka / tapas (or Zakuski) pairing menu but also other exciting items such as Quails Eggs Mayonnaise with Black Truffle, Suckling Pork and Chicken and Mushroom Pie with Truffle Sauce.

Those items were trumped by my love of having breakfast for dinner – for my starter I had Eggs Benedict which was quite incredible. Egg was perfectly poached and the Hollandaise sauce was incredibly tasty. Sandra had a starter of Scallop & Shrimp Shell Pie which was very cute and she reports it was very good. I can’t remember what Ying and Laney had.

For mains Sandra had the Chicken and Mushroom Pie, Ying the Cheeseburger from the BBR Favourites menu and Laney the Veal Holstein with Quails Egg, Anchovies and Truffled Mashed Potatoes. For once I didn’t have a pig dish but had to go the signature Bob’s Chicken Kiev with Sweet Corn and Potato Mash. Sandra reports her mushroom pie was a bit more ordinary than she was expecting (bland was a word she used) with the truffle sauce, though being quite fragrant, was not very truffly. It was certainly a large portion though! Ying’s burger looked fairly standard and the best part of Laney’s dish was probably the truffled mash (which you can order from the side order menu too.)

I very much enjoyed my chicken kiev which was very tender and juicy though it was a touch overseasoned. Just as well my mash was nice and sweet!

Dessert-wise Sandra’s Chocolate Glory was certainly the most theatrical. Her dessert was served at this golden ball and then the waitress comes along and pours hot molten chocolate all over it to melt the ball. It was way too rich for me though consisting of chocolate mousse, chocolate brownie, passionfruit orange jelly, meringue and raspberries. For me I certainly couldn’t look past the trio of Crème Brulees: Pistachio, Passion fruit and vanilla. Scrumptious.

Service at Bob Bob Ricard is very good – prompt, available and efficient. We had really friendly waitresses and one of them got so excited about the dish we were ordering. The positive was that it was consistently good service from when we first walked in the door all the way until we left. The booths we were in had coat hangers right next to us and upon leaving the waitress was very quick to try and get to the coats ahead of us so she could assist us with putting them on.

Bob Bob Ricard was certainly a fun, if not cheap experience. This meal including service and one drink was £50 which pushes the meal into the above average category. You can certainly spend a lot more if you start going crazy on the “Press For Champagne” button. Heh heh. I would certainly come back again to try out some of the other delights … after I’ve saved up a few more pennies!