One of the reasons that I think Tom Aikens, the Michelin-rated restaurant, was on offer was that the company running it had gone into administration a couple of years ago and this was a way to stimulate some interest in the business. I’m not sure how effective this strategy was proving – we were dining at 7pm (admittedly on a Tuesday night) and other than one other couple the restaurant was empty! (More people did arrive a little later.)

Actually, the restaurant itself does not try to cram too many people inside – in the centre of the room was a lot of
open space and of the tables I saw there must have been about 40 covers max available? Well, whatever the reason for the offer Pat and I were definitely happy to take advantage. At 50% off (£75 for £150 of credit) it was a true bargain and enabled both of us to go for the tasting menu.

You sometimes wonder with these offers whether the staff will treat you differently, especially added to the fact that we rarely drink anything beyond tap water, perhaps indulging in a soft drink with Pat maybe having a glass of wine to go with his meal. We were pleased that this didn’t affect the level of service we received at all. In fact, the staff at Tom Aikens even passed my water test (that is, that the restaurant ensures your glass of water is never empty!) The only minor gripe, and I always seem to have something, is that the first two courses were really served very quickly! Otherwise service was pretty much spot on terms of being there when we needed staff without being overbearing.

But what about the food?

Something that seems to separate Tom Aikens from its fellow fine-dining venues I think relates to the bread that the serve. Now, this shouldn’t really feature in your meal (after all, food is generally very rich and you want to save your calories for the serious stuff) however I think I have to applaud the bread that you serve. First of all there must have been over ten varieties of food offered to us including Buttermilk, Polenta, Olive, Dill, White, Brown and Bacon and Cheese. And all served warm. I was in bread heaven and Jenny if you’d been dining with me there is also no doubt that we would have been fighting over the butter to go with the bread. They offered the bread all the way until we got to dessert to – both a blessing and a curse. Ha!

Our amuse bouche was a trio of mini treats: a melt in your mouth Polenta and Parmesan croquette; a surprisingly please Tomato jelly, gaspachio and basil oil “drink” and then a surprising physical sensation in the Olive “Bubble” topped by (I think) truffle and parmesan. Very interesting!

Our tasting menu consisted of 6-courses and Coffee/Tea and Petit Fours. The first off the rank was the Scallop dish (marinated scallops, lemon oil, and lardo crudo.) This was a really light but sharp tasting dish which we didn’t have much time to enjoy before our next course of Foie Gras was served. This consisted of cured foie, pickled mushrooms, foie gras mousse, and sauternes jelly. This dish was kind of appealingly messy – though as a result I was a bit confused as to what to start with first! The foie was delicious but the pickled mushrooms a bit too vinegary for me.

A John Dory fillet was up next after quite a considerable lag. This came with a very lip-smacking tasty roast cauliflower puree, and brown butter and smoked eel. Yes the John Dory was good but the cauliflower puree won it for me!

For our “main” we had a split – both of us wanted the Sea Bass but Patrick was good enough to go for the Lamb so we could see the two different dishes. To be honest the Lamb (marinated in ewes cheese and served with aligot potato and dried green olive) sounded more appealing than the poaching in black olive oil, pickled fennel and artichoke and black olive crumb that the Sea Bass was described as but I’m not a fan of lamb at all so had to go for the Sea Bass. Both dishes turned out quite well but in the end I think Pat was pleased he had gone the Lamb than the Sea Bass. The Lamb does look simply served but the taste was incredible. Apparently.

Our first dessert, or maybe it was a pre-dessert, was a Coconut dish consisting of fresh coconut, coconut crème, watermelon and mint syrup. A dish that I should have loved I was a bit turned off by the actual plating – scraping bowl felt worse than someone tearing their nails down a chalkboard. I still *shudder* thinking of that now. The crème was lovely and the watermelon contrasted nicely with its freshness and sweetness.

A very summer-inspired dish was our next dish – passion fruit jelly, vanilla pannacotta and passion fruit granite. Very refreshing though at times the passion fruit’s tartness pushed through a little strongly.

To wrap up our meal we received, to our delight, one of the best selection of petit fours we’ve had anywhere. Another nod to the baking chefs in the kitchen I think! Our selection included a selection of eight totally decadent chocolates including the usual truffles and a particular favourite of mine – a salted caramel treat. In addition to this we also had a small selection of cakes I guess you would call them – madelines (lemon, carrot and vanilla), a donut, a pistachio cake and I think a carrot cake. We were overwhelmed but piggly split everything in half and ate it all!

I’m not sure I can afford to come here all the time but if the restaurant keeps serving up food this good – you may see me back. I saw a Roast Suckling Pig dish on the menu that I would love to try out …

This weekend I decided to head up to visit Rache in Edinburgh. Never one to miss an opportunity, where it can be helped, to check out the local fine dining scene I convinced Rache to try out The Kitchin, a Michelin-starred restaurant named for the chef Tom Kitchin. Quite a good surname to have really for one in his industry!

The Kitchin is located in Leith, kind of near some water (I think Commercial Quay), but approached by road. Actually, we didn’t see the restaurant at first (it was dark!) and what you would think is the front is actually the back. Anyway, the entrance is actually around by the Quay and we found it eventually. Our booking at The Kitchin for dinner at 9pm is probably one of the latest I’ve ever started eating! But this was because I’d had to catch the train up from London. I still maintain that train is my preferred way to get up to Edinburgh but it sure does take a long time!

Tonight we dined on Tom’s Land and Sea Surprise Tasting Menu which considered of six courses though once you add in an amuse bouche and petit fours it ends up being more than this. First up, as we considered the menu though was a nice selection of breads and such, warm to eat which was delicious.

Our amuse bouche was a cold chickpea and mint soup, topped with crème fraiche with bits of crunchy stuff mixed in. Normally I’m not a fan of could soups at all but this really worked quite well together in terms of flavouring (very refreshing) and texture.

The next course was a pre-starter of tartare of wild sea trout from Usan, served with diced apple and a lemon creme fraiche. The flavourings in this dish work particularly well and again it had very good texturing with the crunch of the diced apple contrasting with the silkiness of the trout tartare. The only disappointment was the use of crème fraiche. I know it was probably used to break up the dish a bit but the fact it had already been used in our amuse bouche kind of made me think – couldn’t they kitchen have come up with something else to use other than crème fraiche. On the other hand, in this way, the crème fraiche gets used up I guess!

A particularly tasty dish, probably because of the chorizo, was a razor clam from Arisaig, served with diced vegetables, chorizo and lemon confit but … the clam hadn’t been cleaned particularly well because a couple of times I crunched on something that had the feel of something between sand and a broken tooth!

Switching from sea to land was my favourite dish of the night – a boned and rolled pig’s head, accompanied by scallop and bacon. Mmm mmm mmm – tasty tasty tasty!

The turbot that followed was pretty close behind in taste. A poached wild turbot from Scrabster, served with braised fennel and artichoke a’la grecque, looks pretty simple in the picture though I’m sure the cooking technique isn’t. Turbot was well cooked

The abats beignets (I think some sort of offal fritter) was the best thing about the next course – the whole roasted French squab pigeon served with braised peas, lardons, lettuce and abats beignets. I’m finding that game bird is a very difficult type of meat to cook perfectly – and surprisingly more often than not what I’ve had hasn’t been very impressive. The pigeon tonight was just okay for me.

So, that was the last of our savoury courses. By this time it was nearing 11pm and we were getting pretty full. Not sure why but our dessert took about 20 minutes to come out! Dessert was a gooseberry pannacotta, separated from a crème fraiche ice cream (the best way to eat crème fraiche in my opinion!) by a caramel lattice with the whole thing then drowned in gooseberry consumme. I’m not entirely sure the consumme was necessary – but hey, I can claim the dish as one of my fruit and veg for the day right? 😉

Towards the end of our dessert Tom Kitchin came around to talk to everyone left in the dining room who hadn’t already gone into the kitchen. The kitchen itself has an open window which people can look through whilst dining but also you can request to go into the kitchen to say hi if you really wanted to. Anyway, he came over to us and said a hi and hello … we exchanged pleasantries (you’re food is lovely etc. etc., thank you for coming etc. etc.) and then we weren’t sure what to say after that! Nice of him to give that personal touch though!

Over our petit fours we had a very funny conversation with one of the waiters who was a local, and not French like a few of the other waiters. When speaking of our plans for the following day he said that it sounded like a “Crescendo of Awesomeness” and that we should make “Twisted Shapes” when out on the dance floor. Rache and I were cacking ourselves!

Food-wise I was quite happy with our meal at Kitchin. Good ingredients and a nice variety (except maybe for using crème fraiche a little bit too much – heh heh). The only thing seemed to be that every dish contained so many ingredients that sometimes the detail was a bit lost in the dish and we were like – Did you taste that bit? Was that ingredient actually in there?

Service was good and friendly for most of our meal, though some waiters had very strong accents and it was difficult to understand their description of our food. Kithchin fell down a bit in the water filling up stakes – alright to begin with but it tapered off slowly during the night to the extent that at one point I had to reach behind me to grab the water bottle and refill it myself! Ha ha! I do like my water …

Overall a lovely night which nearly became a lovely morning (we rolled out just before midnight!). The good company helped too 🙂

Dining at sketch is a surreal experience. Unless you are actually seeking out the venue you’d probably just walk past what seems like an ordinary door … (but for the door man standing outside of it.) The interior of sketch is vast and consists of not one, not two but three dining experiences AND two bars. How it all fits comfortably over just two floors I have no idea!

Tonight Rehana and I were dining in the more formal and one-michelin-star-rated Lecture Room and Library. Upon our arrival, however, we were first taken on a tour of all the other areas. Quite overwhelming for me really and, after dinner, it was noted that we would definitely be back to visit the egg toilets … one of the foremost reasons that sketch was actually on my to eat at list!

We were one of the first to arrive for dinner in the Lecture Room and Library so before seating we were directed to a small anteroom of sorts where we were plumped for cocktails and provided with some very lovely amuse bouche. Unfortunately I couldn’t quite understand the waiter who delivered our food to us – him having the strongest French accent imaginable but the look and flavour of the amuse were enough to delight, so let the photos impress!

Don’t you just love the china!

By the time we emerged from the ante room we’d been joined by a few more diners. Though the space is large there are surprisingly few tables within the restaurant – so it strangely gave a sense of intimacy you otherwise wouldn’t expect. And, as befitting the Library theme, our fellow diners kept their conversation to a very low hum!

A nice touch to our table was a mini-table for our handbags! Awesome!

First dish of the day from the Tasting Menu (hey, if you’re going to only go once you might as well go for it!) was the Lobster (Lightly Cooked Lobster / Fresh Herb Liebig / Cauliflower / Lemon Jelly). Lovely and fresh and surprisingly refreshing.

This was followed by Scallop (Scallop Mousseline / Summer Truffle / Baby Leek / Artichoke Velouté). I’m so in love with truffle now that I can actually discern the flavour though served as shavings is not my favourite delivery method. You can’t see the scallop but it was perfectly cooked.

These two lighter dishes were followed by something quite heavy: Foie Gras (Pan-fried Foie Gras / Sauternes Jelly and Grapes / Paris Mushroom Shaving). Yummo. I’m developing a taste for a questionably un-ethical product! It looks messy in the second shot but trust me it worked well!

Pollock (Roast Fillet of Pollock / Salt-crusted Baked Potatoes / Red Wine Sauce / Cuttlefish) was lovely if a little unimaginative but much work had gone into our refreshing Granité (Riesling Granité / Green Apple Espuma / Coriander Salad)

Not a fan of lamb, but I am a fan of the gorgeous knife that came with our Irish Lamb (Slow-cooked Lamb / Vadouvan Butter / Aubergine, Melon and Serrano Ham / Lamb Sweetbreads and Garlic Cream Cheese) Heaps going on in this dish(es) that’s for sure. I didn’t not like it and for someone who loathes lamb that’s pretty good praise!

By this stage Rehana and I were nearly dying with the food we’d eating. 5 rich courses of savoury, we had the Cheese (Redcurrant Jelly / Cantal Cheese / Goat’s Milk / Roasted Nuts) and Pierre Gagnaire’s Grand Dessert to go!

The cheeseplate was I felt the least delicately plated of our meals. It was kind of like, let’s through some cheese on the plate and make it look like a pizza. I did, however, appreciate sketch’s style of serving the jelly

After a fruit bowl, presumably to cleanse our palette once more (because we weren’t already full enough!) it was on to The Grand Dessert which ended up being these 5 small desserts – Apricot and Rice Pudding, Peach and Lemon Quinoa, Liquorice Ice Cream and Cherries, Basil Ice Cream, Raspberries and Red Pepper, and finally Black Forest and Tapioca. I think!

And what meal would be complete without petit fours …

Overall, the food was quite lovely but oh so rich. We weren’t exactly overwhelmed by too much creativity or innovation in the dishes but we could appreciate the freshness of the food and the balance in each particular dish … I could see why it would receive a Michelin-star. Service was unobtrusive and sufficient if not overly helpful… maybe water could have been topped up a bit more responsively.

After dinner Rehana and I needed to work off some of the calories at dinner so went exploring a bit.

The Gallery, which is near where the Egg toilets are, was positively heaving. It was such a loud and busy contrast to the calm of the Lecture Room and Library! The toilets were entertaining and had piped music… but unfortunately smelt like porta-loos!

Chez Bruce has long been on my to do list ever since I think it was Gary who recommended it to me all those years ago. Using my birthday next week as an excuse, ha ha, I got Nate, Caro and Pat out for a night out. Chez Bruce is in Wandsworth so an area where I don’t normally go, that is south of the river! It’s a fairly smallish location but was apparently just about to go under renovation. Pat and I were just hoping it wasn’t going to be like Viktor where they were just trying to run the ingredients down! Luckily it wasn’t like that at all.

Service, at the start, was quite good. Nate and Caro were running a little late and even though they were fully booked for the evening there was no pressure on us to turn the table around. Very nicely they even let me charge my iphone on the laptop they were using to manage bookings. They put us at the front of the room which was nice because we could enjoy the last light of summer that way. The drawback to this position was that our main waitress barely paid attention to us after our food started arriving though I noticed that didn’t affect the service the tables next to us were getting. Service also eventually started to get steadily worse – the lady who served our drinks kept getting our drinks wrong and to be honest she just didn’t seem like she could be bothered to get it right, food was very slow in coming out (taking almost 40 minutes between courses) and generally wait-staff just weren’t giving our table any attention at all. This was quite surprising as normally in a Michelin-starred restaurant service is their top priority.

Food-wise at least it was all very well put together. Surprisingly there was no amuse bouche, which I must admit I’ve come to expect now from these kinds of restaurants, or no other delights though we did get some nice fresh bread at the start.

Our meals consisted of quite high quality ingredients and mostly working together though my main, Sea bream with provencale vegetable relish, grilled baby squid, sauce nero, gnocchi and almonds, was more complicated than it needed to be with so many competing ingredients that it was hard to tell the flavour or theme. The nero squid sauce was divine however and the baby squid themselves very tender. Food portions were quite reasonable too.

In a sign that I’m starting to get used to rich food I voluntarily opted for the Roast calf sweetbreads with truffle veloute, mushrooms, spatzle and peas. This was gorgeous!

The delightful food was finished with a rather large crème brulee.

My experience at Chez Bruce tonight felt like quite a mixed bag – I was very disappointed in the service which started off so promisingly but I was very happy with the food. I’m hoping the blip in the service was just that and not a longer term sign that its going down hill.

Rather disappointingly I wasn’t allowed to take any photos at our dining experience tonight at Apsleys. But this was the only part of tonight’s meal that I didn’t enjoy at this newly crowned Michelin starred restaurant.

Apsleys is Heinz Beck’s new restaurant in London. Heinz Beck is known best for his restaurant in Rome which is rated one of the best in the world apparently: A German cooking Italian in London? Well, technically I guess I don’t think he is actually in the kitchen – the restaurant just has his name and style.

The room, once you enter, is opulent and rich. Three huge giant massive chandeliers sit over head but for some reason tonight they chose to light the room very darkly. It actually seemed to dim even more as we continued our meal throughout the night! We arrived for 7pm but the restaurant was still rather empty. I was happy to see, however, that as diners came in they placed us all in separate parts of the restaurants which was rather welcome. There’s nothing more that I hate than a restaurant cramming everyone into one part of the restaurant when there is clearly space to spread everyone out.

As is the case these days Sandra and I were dining off the set menu – three courses and a glass of prosecco (we substituted this for fresh orange juice) for £35. We were quite pleased with the offerings on the menu which were pretty decent if limited (three choices for starters, mains and desserts.) For once Sandra and I had complete different meals. She had a warm seafood salad followed by salmon crepinette followed by orange parfait with bianco mangiare and mandarin sorbet whereas I went a more meaty route with the reginette with onion fondue, artichoke and rabbit followed by suckling pig and a millefuelle of raspberry and chantilly cream with hazelnut ice cream.

But before all of this occurred we were offered hot (not just warmed) bread of all sorts of variety: bread sticks, brown bread, a weird flaky type of pastry, a “bacon” bread, white bread and an olive bread served served with some very nice virgin olive oil. Though I would have appreciated some balsamic to go with the olive oil at least it prevented me from going overboard with the bread eating!

Our amuse bouche was an aubergine bell with fennel puree and aubergine and pepper terrine. Really really good and great to get an amuse bouche for once which was not a foam!

Starters were good and Sandra’s warm seafood salad in particularly contained quite a few bits of seafood in it which was quite impressive, although it perhaps suffered a bit from having lots of competing ingredients to challenge the palette. I think my main of Suckling Pig was a little more impressive than Sandra’s salmon crepinette though both were equally satisfying. My main ended up actually being suckling pig prepared in four ways. In order of preference my plate had on it pork cheeks (cooked or stewed in a sort of tomato like sauce), pork terrine, loin and shoulder. Again it almost felt like too much was going on on the plate but eaten separately I could appreciate each style. We were both definitely enjoying the fact that the plates were quite substantial for once – which we don’t normally get when on a set menu at fine dining restaurants.

We both enjoyed a pre dessert of strawberry sorbet, lemon crème Brulee, and biscuit (this reminded me a little of the lemon crème brulee with lemon sorbet at the bottom that I’d had at Mesopotamia)! Interestingly another pre-dessert was brought out to me only it seemed as it only came with one spoon – a Gratin of strawberry with ricotta impressions and almond. Perhaps the waiter had seen me writing in my book and was trying to impress a “critic”? If only!

Desserts were good. I think Sandra won this round with her interesting plate of different sorts of orange bits and pieces.

There is another lesson we have learned about dining in posh restaurants and that is – always get tea or coffee because that’s when you get the petit fours! Ha! You may indirectly be paying for these treats (what other reason do restaurants have for charging over £5 for tea/coffee!) but they are still a pleasure to receive. At Apsley’s they are especially cool seven little different treats set out on a long plate: Almond meringue, Coffee Bean liquior, Lemon Candy, Chocolate ganache with POPPING CANDY!, Hazelnut branch, French tart with raspberry, and Chocolate Truffle! We loved it especially the popping candy.

The service tonight was excellent. We got the perfect amount of attention and it never felt intrusive. We had two main waiters, rather than a revolving door of waiters, which was great as we kind of got to know them. Each and every dish was explained (though not necessarily understood at times because of the accent!) Water was constantly topped out without us needing to remind them and they even topped up our tea!

Its pricey Italian food but I think cooked with enough interesting twists and turns to justify the price. Great value on the set meal.

Elvira recommended Galvin at Windows to me just under two years ago but I’d never quite managed to make my way here. Elvira really rated the experience and I must say she was quite right to do so.

Rehana and I started our evening with a drink at the bar. The restaurant and bar is situated on the 28th floor of the Hilton at Park Lane and with the large windows in the bar (and in the restaurant) it has prime views over the sights of London. Before visiting Galvin I never even realised that the Hilton went up that high! Stunning views.

I could tell that Galvin was aiming for something grand – a Michelin star perhaps? Extremely attentive staff, the posh surroundings, the amuse bouche (seems stock standard for the more higher class restaurants these days), foam on food … even dining off the special set menu Rehana and I were in for a treat. In fact the set menu is one of the best I’ve seen in any restaurant with some really decent options.

Our amuse bouche tonight was a lovely butternut squash, truffle oil and parmesan foam. Such intense flavour though the fact it was cold was a bit of a surprise. Following this amuse bouche was our starters: Slow cooked hens’ egg, warm salad of Charlotte potatoes and smoked haddock, whole grain mustard beuerre blanc for Rehana and Ravioli of braised beef short rib, roast beetroot puree and horseradish veloute for me. Both dishes were suitably fou fou in their presentation but at least for once the taste lived up to the presentation. Rehana’s hen egg was perfectly poached and my ravioli was filled with some very nicely cooked beef rib. The horseradish wasn’t as strong tasting as I expected it to be but other than it was a perfectly balanced dish.

For mains Rehana and I were both tempted by the Fillet of royal bream, gnocchi, shellfish and trompette. More foam on this dish! Loads of taste and the gnocchi was actually pretty tasty (considering I don’t really like gnocchi at all). One problem – there wasn’t enough of it! Ha ha!

2009 seems to be year for chocolate desserts for me. Normally it would be the last choice on the menu for me but I’m having this love affair with fondants for some reason. The fact it was accompanied by salted caramel and praline ice cream didn’t hurt any either. The melty chocolate bit of the dish was perfect and though I’ve actually tasted a better chocolate cake at Volt (seemed creamier and more melt in your mouth) it wasn’t half bad. Very rich dessert though. Rehana went for the more mature (heh heh) cheese option which came with an interesting selection of crackers.

Dark chocolate petit fours accompanied our mint teas and home made marshmallows our bill. What a perfect end to the meal.

The only very minor negative to tonight’s experience was that I felt the waiters didn’t spend time explaining our food to us. Normally you get an introduction once your food is delivered which was something we didn’t really get tonight.

This is definitely a restaurant for a special occasion with loads of things going for it: the views, the food, the service, the thoughtfulness, the location.

UPDATE: On January 2010 gained Michelin star. 🙂

Only over three months late but Patrick and I finally made it to Rhodes Twenty Four for my birthday. The last attempt was derailed by delays at Heathrow Airport. Hmm … sometimes I really dislike Heathrow!

At any rate, better late than never as the aged old saying goes.

As can be guessed from the name of the restaurant Rhodes Twenty Four is celebrity chef Gary Rhodes’ restaurant. As with many top chefs this days Gary’s stable does not include only the one restaurant though this is probably the restaurant where he spends most of his time. I first heard about Rhodes Twenty Four from another Gary, a work mate, who could not say enough positive things about the restaurant. In addition, as a recipient of one Michelin star (awarded in 2005) (and Gary’s 5th of his career) I had high expectations for the restaurant.

Rhodes Twenty Four is located on the 24th floor of reportedly the tallest building in the City of London – Tower 42. Entry into Tower 42 is interesting. Reception is located about half a floor up at the top of a set of escalators. Interestingly on that floor, for security purposes, you cannot take any photos but on the next floor up you can. After we checked in at reception we were given a pass to activate the turnstile which was located about five metres to the right of reception. However when we got to the turnstile we simply handed the passes over to the security person standing there to open the turnstile for us. How odd!

The elevator bank to access the restaurant is up another set of escalators from reception. As can be expected in a building like Tower 42 there are a number of elevator shafts, one of this is totally dedicated to Rhodes Twenty Four as we found out when we stepped inside the lift and found there was only one button to press:

Stepping into the restaurant the first thing that greets you is the bar with an amazing view of the Gherkin.

Floor to ceiling windows wrap around the bar and the restaurant and it is indeed an impressive vista, even if the bar itself was surprisingly not that lively when we first started our dinner. In fact the restaurant was quite quiet when we first got there (an 8pm booking) though it steadily filled up. Must be a combination of the economic crisis and the hours that the local workers (it’s the City!) work. At any rate the amazing vista also sweeps around to the restaurant though of course by the time you’re in the restaurant its about the scene on the table rather than outside.

Rhodes Twenty Four is the type of restaurant which has a wait person for everything – the wine, the cocktails, the order taking, the food delivery, the water delivery, the new cutler delivery … you get the message! which can be intimidating at first but slowly you get used to being waited on by the seven or eight people. Ha! Interestingly though as the evening progressed the service levels started to deteriorated and Pat and I started to play our game – how long will it take for our tap water to be replaced without us asking for it. Answer: we’d probably die of thirst first.

Whilst we were deciding on drinks and food we were brought some warmed bread served in a cute little square wooden bowl. I was expecting the bread to be lovely but it was quite unexpectedly hard and tough which was probably a good thing as it stopped me from filling up on bread.

Though in hindsight after the GIANT cocktail I was served I could have done with more bread in my stomach before downing my drink. Patrick went for a more reasonable aperitif of English Martini I of course opted for a milky, more dessert appropriate, Banoffee Pie (Fresh Banana with aged rum, butterscotch, crème de banana, maple syrup, double cream and milk.) Priced at £9.50 and £10.00 respectively the cocktails were on the expensive side of London prices but they were quality drinks – lots of alcohol baby. The size difference between my flavoured martini cup and Pat’s martini was hilarious:

Dinner started with a cute little amuse bouche of cauliflower soup. Although intensely flavoured I’m starting to find that I’m sensitive to over-seasoning (that is, over salting!) and this soup was very well seasoned indeed, delicious as it was. Cute mini-mug it was served in though.

For starters both Pat and I targeted the seafood dishes. Pat opting for the Scallop dish (Roast scallop soup, buttered leeks and crisp pork belly – I’m thinking it was the crisp pork belly that sold him – ha ha) and I went for Lobster (Blazed lobster omelette thermidor.) I can’t speak for Pat’s scallop but my lobster dish was certainly interesting. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting. Served in a mini fry-pan the lobster was lost somewhere in the gooey bit that was the omelette thermidor. I quite liked the flavour though it was seriously eggy.

For mains Pat stuck to seafood plus pig (Pan fried halibut with a smoked bacon hash, salsify and Trompette mushrooms) but I moved on to pure meat (Beef fillet with truffle, cauliflower macaroni cheese and Madeira gravy.) I’ll own up to it the reason I chose this dish was the mac cheese … and actually it turned up to be the best part of my meal. Pat also admitted he chose his dish for the smoked bacon hash! Minor accompaniments certainly make the dish.

So, we knew we weren’t going to get huge portions but we certainly didn’t expect to receive dishes where the ratio of white space to ingredient was 90:10 okay maybe 80:20 once I spooned my mac and cheese onto my plate (we certainly did well to make our mains last 20 mins.) Still, the food was very good though, my tongue being as insensitive as it was, could barely make out the truffle flavour in the sauce on my beef. Beef was cooked to perfection however and I’ve already mentioned how the mac cheese was my favourite component. So cheesy, so good!

I desperately wanted to get dessert but my allergic reaction to my super strong cocktail meant I was feeling seriously full. Along with my throat closing dessert was in danger of not getting onto the agenda. That would have been a serious tragedy. Thankfully Pat convinced me to go for it … because dessert turned out to be the best of the three courses.

Pat’s Rhodes Twenty Four signature pudding plate consisted of a gorgeous trio of mini puddings. In order of deliciousness: a giant jaffa cake, a strawberry parfait served between two crackers and a bread and butter pudding. The bread and butter pudding was to die for – I think it was they way top of the pudding was bruleed. I opted for the iced peanut mousse, caramelised pineapple and butterscotch cream. Absolutely gorgeous though those who don’t have a sweet tooth should be aware that this dessert should come with a Extremely Sweet warning.

Finally, because Pat had some peppermint tea, we were also served with some delightful though at that stage entirely unnecessary petit fours: an orange cake, pistachio chocolate and my favourite white chocolate with raspberry flavour.

We were in Rhodes Twenty Four nearly three hours which is nearly as long as it took us to finish the large number of dishes at the Fat Duck which was rather a surprise considering how not large the mains were. Time, however, simply flew. Service was, as noted earlier, a little less efficient than expected and though we did appreciate not feeling like we were on a time limit there were times we felt a little disconnected from our waiters who were so busy looking busy that they didn’t have the greatest of personalities – not unfriendly but not friendly either. However, it was overall a lovely meal and I’m glad we made the effort to get a booking at this restaurant: stunning views, great detail in the food presentation and taste-wise (though oddly the mains were disappointing), and a pleasant atmosphere.

Definitely a place to note for that next special occasion (its not cheap!)

Jenny and I continued our good eating quest to knock off another Michelin-starred restaurant. Aubergine is a French restaurant located a bit of a hike away from South Kensington tube. Its not a huge restaurant but strangely more than half the restaurant is not taken up by tables for dining but a sort of lounge area at the front. The dining room, it seemed, was located at the back. Further, in an interesting strategic move – rather than fill the front part of the dining room up with patrons they sat most people right at the back. We had a lovely table right under a sky light so it made the atmosphere feel very bright and cheerful. Look out for the aubergine theming too from the aubergine place holders to aubergine stamped cutlery.

We were dining off a set menu meal so options were limited. I would have loved to have been able to afford the chef tasting menu which looked absolutely gorgeous but our 3 courses for £34 was pretty good value for the quality of the food we got.

I was extremely pleased with the bread that they brought out to us. Not only was it homebaked stuff (so really fresh and apparently straight out of the oven) but they kept bringing it, and bringing it and bringing it. Nearly as fast as we could finish the bread! Along with the butter we nearly made the mistake of overdoing the bread and leaving no room for our dinner!

As with any top class restaurant we were served an amuse bouche at the start of our meal. I think it was a spoonful of tuna or something served on a small toast with pickles. Not bad.

Interestingly despite the fairly limited set menu both Jenny and I went for different starters and mains. Jenny went for a seafood dinner with scallops to start followed by skate.

And I went for a warmed duck salad followed by a boiled pork cheek dish.

We both, however, couldn’t resist the cherry beignet dessert. It came recommended by the waiter and it was very good, even if the cherries were on the tart side. Overall the food was excellent and good quality coming served on impressively hot plates, not just warmed. Probably my pork cheek dish could have done with a bit more seasoning but my warmed duck salad was perfect and actually surprisingly substantial. Thankfully food was also not rushed out and came at a good pace.

Service was excellent. We were served by at least four or five different people from our waiter who took the order and brought the bill, to the wine guy, to the girl serving us bread, to the girl giving us new cutlery, and to the girl delivering our food. Despite all the wait staff involved in the process service never felt intrusive though at times a little OTT like running ahead of you to the toilet door to open it for you, or running after you as you came back to pull out the chair for you. Toilets, by the way, were surprisingly not that special though they did have hand towels (fluffy stuff) and proper hand wash and moisturiser. Strangely enough they did make a few mistakes which included dripping water from the wine decanter on our butter when pouring Jenny’s wine, or bringing my drink down on the lip of a wine glass, or charging us extra for wine and juice which should have been part of our offer.

A lovely experience.

UPDATE: On January 2010 Aubergine lost its Michelin star. 🙁