Gordon Ramsay has taken an absolutely beating in the last 12 months if not longer and he has fallen out of favour with a lot of people including his financiers (!) and the Michelin Star judges (when they took away his one star at Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s). I personally find him a very entertaining chef and I think in part responsible, though by no means solely responsible as there are a great many other chefs who have also contributed to the cause, for making high quality fine dining more accessible to the greater public. Admittedly this has come at the expense of the privacy in his life but to be fair it was his choice to be on TV ALL the time etc.

At any rate this is all a long rambling introduction to get to my main point which is that tonight I finally got the opportunity to visit Gordon Ramsay at Hospital Road (which I must note has retained its 3-star Michelin rating for 2010.) Jo organised the booking through her work’s credit card booking service though to be honest with the booking so far in advance of our visit tonight we could have easily done it direct through the restaurant itself. Hilariously when her booking service asked what the reason was for our visit (normally people would say it’s a birthday, anniversary etc.) she informed them it was so we could sample the Menu Prestige, which is the reason I gave her for going. Heh heh.

The restaurant is a bit of a walk from any tube station so be warned but it was such a lovely day I didn’t mind the walk. The restaurant front is fairly discrete and probably if I hadn’t seen the door man I would have walked right past it. Inside the restaurant is a lot smaller than I imagined but I guess they are aiming for a more personalised service and cooking then you’d get at other larger restaurants.

Before I get on to the food I wanted to comment on the service. When we first sat down it was very responsive (almost too responsive because we were asked at least twice whether either of us had allergies) and we were waited on by what must have been about five waiters in the space of ten minutes. Disappointingly throughout the night as the room filled up the service levels dropped very considerably … to the point we had to ask for water to be topped up a couple of times (pet peeve!) and also were waiting for someone to attend to us so we could ask for the bill. On the other hand as soon as we stood up to the visit the ladies there were extra people on hand to direct us the 5 metres to the toilets. Very baffling and if I’m honest I was a bit disappointed by this drop in service. I’d rather be served constantly and attentively by one or two waiters than sporadically and inconsistently by five waiters. However, that’s not to say that when we had the attention of any wait person they weren’t friendly or didn’t go out of their way to help us because they did (they even picked up my hint that it was Jo’s “birthday”).

We had already decided that we were going to opt for the Menu Prestige which is a seven-course tasting menu (excluding any amuse bouches etc. but including pre-dessert/cheese) so we didn’t spend too much time fussing over the menu. We did have an option of “mains” on the tasting menu but Jo and I decided to split it with one option each so we could try both.

Before all of this however we were served with some very cute Potato chips with Pesto and Mozzarella squished in-between two. This should have worked but I found that the pesto and mozzarella didn’t really have much of an impact as the potato was strangely overpowering in flavour. These chips were soon followed by canapés of lobster caesar dressing and avocado mousse. The restaurant went to great pains to ensure that one of these was served sans tomatoes since Jo had informed them she was allergic to it. These actually worked quite well flavour wise though got a bit messy when you bit into them! We also got a fair bit of bread (I think there were two or three different options) before any other food started arriving so we were well on our way to being stuffed! LOL.

The amuse bouche was the most adorable fried frog leg sat on top a potato salad which was then flooded with a leek and wild garlic soup. It was a tasty dish though I would have appreciated more fried frog leg. Still, it does make a change from the usual cauliflower-type soup amuse bouches I’ve received at other restaurants.

Shortly after they cleared our amuse bouches we were finally on to the meat part of our tasting meal – the first course of “Pressed foie gras with Madeira jelly, smoked duck, rhubarb and walnut Crumble”. I was so set not to enjoy this as 1. I’m not a fan of foie gras and 2. I’m not a fan of smoked duck! However, when all the flavours were combined with the toasted brioche, which served as fantastic way to break through the fat, it was quite divine on the tongue. You won’t soon find me rushing to the shops to buy more foie gras but I was quite surprised to find that I actually liked this dish.

Next up was arguably Gordon’s signature dish: Ravioli of lobster, langoustine and salmon with tomato chutney, vinaigrette. Oh I soooo wanted to like this dish but I’m afraid that I as actually a little underwhelmed! Oh sure the lobster and langoustine chunks were quite meaty and fresh-tasting but the dish lacked a bit of wow factor. I can’t put my finger on why – perhaps I had too high an expectation.

One of my favourite dishes of the night was up next: Fillet of turbot with braised baby gem lettuce and cep sauce. It doesn’t look like much but the turbot was cooked to perfection and had this amazing flavour to it. Perhaps it was the cep that came with it but I wanted to like my plate and steal Jo’s dish I loved it so much!

Our next dishes deserved some fancy wear. Similar to those at Hibiscus these knives were pretty darn sharp and funky in shape. In reality the beef fillet was so tender and the pigeon, whilst not fall off the bone, was easy to get to that we probably didn’t need such an implements. Still, they looked cool. My dish of aged Casterbridge beef fillet with fondant potato, ox cheeks, bone marrow, and red wine jus and Jo’s roasted pigeon from Breese with grilled polenta, smoked pork belly and date sauce (though we ended up swapping as Jo didn’t actually want pigeon!) were pretty tasty though there was nothing really that was outstanding in either dish. Perhaps the tender smoked pork belly that accompanied the pigeon.

Next up was a funky pre-dessert of apple crème brulee (Jenny would appreciate the odd flavour) and I think a pear (?) presse. The waiter advised us that it was good to have both items in our mouths at once to appreciate the tart and sweet flavor and it actually worked – once you figured out how to get liquid and solid into your mouth at the same time …

Pineapple soup with toasted coconut and rum, a complete contrast to the Pre Dessert, greeted our pallets next. I loved the solid hard plastic straw that we sucked up this dish with. It worked pretty well – it was almost like a pina colada which could explain why I liked it so much. Pina Colada being one of my favourite cocktails. I loved the popping candy too!

From sweet and light to something a bit more challenging and heavy: bitter chocolate and hazelnut cylinder with ginger mousse and blackcurrant granite. 3 out of 4 flavours were a favourite of mine so this dish couldn’t go too far wrong.

By this stage we couldn’t believe we’d been in the restaurant for nearly three hours. Time sure flies when you’re having that many courses. Heh heh. We decided to get some tea/coffee to round out the meal – which was a good choice cause we ended up with some pretty wicked petit fours. First: Silver coated truffles on a silver tree:

Second: Turkish delight made with rosewater jelly

Third: White chocolate covered (what turned out to be) strawberry ice cream balls served with frozen ice

And fourth: A little extra treat for Jo for her “birthday”. Heh heh.

It was actually too much and we didn’t end up finishing off the truffles! Total scandal I know.

Overall I’d say that I had a lovely experience if not entirely as memorable at some other restaurants I’ve been to. For example, its hard to compare this 3 Michelin Starred restaurant with say something like Fat Duck which also has 3 Michelin star as inherently the food is so much more different. In fact, because Fat Duck is just so out there with its concept it would be almost unfair to compare the two – in my opinion Fat Duck as a special and unique meal would win hands down. However, I would expect that they should have the same level of (high) service, same level of quality of food and same level of presentation. Based on tonight’s experience Gordon Ramsay at Hospital Road is lacking I think a little on the level of service – just in terms of being more consistent with their attentiveness – and presentation with some dishes being quite innovative and attractive to the eye, where others were just a little plain.

For those that are interested the damage, which included the tasting menu, one juice drink (severely overpriced at £10 for a glass!), and tea, came to a whopping £157. Ouch.