Most people who were there were there for a special occasion. There were a couple of tables that looked liked they were businessmen/women but on the whole it was clearly people going out for a once in a lifetime experience. Well I am sure there are people who dine there regularly but for us mere mortals this was an experience to be cherished. Lisa had booked the table back in November and was to be my surprise Valentine's dinner. We arrived and were shown to our table. It's one of those restaurants that doesn't seem to have a bad table and I was pleased to see ours was a cut above the average. The restaurant is like a plush homely (stately one that is!) and very welcoming, the tables are adorned with silver and you really do feel special.
Amuse bouche were served along with our aperitif. I have to say I am not a big fan of these. I think more often than not they are underwhelming and to a degree pointless. These were I felt unnecessary and lacked the finesse of what was expecting to eat. As you can imagine foie gras featured heavily on the menu and it was in fact a challenge to choose a starter and a main course that didn't both contain it. In fact having decided on two courses both featuring foie gras the Maitre D suggested I change my choice of main course which had been the filet steak to the veal cutlet. My starter had to include foie gras so I opted for the hot foie gras and crispy duck pancakes. Now I am sure Mr Roux would have been very embarrassed had I shown him but my foie gras had not been de-veined and this somewhat took away from the experience. The taste of both the foie gras and the duck was sensational but I had to remove the veins before I ate it as it's difficult to have a melt in the mouth experience with rubber bands included! Lisa opted for the artichokes with truffle and foie gras and this was delicious.
The main course was a beautifully tender veal cutlet served with the richest, creamiest mash I have ever eaten (probably not a good idea to eat that more than once given the heart stopping quality of it). I have to say I think the veal cutlet I had at Quo Vadis was better but nonetheless this was a great piece of meat cooked well. Lisa had a trio of pork, a chop, pork belly and cheek and that too was excellently cooked. None of the portions were small, in fact they were huge considering the richness of the food and we struggled to finish our dishes. Annoyingly I can't remember the name of the wine we had but it was from a decent chateau in Burgundy (ours was the cheapest from that chateau at around £70!) but it was superb and complemented the food perfectly.
We had no room for pudding so opted for coffee and petit fours to have something sweet and I went for a '67 Armangnac which was seriously good. Like the portions of the food there seemed to be no holding back and I was poured the most enormous measure - generous to a fault but boy did that hurt in the morning.
To finish off the night none other than the main man came round every table and was clearly genuinely interested in his customers having the experience they came for. Unlike certain other chefs I have mentioned previously Michelle Roux deserves his 2 stars and when you're paying that kind of money (£350 for 2!!!) you want to know that you are paying for the real thing and not any old Jo in the kitchen.
All in all in was a great experience, one we won't do again in a hurry simply for financial reasons and I would say that it's something that any one who is interested in food should do once. Bravo!
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