We had a Special Treat on Wednesday and went on a jolly to London for a day trip on the train. We had lunch at Petrus followed by a "gig" (more of that later)
The restaurant is comfortable and very dramatically decorated, with heavy purple soft furnishings, leather chairs and the dark wallpaper. There is some interesting artwork going on, from two abacuses (should it be abaci ?) that looks like something from Gulliver's Travels, to a gorgeous set of oriental plates that would not look out of place in a shogun's castle. Menus were presented at the table. Three menus are available for lunch - the set lunch, the a la carte and the full tasting menu. Champagne is presented on a liqueur trolley, by the glass from a selection of bottles, but we had already had G&Ts in the Caramel Room so passed on that.
Canapés of a very delicate foie gras mousse encased in a triangle of something that tasted very much like nougatine and some dolls' house hot lamb koftas were served while looking at the menus. We selected a bottle of New Zealand Pinot Noir to go with our lamb.
Amuse Bouche was a cauliflower soup with a frothy topping served with very long, thin cinnamon biscuits. Very nice. 4 types of bread were served; white, sourdough, wholemeal and potato. They were all wild yeasted breads in the French tradition and were served in slices, not rolls. They could have been more generous with the butter, although it was replaced shortly after it ran out. The bread service could have been improved by having sea salt flakes on the table as I love to sprinkle them on unsalted butter like a tartine.
I chose the rabbit salad, which was consisted of 3 styles including a ballotine, a terrine and was served with a lyonnais salad. It was very tasty, although the addition of a hot element would have been nice. David had roasted quail with sweet & sour red cabbage. The starters were nice, but nothing out of the ordinary and to be honest, quite forgettable.
For main course we had best end of mutton; this was delicious and extremely tender. I have not had mutton for an extremely long time and I will now be seeking some out, as I thought it had a much better flavour than simple lamb, while retaining quite as much of it's tenderness. A really good dish. We shared a plate of cheese after the main course; the trolley has a good selection of different milks and sets; we chose mainly blues and goats milk cheeses, which were accompanied by a choice of water biscuits or breads (raisin or walnut). They are a bit stingy with the grapes (he gave us 4 between us) and we had to ask for more. Husband chose Custard Tart for his dessert which was really, really good. Unctuous and particularly well flavoured with some spiced pears. I chose prunes with amontillado foam and chocolate sorbet. The portions were very small and therefore avoided that "can't possibly eat any more" feeling. The sommelier made 2 good pairings of Vin de Constance by Klein Constantia for me and a vendages tardives for David's tart.
The bon bon trolley, a silver and mahogany tree-like creation, surely sent from Heaven, consisted of 6 different chocolate truffles - the standard milk chocolate ganache; salted butter caramel filling (a triumph); plain with a soft passionfruit jelly like filling; white chocolate with blackcurrant; Malibu, coconut and lime, which was far too sweet and my least favourite of the fillings. The extra special treat at the end of the meal was the little box of 4 truffles handed to every lady (har har, husband !!!) to take home. This practice has clearly been adopted from Europe, and if Petrus-labelled goodie bags are a result of "closer economic ties" or whatever they call it, bring 'em on.
They were clearly having a recruiting day as a trail of hopefuls kept walking to and fro to the kitchen through the restaurant. I do not think this is particularly professional, although it provided us with some entertainment. Certainly I would not have employed the one who looked a mess and said, quite loudly "well, if we get the jobs we can start right away", in full hearing of the whole restaurant !
We had a very enjoyable, if expensive (£160 for two including service, a bottle of wine, two glasses of dessert wine, coffee, 2 bottles of water and a cheese course - a bargain, right ?) lunch and enjoyed watching the Hooray Henries flexing their cony accounts, all in the name of "corporate entertainment". I need a job like that.
So, how to follow such a lunch, I hear you ask. In my book, there is only one thing to do to exercise off a 2* lunch, and that is a vigorous workout in Harvey Nics. Riding those escalators and lifts is tiring work, and the fisticuffs which must be undertaken in order to ensure YOU gain custody of the 75%-off Nicole Farhi winter coat are probably akin to 3 BodyCombat classes.
We then hotfooted to Harrods for a packet of macarons, which is an essential element of any trip to London. In case you are a macaron/Ladurée virgin, let me explain. A french macaron is nothing like an English one, full of cheap dessicated coconut and gluey rice paper. A french macaron consists of a delicately flavoured shell, sandwiched together with a filling. They are the Kylie Minogue of the patisserie world, small, perfectly formed, whimsical and elega
nt. And the Ladurée tearoom is possibly the most whimsical, fairytale, rococo orgasm of overblown décor this side of the Channel. If you've seen the Sofia Coppola film "Marie Antoinette", things may look familiar - Ladurée were the food consultants and stylists on the film, supplying all of the ridiculously elaborate confections featured (I only watched the film to see the cakes - how bad/sad is that ?) Of course, the hardest thing about being faced with the Ladurée counter is nightmare choice of "which ones shall I have ?". What you really want is one of every flavour, but you only have money for 8. Do you go for 8 of one flavour ? 8 all different ? It's a nightmare. The salted butter caramel is my personal favourite and has to be included, so in the end I went for 4 of those, 2 rose ones (another tried and tested favourite), one chestnut (bland, bland, bland) and one of the new diva flavour. The diva is a dark berry shell flavoured with a decidedly festive spice mix, sandwiched with a rich dark ganache. I really like this flavour; the fruit purée in the shell gives the biscuit an added gooiness. Ladurée take a lot of flack for being nothing more than a tourist mecca, but they sure know how to turn out a macaron.
ANYWAY..................
They writhed, they pole danced, they high-kicked and they posed. Posh smiled. Baby looked cute. Ginger showed off her 6 pack. Scary whipped a member of the audience on a weird pyramid contraption. Sporty sang. They were great. Cheesy but fab. Welcome back Spice Girls, the Tritton household has missed you.
