Nice dinner

With two fingers up to AA Gill, I am going to write about a restaurant I went to last night. Dinner at Gordon Ramsey at Claridge’s hotel. Definitely among the swankiest restaurants I have ever been to. We had a six course tasting menu. I was impressed. The food was good and the service was spot on. My favourite course was probably the main: a meaty slab of halibut with an autumnal red wine sauce that tasted like it had been swiped from a venison recipe. The addition of bacon and mushrooms completed the hearty, keep–out–the–cold October flavour. The other half liked the scallop dish best; delicate and fresh, wrapped in pasta, with a foamy saucy and subtly spicy sauteed peppers. Good stuff. We asked the sommelier for a wine recommendation (first giving an indication of menu choices and price–bracket — the most expensive bottle on the list being ten Gs!) and he suggested that we try a 2005 Beaujolais (Jean Foillard Morgon ‘Cote du Puy’) because it would go well with the scallop and halibut dishes which comprised the two central courses. Tasty wine. Quite different from the Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Shiraz that we more usually drink (the grape apparently being Gamay; the wine produced using organic methods). A pleasant buzz, indeed. I wouldn’t mind buying a few bottles, in fact.

All in all, an extremely enjoyable evening. It’s nice when you go to an expensive place and are in no way disappointed.

Labels: diary, eating, london