We went on a relatively quiet day for lunch. It is actually a rather small restaurant with about 15 tables and a small bar area. There were only a couple of tables with people when we entered. In the end, the restaurant was only half-filled. Maybe it's because of the credit crisis, or maybe because the food is outrageously overpriced at this restaurant! :-P
Anyway, we ordered the Menu Prestige for the table. Here is a very brief summary of the food:
Very nice butter. It's tempting to have too much bread
Some ravioli with a soup made with baked potato skin.
The dish has a very earthy flavour. The soup somehow take like dish water to me. haha.. As you can tell, it's not my favourite dish.
Pressed foie gras with Madeira jelly, smoked duck, peach and almond crumble. The foie gras was firm and well prepared. The smoked duck adds more texture to the dish, but there was soo little of it. It left me wanting more!
Ravioli of lobster, langoustine and salmon with tomato chutney, vinaigrette. This dish is a great combo of the texture of lobster and langoustine and the taste from the salmon, tomato chutney and vinaigrette. It is a good size dish and I really enjoyed it. It reminds me of a similar product that we bought from Waitrose though (@ £1.50 each with crab meat instead of lobster meat)
Risotto with artichoke. One of my friends is sensitive to shellfish, so she got this alternative. I am not a fan of artichoke so I don't think this beats the lobster ravioli :-P
Fillet of turbot with braised baby gem lettuce, leek and cep sauce. While this dish is tasty and the fish is cooked to just the right texture, I think it is hard to find an impressive fish dish, esp. one with fish fillet. The secret to this dish is with the sauce, there is langoustine in it (one of our guest got a different sauce because of the allergy). Otherwise, nothing special to note.
Cannon of Cornish lamb with confit shoulder, ratatouille and thyme jus. I didn't have this dish so no comments. It looked good though.
Roasted pigeon from Bresse with grilled polenta, smoked pork belly and date sauce. I really enjoyed the pigeon. The meat was really tender and flavourful. I really don't know how they manage to get it just right. The sauce is rich and add just the right level of sweetness to the meat. The smoked pork belly wasn't too smokey. It is nothing that special though. Being Chinese, we always compare pork belly to our 'siu yok' and I think I still prefer a good piece of 'siu yok'. hahaha
Pre-dessert: apple creme brulee and apple juice-like drink. Both are very refreshing. The apple creme brulee was especially light and fluffy. A perfect prep to the dessert!
Pineapple soup with toasted coconut and rum. SP really liked this. He is a fan of 'exotic' fruits so no wonder! :-P
I personally don't like pineapple so they made me a raspberry and lemon sorbet. It was light. Not that special though.
Lemon tart. SP and I think it was just right but it might not be sour enough for some.
Bitter chocolate and hazelnut cylinder with ginger mousse and blackcurrant granite. Again, nothing special here. Perhaps I have been spoilt by too much good quality chocolate already :-P
Petit fours: Strawberry ice cream coated with a white chocolate shell. These were very nice. I think I had more than my share. hehehe. The presentation was good too. I think they just can't resist the dry ice in Fat Duck-style :-P
Petit fours: at the beginning of the meal, they asked me whether we are celebrating a special occasion. So we told them we got married. I thought we were going to get more goodie than an extra scoop of raspberry sorbet! How disappointing.. hahaha
Petit fours: chocolate granache covered in silver dust. You pick them out from the tree. These were quite rich so one is certainly enough.
We were in a bit of a rush. So we had a quick tea and coffee and left.For more information:
http://www.gordonramsay.com/royalhospitalroad/
