ChantillyExpat.com

For its most recent home outing, the Home and Away Dining Society truly excelled itself! Twenty eight of us enjoyed a very sociable, albeit cosy evening at 'Le Vertugadin' restaurant in Chantilly. Based on previous experience, the original reservation was made for 12 to 18 people; by the Tuesday preceding the evening, Adrian told me we were at 24; by the Friday, we were 28 with a possibility of 30! Unfortunately, weather conditions in the Oise were not going to allow us to sit in the garden terrace on the Saturday night. Therefore we hastily rearranged the seating organisation in the private room to squeeze in all the extra bodies, hence the rather cosy feeling!

The méteo did allow us however to start with our apéritif in the garden and for us to mingle and meet some of our newer members. This was clearly a success as it was nearly 21h00 before we managed to get everyone inside and seated! Ordering main course and desserts was not too difficult and on our table, the restaurant owner was very jovial. Despite having ordered our entrées in advance, service was quite slow, probably because the restaurant itself was very busy. When they finally arrived, presentation of the tomato/cheese was disappointing, although it tasted fine. I heard good reports about the fish entrée and the mushrooms/snails. Main courses were a challenge to serve, particularly the Tajine de Poisson with the huge ceramic hats on, which however tasted good. The duck and steak seemed to go down well too. Being extremely busy on all fronts, the staff were quite slow bringing extra wine and water, although the levels of conversation and merriment in the room would not have really indicated that anything was amiss!

When we finally got to desserts, the strawberries and cream looked divine, the profiteroles were wicked and the restaurant owner had great fun setting alight the apple tarts with Calvados. For those of us able to stay past the bewitching hour of midnight, there was a coffee and sweet to see us on our way.

To conclude, I never thought it would be quite so stressful organising a group dinner, however from the comments I received at the end of the evening, it was well worth the effort. Despite some of the slowness in serving, I think it was a menu offering good value for money and that an enjoyable time was had by all.

For food I would give 8/10; general ambiance 8.5/10; overall 9/10 (ie what we made of the evening!)

Caroline Smith, June 1st , 2009.

Title: Vertugadin, Le
Category: Local Restaurants
Sub-Category: French Restaurants
Author: webmaster
Related Link: Le Vertugadin
Added: Jun 02, 2009
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