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The restaurant has no real atmosphere of its own – no music and conversation tended to be muted (us excluded of course). As my missus said to me – ‘It’d be pretty dull with just the two of us’ – thanks darling! As a group we can get pretty noisy but nobody seemed to mind. As we sat down we were offered an aperitif – Kir with a choice of flavour – peach being a new one on me. There was also a choice of good, if a little dry ‘feuilletés’. We then had a very unusual and flavourful ‘Mise en Bouche’ – a thin glass of asparagus soup with a chive cream; a sign that we were dealing with a proper Chef rather than just a cook. The menu itself, especially arranged for us, offered a choice of two starters, either a smoked salmon with salad and asparagus tip vinaigrette, which I’m told was good although the bread served with it was a little hard, or a home-made Foie Gras served with a roasted fig and an onion compote. This was delicious; creamy but not overly so and delicious with the crusty bread served with it. At this point wine was served too – I don’t remember exactly what it was but the red was certainly pretty decent.
Main course was a choice between Scallops served in the shell with lemongrass which went down very well and an ‘Emincée’ of roast duck. The duck was excellent if perhaps a little over-decorated; very flavourful and not at all fatty or dry like duck can be. It was a good-sized portion too – which didn’t help having been warned of the spectacle that was the dessert!

I should just point out at this stage that although Simon was not able to make the evening he wasn’t going to miss out on these desserts. The staff very kindly packaged up a plate to take home to him – and I’m sure I saw Louiza’s left-overs going the same way! And what desserts they were. Billed as ‘L’Assiette degustation de 6 de nos douceurs’ and feted by Simon as the best thing on the menu they didn’t disappoint. For those that had room a large plate arrived with around nine different desserts beautifully arranged, from Crème Brulée to ‘Nems au Chocolat’ with various other delightful mouthfuls in between. It should be the signature dish of the restaurant and worth not filling up on the main course for. Coffee at the end of the meal continued the ‘Gourmand’ theme with a menu available to choose your bean; no simple choice of caffeinated or decaf here!

Service throughout was very good – we sat down at 2030 and were all done by midnight – and I don’t recall having to wait at any point for the next course. The company was superb as always – thanks to those that made it – although for Victor’s sake we may need to wear name badges for the next meal! And many thanks once again to Simon for arranging the menu – second time he’s done so too and he couldn’t even join us! Here’s looking forward to next month.

Ratings for the evening would be: Food – 9/10; Ambience and Service: 7/10; Overall quality of evening 9/10.

PS If anyone would like to arrange a restaurant for a future month please do let me know. The Dining Society is open to all and we’re always glad to see new faces.