On Thursday night, Cesar and I went to Le Gavroche for dinner to celebrate his birthday. http://www.le-gavroche.co.uk/
Le Gavroche is a Michelin 2-star restaurant, so we were expecting great food and great service. We were not disappointed.
The entry of the restaurant is quite small, but the hostess was friendly and eager to attend to us. We checked our coats and entered the upper level bar / lounge room. The lounge room walls are painted a warm and luxurious red, creating a rich and impressive decor. We followed the hostess downstairs to the restaurant dining room. The room was beautifully decorated, with lovely green and gold colors and original artwork. There was a side table that was filled with what looked like black and white family photos. I loved that touch. We were seated at a round table with the seats built into the wall, sort of a fancy round booth. We sat next to each other and were facing out to the rest of the dining room. It was great fun to be able to watch the restaurant staff in action and check out the other guests.
(Cesar and I in the bar / lounge room after dinner. I was so full I was about to burst!)
Not long after we first arrived, the chef walked around the dining room, greeting his guests and inquiring about their meals. We hadn't ordered yet, so he nodded and smiled to us as he went by. We loved that he came out to see how people were enjoying his food.
The place settings were both amusing and beautiful. The charger was designed with the colorful logo of the restaurant. The silverware was shaped like the little boy that is a part of their logo.
One of our two negatives about the restaurant had to do with the table setting. They had laminated cards advertising the various cook books written by the chef. We felt that these cards were a bit tacky in such a high end restaurant. Perhaps a small table upstairs in the lounge would be a better place for him to have his books advertised and displayed for sale.
Our other negative was the bread. It wasn't bad; it was just very average. This was somewhat of a disappointment because I love really good fresh bread in a restaurant. However, the good part about the bread being mediocre was that neither Cesar nor I ate much of it, leaving us with more room for all of the goodies we were about to eat. I've been some places were the bread was so good that I greedily ate too much of it before the food came and then ended up not enjoying my meal as much. So, maybe there is a reason for the blah bread.
As Cesar and I were perusing our menus, he said to me, "I can't believe they don't have prices on the menu." The first page of the menu was for a 9-course tasting menu and had the price in very fine print at the bottom of the page, so I told him what that price was. He asked where I saw that price, and I told him it was at the bottom of the page. After a few minutes of confused back-and-forth, we realized that I had gotten a menu with prices, while he did not. I must have told the restaurant that it was his birthday dinner when I made the reservation, since they gave me the host menu. I loved this! Not that it mattered for us, but think how great it would be if you were taking clients out to dinner or were treating other people to dinner there. They wouldn't have to be concerned with the price of anything. Nice!
We decided against the 9-course tasting menu and ordered our courses individually. For my appetizer, I ordered the seared scallop with a tarragon mustard sauce, carrots and roasted endive. The scallops were huge and perfectly cooked with a nice crispy sear on the outside and a warm soft center. Not a tough or chewy bite to be found in those scallops! The mustard sauce highlighted the scallops, adding a light and fresh touch.
(I think of all of our dishes, this one had the prettiest presentation.)
Cesar ordered the hot duck foie gras with a crispy duck pancake flavored with cinnamon for his appetizer. It was absolutely out of this world. The foie gras melted in my mouth. The crispy duck pancake was inventive and delicious - the combination of the rich duck with the pastry, cinnamon, and powdered sugar scored a 10 from us.
(The foie gras is towards the bottom of the plate, while the duck pastries are towards the top.)
For my entree, I ordered the fillet of scotch beef with foie gras, crispy potatoes, creamed greens and truffled hollandaise. I am not a huge fan of truffles (too earthy tasting), and I usually despise hollandaise, so I asked for the sauce to be served on the side, knowing that Cesar would want to taste it. When my entree arrived, I had forgotten that the beef came with foie gras, so when my knife slid through the top part of what I thought was beef, I turned to Cesar in amazement saying it was the most tender meat I had ever encountered. One glorious bite reminded me that it was foie gras. I was so happy, because, as lovely as my scallops were, I was a little jealous of Cesar's appetizer. So, I got the best of both worlds - scallops and foie gras. The fillet was expertly cooked and delicious, especially when combined with the foie gras. The crispy potatoes were homemade potato chips. They were very good, but a bit greasy. I could not finish all of them, especially because I was savoring the rich, succulent foie gras and beef. The creamed greens were not very creamy, which initially was a disappointment. Also, they were a tad bitter and I was about to skip eating any more of them, until I added a dab of the truffled hollandaise sauce. The combination of flavors created a happy explosion in my mouth. It is amazing that the greens could taste so much better with the sauce. The chef came by again when we were eating our entrees. I told him, "I don't like truffles and I don't like hollandaise sauce, but this sauce is outstanding. Well done!" He beamed with pride. Getting someone to like something they normally don't like has to be a huge compliment to a chef.
(The greens are on the left, the foie gras and fillet are in the center, and the crispy potatoes are on the right.)
Cesar ordered the roast rib of french veal, creamed moral mushroom sauce, and mashed potatoes for his entree. The veal was very tender and flavorful and the sauce complemented it perfectly. The mashed potatoes were excellent, very smooth and creamy, and tasted almost as if they had been roasted.
Even though we were very full by this point in the evening, we ordered dessert. I chose the hot passion fruit souffle with white chocolate ice cream. I had never had a souffle before and was very excited to try this one. It was much bigger than I imagined it would be, as it towered out of the little white container. Just as I was wondering where the ice cream was, one of the waiters gently placed a dollop of it in the center of the souffle. One bite of this deliciousness and I was hooked. Souffle may be one of my favorite desserts. It was so light and airy, yet packed with flavor. The white chocolate ice cream was sweet and cold next to the warm eggy souffle and the passion fruit added a tart punch to the mix. I ate every single bite of this huge dessert, despite feeling Thanksgiving day full by the end.
Cesar ordered white chocolate, vanilla and peanut butter mousse with banana and rum ice cream. It consisted of three desserts on one large plate. This dessert had a lot of ingredients that I can't eat, so I just tried a tiny bit of the mousse. It was great - very smooth and flavorful. Cesar really enjoyed it.
As if these desserts were not enough, we also received a basket of little sweet treats with our desserts. We loved these little treats too. I am not sure what the things in the middle were. They looked like salami, but were some sort of crunchy sweets. I think the white round things were meringues. Next to the meringues were little cakes with a blueberry in the middle. Cesar and I are not sure what the treats at the very ends of the basket were. They had a thick hard sugar coating on the outside, but the inside squished and popped when we bit into them. Cesar thinks maybe it was a sugar-coated tomato. I am undecided whether I thought these were good or just weird.
The service at Le Gavroche was, by leaps and bounds, the best service of any restaurant we have been to since moving to Europe. It was so wonderful to dine out in a place that masters good service. Every time I took a sip of water, my glass was immediately refilled. Cesar had a never-emptying glass of wine. Our dishes were served to us simultaneously and with ceremony. People were friendly and pleasant. It was such a welcome contrast to our regular dining experiences here.
We had a wonderful, lovely, delicious time at Le Gavroche. It really is a special place, and I am happy that Cesar and I were able to enjoy our experience there.
