Posh Food

Ate at Bottega in Napa Valley last night ...

No tables left, but we were lucky with one of the 8 places at the bar as we got there at 6pm, so we ate fantastic food in the middle of a great atmosphere.

I started with ... Fig & Fennel Salad Two Ways Port wine compressed figs, confit fennel bulb, chocolate-espresso butter, petite licorice greens ... followed by Potato dough Raviolo filled with spinach and ricotta, black truffles, farm fresh egg yolk, sage browned butter ...

Aroogah had ... Bacon & Egg smoked olive oil poached mushrooms, crispy soft-boiled egg, pancetta, Treviso radicchio & broken sherry vinaigrette ... followed by Twice Cooked Natural Pork Chop peck seasoning, honey roasted apricots, natural pork jus & crispy cavolo nero.

Deserts were scrumptious, something with figs, and a panacotta.

truly great dishes right there.. fig fennel port and licorice is a magic combination

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

have you guys done the big vineyards yet?

We did Quixote and CADE wineries, the former having architecture like Gaudi met Dr Seuss, the latter having the most stunning views (we are having the most amazing weather, very lucky). Wines were great.

This morning, I managed to score a trump with a very short notice private tasting of Les Claypool's Purple Pachyderm wines .... we had a long chat with his PA (also PA to Rob Zombie), about music, we bought a couple of bottles and t-shirts, and were given 4 lp's including Primus' new release on green vinyl.

We drove the Avenue of the Giants today ... them trees is huge.

Sounds like a great holiday... nice one

Rather enjoyed the French Laundry pop up... I'll right a review with pics tonight. it cost a few quid and no mistaking. I've never actively searched out the cheapest wine on a winelist either, I was just being a bit flabbergasted by some of the prices and then I saw this:

I feel this is more Harrods than Mr Kellers doing, who's a really nice chap

What am I doing in Knightsbridge in a suit on one of the hottest saturdays of the year?
I'm one of the lucky few with a reservation for Thomas Kellers new pop up The French Laundry at Harrods.
I meet up with a friend and we make our way through the busy store and eventually through the designer childrens department which in itself is pretty mind boggling.
Once weve got there we see the main entrance and a little faugh garden with a champagne bar, we indulge ourselves with a glass and people watch while we wait for the remaining two guests.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/clever_pun/Restaurants/TheFrenchLaundry.jpg

When they arrive we are shown through to our table, the restaurant is inclosed by ruched white curtains, while nice enough not exactly the recreation of the original I'd been led to believe.
We all have a glass of champagne to start to allow us to peruse the menu and the daunting winelist. The winelist is nothing short of viciously expensive with wines reaching £40,000 that's not a typo, I feel this is more harrods than Chef Kellers doing.

Now onto the food, first up some amouse bouche
Atlantic Salmon Coronet in a seseme tuile and truffle this came with a little shoue pastry parcel filled with a warm greyure(I think) cheese.
It was like a salmon tartare shaped like an ice cream and with a cream cheese further down the tuile.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/clever_pun/Restaurants/FLSalmonCoronet.jpg

We were then presented with another plate of little delights.
First up a dehydrated tomato on some of the most expensive olive oil on the planet(they went into quite a lot of detail about it) it was like a gel rather than an oil and the tomatos flavour was really strong.
Second was a deep fried prawn(maybe) on some ranch dressing
Thirdly "Tea and biscuits" which comprised of shortbread a terrine of foie gras and topped with a beramont jelly. Topped with a red berry with a silver wrap. Yum
Last and certainly not least a BLT slow cooked pork, a pesto style sauce made from rocket and truffle in some deep fried bread. Very rich with only really slight truffly hints.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/clever_pun/Restaurants/FLamosebouche.jpg

Now we started the menu proper
"Oysters and Pearls" A signature dish with a Sabayon of pearl tapioca with oyster pearls and white sturgeon caviar, served with a mother of pearl spoon. Delicous incredibly buttery and rich, the caviar was subtle and complimented rather than overpower.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/clever_pun/Restaurants/FLOystersandPearls.jpg

"Salad of Hawaiian Hearts of Peach Palm" No picture of this one I'm afraid as I'd forgot and tucked into it before I realised. It looked a bit like the pickle and bonemarrow noma dish. It had dtaes, coconut, french laundry garden carrots (serious air miles), red radish and some candided Pili nuts. Very fresh, light and refreshing.

"Chowder" Sturgeon, on razor clams, sweetcorn, celeriac and applewood smoked sturgeon "Bacon". As a side there was some dehydrated sweetcorn. I'd never had sturgeon before a really meaty fish and the sauce was sublime. Amazing dish.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/clever_pun/Restaurants/FLChower.jpg

"Beets and Leeks" Sweet butter poached maine lobster, heirloom beets, leek "Mousseline" La ratte potato and red beet essense. The potato was baked and then dried and sliced incredibly thinly (its the crisp on top) the lobster was flown over live with someone looking after them..fancy flying and damn tasty they were too.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/clever_pun/Restaurants/FLBeetsandLeeks.jpg

"Poularde en Brioche" Moulard Duck foie gras au tourchon Warm sauternes gelee, tokyo turnips, green apples and a perigord truffle coulis
It was served like this
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/clever_pun/Restaurants/FLPouladeenBrioche.jpg
Then they brough over sausage shaped item that they explained was frozen foie gras which they grated over the top!! Amazing stuff
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/clever_pun/Restaurants/FLPoulardewtgratedfoiegras.jpg

"Calotte de Boeuf"Langue de Beoufe a little side of braised brisket, black trumpet mushrooms some musquee de provence pumpkin, fennel bulb and a delicious sauce bordelaise. The beef was so tender, wagyuesc and the sauce got thouroghly mopped up with bread.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/clever_pun/Restaurants/FLCalottedeboeuf.jpg

"Monte Cristo Sandwich" pleasant ridge reserve cheese, iberico ham, garden figs and maple syrup. The sandwich itself and all the parts, very clever, very tasty.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/clever_pun/Restaurants/FLMonteCristoSandwich.jpg

"Huckleberry Sorbet" two little huckleberry muffins with verbena. The verbena foam tasted like it should have been red if that makes sense.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/clever_pun/Restaurants/FLHuckleberrySorbet.jpg

"S'mores" Caramel delice, peanut buttter pave, tahition Vanilla marshmallow smear. Graham cracker and popcorn sherbet. Unbelievably rich and a total sugar fest of lovely

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/clever_pun/Restaurants/FLSMores.jpg

Finally we were delivered a spaceship looking plate
This was described as a night at the movies
from right to left
Cola jelly, potato chips, chocloate mint(there was a specific US name for this which escapes me), rootbeer float and choclate raisin sweet(again the name escapes me.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/clever_pun/Restaurants/FLMignardises.jpg

As we were to leave we were given a goodie bag which contained an angel cake with a little jar of rasberry marmelade. I had some yesterday and it's incredibly light and has a topping not unlike merangue. Great stuff.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/clever_pun/Restaurants/FLCake.jpg

The food was stunning, the place was a little stuffy but it was crazy hot outside. I suspect the overall experience would be enhanced by the actual restaurant and winelist and wine flight. I want to go and try it.

Nice write up! Glad I'm not hungry right now.

We drove past The French Laundry, I had tried to get a table, but we only had a 24hr window and nothing was available. There are a few really good restaurants in Yountvillle and Calistoga - we cancelled our booking at Bouchon (the FL's chef' bistro) as we heard, from wine tour guide/foodie that they had lost their star and weren't as good. We ate in Bottega's instead and later, walking past the open windows of Bouchon, definitely preferred the atmosphere we'd had (along with amazing food) at Bottega.

thanks, I suspect I'd make the FL booking and base the holiday around it in terms of dates. Well done for getting the upgrade there, I'm sure you'd have been happy enough with Bouchon if you were blissfully unaware as there's no comparison as such

Table booked at TFD ... Awesome!

Table booked at TFD ... Awesome!

nice one, 2 months to count down. Have you been before?

It's not a surprise if you post it on the forum....

ha!

@A ... Check your phone!

@CP ... no, but looking forward to it!

After taking 7 or 8 mins to get through, I was on hold for another 7 or 8 minutes listening to a narrative of Alice Through the Looking Glass! Nice!

So I went to Zuma on Friday night. It was amazing. Had the tasting menu. Recommend...

Waiters were very attentive without being annoying, brilliant service, food was beautifully presented and so delicious.

Wagyu beef was the last course before dessert and the course I was looking forward to most. It was a little bit of an effort to eat it after all that food before, but the effort was so worth it. ZOMG was all I could say throughout the meal but it was double ZOMG after the first bite of the beef. So tender, so flavourful, I normally only enjoy beef when rare or blue, but this was cooked medium rare but it was still so soft. The two different dipping sauces, one soy based and one wasabi based were really nice but overpowered the flavour of the beef so I left them and munched it 'dry'. I actually ate two people's worth of it, it was that good. My girlfriend who was treating me, is a Pescetarian and they wouldn't swap the beef for anything else, so I just had her slices too.

Overall, it was a fantastic experience.

Did you take pics? Sounds awesome!

Yeah I'll show you at work tomorrow. Will stick them up at some point too.

Unlimited Champagne!

3 courses and unlimited champagne for £55 at The Quartier Dining Room, 8 Moorgate.
Only if you book through this link:
http://www.bookatable.com/uk/131522/quartier-dining-room-eight-moorgate?lcid=202&pid=31618

Sounds like a bargain to me. Tell your friends.

Booked. Sounds interesting. Cheers for the heads up.

giving this some serious consideration

http://www.lecassoulet.co.uk/media/pdf/promotions/LC%20menu.pdf

I quite enjoy this place but the service is a little untrained tbh, food is always good
http://www.lecassoulet.co.uk/index.html

£85 for tasting menu and wine flight does seems like a good deal

Booked the Ledbury for end of December, nice 'pre-Christmas' meal for my wife and I. Apparently the vegetarian tasting menu is excellent. Really looking forward to it, been a while since we've enjoyed some 'fine dining'.

That veg tasting menu does look exciting. Please ensure you update this thread after the meal, could be a good one for the future.

Will do!

I have visited The Ledbury, with my lady-wife and can report that it is indeed a very "fine dining", yet relaxed affair. The service is excellent.

I have visited The Ledbury, with my lady-wife and can report that it is indeed a very "fine dining", yet relaxed affair. The service is excellent.

^this, nice restaurant

the view of the estate isn't up to much but other than that it's hard to fault

TFD ... awesome.

Aroogah even got a birthday card signed by Heston.