One thing I didn’t report on after my November visit to
But after ruminating over my experience for six weeks I have decided that first impressions were reliable. After all the whole objective of shelling out a lot of cash was to invite a friend to a restaurant in
Yes I had decided that with all the glowing reports of wonderful
Next surprise was the starter. I was recommended oysters. English oysters? Well no, ‘the fines claires’, £25 for six, are the best choice’. I started to tag onto the idea that I was going to eat a French meal. How about the English oysters, they are only £35 for six? A bit pricy, try the Irish oysters at only £20 for six. So we did, six Irish, six French between the three of us. The fines claires, I got two, were very good almost as good as the ones I buy on my local market for next to nothing. I did note that the langoustines were sold per piece at £3 a go. That’s the first time in my life I’ve seen them individually priced. We pile them up by the kilo in
Time to order the main course. The sea bass cooked in salt is excellent. I do like sea bass; the only point is that we eat them all summer long for nothing since a friend catches more than he can eat. Was I going to pay £30 for something that we get for free? My wife did, bless her, but she is a bit conservative. I tasted it and it was good. I went for a teal, which I don’t think I have ever eaten before. It is the smallest species of duck that exists, I got just one. It is a bit bigger than a quail, and not as interesting. It was OK, they said it would be rosé but it tasted overcooked to me. On the plate next to it was one spinach leaf, not a nice one, late season tough as hell.
Strangely my wife said she didn’t want a dessert. She always wants a dessert but I guess she had done a bit of mental arithmetic. So we just had an espresso at £3 a pop. Strangely it was in a large cup, so the coffee was tepid. No petits fours.
During the coffee we had a chat with someone who appeared to be the manager. I’d seen him previously doing his bean counting, activity reports etc. at the bar. I never saw that in a French restaurant, they seem more concerned with the food. He gave us the usual spiel, best eating in the world in
So time for l’addition. £250: 4 oysters, a tiny duck, a spinach leaf, two glasses of champagne and a cold coffee. I also gave £5 to the poor Chinese cloak lady. She had to sit in the bottom of the coat cupboard because they couldn’t afford a chair for her. I’ve never seen that before.
There was a sandwich stall outside so I bought a full round of ham and lettuce.
3 commentaires:
How right you are! My wife had been reading up on London's wonderful "gastro-pubs," where the emphasis was on natural, locally grown meat and produce. True enough, these places can all but tell you the name of the cow the milk came from to make the cheese. But the prices were outrageous. And the food was no better than all right. Having just spent several days eating wonderfully well in Rome without ever feeling we'd lost an arm and a leg in the bill-paying process, this was doubly painful. I notice, too, that they have a quaint saying in the pubs, gastro and otherwise, these days when you pay for your drinks: "That's not enough." A fiver for a pint is WAY out of line.
I just checked at my local fish shop (which is very expensive versus quai side Brittany). I can buy fines claires for 6.8 € for twelve. That comes to £2.31 for six. Based on that the greatest food in the world needs a mark up of 1081% to open them and put them in front of you.
You two gentlemen should have a look at the article on Skynews today based on recently released Cabinet papers. In 1956 the French Prime Minister, the Socialist Guy Mollet, suggested that France wanted to merge with Britain, or failing that to join the British Commonwealth. Who would have benefitted more, one wonders? Thank God it didn't happen. We're already lumbered with the bloody Northern Irish; whingeing French as well would be too much.
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