Sunday, October 19, 2008

Le fantastique!

We thought we had been blessed with a table at The Fat Duck, but when that fell through, we picked Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester instead. Well, la dee da! I have to say, that The Dorchester (hangout of Kate Moss), really _is_ the swishest hotel I've ever been to. This is luxury defined. The restaurant, was decked out in elegance. For the first time, I felt it would've been wrong of me to whip out my camera to take some food pr0n *grin*

Better still, I was surrounded by shexy French accents allllll night :D *swoon*

The evening started out well. We were very well behaved as we sipped our champagne aperitifs. My entree of "Soft-boiled organic EGG, crayfish and wild mushrooms, Nantua sauce" was sooooo good... The sauce... oooomg, it was sooo tasty!
*drool* Err, I just looked it up, and Nantua sauce is made out of sauteed LIVE crayfish (o_O) Oops, that was a bit evil of me.

As the half bottle of white wine started flowing, we got more and more giggly. I'm sure people were looking at us *grin*

My main of "Fillet of BEEF and seared FOIE GRAS Rossini, "sacristain" potatoes, "Periqueux" sauce", was sadly, a bit on the ordinary side. The foie gras rossini was delicious, the beef however, was average. Good beef, but nothing special. I think I've figured it out, avoid ordering beef at French restaurants. There's just nothing very exciting the French can do to a fillet of beef.

As the half bottle of red wine reached its end, we were in stitches. I can't remember what we were laughing about, but I'm sure it was dang funny *grin* As the Sommelier comes over with my dessert wine, I'm still giggly. He starts showing us the bottle and explaining the wine to us. His accent was so dreamy, I asked him to repeat the name of the wine for us *lol* The wines he recommended for us that night were all excellent, I was impressed.

Ok, so I snuck a photo on my iPhone. Here's our yummy "ROSE and RASPBERRY pleasure":


At the end of the night, I sidled up to the Restaurant Director.
Me: "Bonsoir Monsieur!"
RD: "Bonsoir! Ça va?"
Me: (Sh*t, "bueno" is Spanish! What's French?!?) "Err, bien?"
RD: "Good! How can I help you?"
Me: "Could you do me a favour please? I would love a souvenir. Is it possible for me to get a signed menu from the Chef and a list of the wines we had tonight?"
RD: "Of course!"

The Restaurant Director comes back with a signed menu for me.
RD: "Would you like to see the kitchen and meet the Chef?"
Me: "That would be nice..." :D

We were shown to a very SPOTLESS kitchen and introduced to the Executive Chef for a chat :) I offerred to marry the Pastry Chef, unfortunately he was already married with a toddler. I should've made a move on the Saucier or Sommelier instead! As we leave the restaurant, we're handed a complimentary package of orange cakes. Nice touch.

Overall, I think I paid for the experience of dining at The Dorchester more than for the food itself. It's hard to explain, but I don't think it's possible to find this standard of service and atmosphere anywhere else. Comparative to all the other restaurants I've been to anyway. Or maybe it's just because I had great company that night :) I can't believe we got trashed at a very fancy adult restaurant! I feel like a rebel ;)


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