Dining at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay is a real Experience.

We had a very luxurious and rather fabulous lunch there on Monday to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary. I will probably use the word luxury and variations thereupon far too much, but it it was such a special meal that I reckon I can get away with it!

The dining room is intimate, but not cramped, and you very quickly relax into your own bubble of luxury to the exclusion of the other diners. The décor was understated rather than opulent, with cream wall panels, some discrete gilt edging, small crystal lights and mirrored pillars.

On the face of it, the restaurant looked far more formal than The Fat Duck, but we quickly realised that it was far less regimented. When the Maitre D’, Jean-Claude Breton, brought our menus and introduced himself, he explained that even though we were both keen to have the Menu Prestige (or tasting menu), the kitchen would be very pleased to substitute dishes or indeed add in others if we wanted to taste even more of the menu. In the end, we both opted to have the Menu Prestige without any amendments. (I’m not sure we could have fitted in any extra courses!)

After ordering, the amuse bouche arrived. It was a palate cleanser of tomato consomme. The crystal clear consomme was poured for us at the table, over a small mound of tomato concasse, slivers of spring onion and some fresh peas. This was delicious. The consomme was intense; think of the smell and taste of the ripest, most delicious tomatoes you’ve ever had, and then imagine drinking all of that wonderful flavour. Got that? Now imagine it being three times better than your imagination… You’re pretty much there.

Next to arrive was our starter of pressed foie gras on a wine jelly, the plate beautifully adorned with pickled vegetables and a slice of toasted brioche (pictured at top of this entry).

I think there were layers of parma ham in the terrine; I wish I’d paid a bit more attention to what the waiter was saying rather than staring at the amazing presentation on the plate! This was everything one could wish for in a foie gras terrine. Rich, smooth, melting as soon as it hit the tongue, but lightened by the jelly and the sharpness of the pickled vegetables.

Rich, yet light, seems to be the hallmark of Ramsay’s recipes.

From there we moved to the Ravioli of lobster, langoustine and salmon with tomato chutney and lobster bisque. I had really been looking forward to this as I’d never had lobster before and I certainly wasn’t disappointed. (Apologies for the dire photograph; this dish is honestly very pretty indeed!) The lobster meat was easily identifiable to me as a new, sweet and surprisingly meaty flavour. If all lobster is that good, then I might be tempted to bring my own snappy friend home to meet its fate in my stockpot.

A fillet of turbot on coriander linguine with citrus sauce was next, and featured another fish I’d never tried before. Turbot seems to be the big thing just now, with most chefs describing it as the “king of fish.” I’m not sure I’d go as far as that, but it was cooked perfectly and did have a lovely flavour. We both loved the citrus sauce which was, I believe, a beurre blanc with the addition of grapefruit. It had a wonderful citrus flavour but none of the acidity of the fruit.

The final savoury course was the Cannon of Cornish lamb with a confit shoulder, ratatouille and thyme jus. This was just perfect. The lamb was so tender and juicy, with its flavour shining through cleanly. I thought the lamb that I’d eaten at Riverstation was incredible, but this was more than a cut above, putting it squarely into the category of the best lamb we’ve ever had.

I loved the baby red pepper stuffed with ratatouille. Now only was it the prettiest plating I’d ever seen of ratatouille, but also the tastiest. As the pepper was so tiny it was incredibly sweet amd succulent. Delicious.

Pre dessert came next. I love this concept… perhaps I am part hobbit? It was a tiny jar of an almost-creme brulee. I say almost as the custard was cooked on the hob rather than being baked off in a water-bath. There was a delicious layer of apple and pear compote nestled under the cream and a fine sprinkling of cocoa powder on top in place of caramelised sugar.

Our first dessert proper was Pineapple and coconut soup with chilli syrup. This was amazing. I hadn’t been expecting anything at all Heston-esque, so was completely caught out by the popping candy hidden in the centre of each glass. With my first sip, I started to giggle as soon as I figured out what was going on, and Dave was promptly treated to a barrage of pop-snap-fizz between my giggles. Aside from the fun factor, this was a wonderful dessert. The pineapple soup was sweet and fresh, and was topped by a coconut and fromage frais foam and some finely chopped chilli finished the whole confection off. Such a great summer dessert.

The ‘official’ end of the meal was a bitter chocolate and hazelnut cylinder with ginger ice-cream and blackberry granite. This was so pretty that I didn’t want to eat it but then the scent of chocolate and blackberry wafted to me and I just had to dive in.

The cylinder turned out to be filled with the smoothest hazelnut praline mousse imaginable, contrasting perfectly with the snap of the bitter chocolate. Atop the cylinder was some champagne foam in which the blackberry granite was nestled. This really added another dimension to the dessert. The foam still retained a little fizz which was really fun, and the granite was delicious although slushier than I’m used to. (More of a Slush Puppy than shards of sparkling crystals.)

With the meal over, a flurry of waiters brought some exquisite silver-dipped chocolate truffles, a dramatic box of white chocolate dipped strawberry ice-cream and a further surprise of a scoop of the most exquisite raspberry sorbet, adorned with a silver candle, as an anniversary gift to us.

I had asked Jean-Claude it if would be possible to see the kitchen after our desserts and he was only too happy to oblige. So Dave and I trooped into the kitchen which was smaller than I had anticipated–but isn’t that always the case with restaurant kitchens these days? The last time I saw a large kitchen it was in a hotel–had a little tour and met Clare Smyth, the head chef. Clare is very lovely as well as being madly talented and we had a quick chat about layering fruit into creme brulees (as you do). Despite having been working since 7am, she looked fresh as a daisy.

Bursting with happiness we returned to the lounge to be greeted with yet another truffle tree–yum!–and chatted to the staff a little more before making our way to the cab they’d called for us.

An unforgettable meal, and I’m already dying for a return visit!

Restaurant Gordon Ramsay
68 Royal Hospital Road
London
SW3 4HP

For reservations call: 020 7352 4441