Something I love about London, is the huge offer of "cheap" lunches at Michelin starred restaurants. This whole world was untouchable when I had to stay at my desk and indulged myself with burritos loaded with trans fat. And now that I have quit cheap junk food, I can treat myself with cheap gastronomic food!
With another idle friend, we headed to Gauthier Soho for lunch. We were seated in the immaculate dining room on the first floor of the lovely house, and felt a little bit out of place in the room full of seniors. But given the fact it was Tuesday lunch time, this was not very surprising.
We ordered the 3-course lunch with half a bottle of red wine, and had some appetizers to start. It is always nice to be offered appetizers but they had nothing special. However, I was quite impressed by the large selection of home-made breads (bacon, olive, chorizo, nut, etc...) that we could sample with two different olive oils.
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| Quail eggs with serrano ham and foie gras |
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| Grissini |
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| Tomato, garlic and cockles |
As a starter, my friend L. went for the halibut salad while I had the girolle risotto with veal jus. I don't know about the salad but the risotto was great and I wished I had more.
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| Warm halibut salad |
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| Girolle risotto with veal jus and Parmesan crisp |
We both ordered duck for main. Usually, I love duck, but this dish was such a disappointment, especially compared to the wonderful duck with girolles I had at Saint John. Despite being correctly cooked, the duck was quite bland and I did not taste much of the spicy jus. Besides, the chanterelles were so spongy that we wondered if they were frozen mushrooms.
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| Honey roated duck breast, chanterelles, pommes fondantes and spicy jus |
We had a frozen pre-dessert which I am ashamed not to remember.
L. had the mother of chocolate cakes for dessert: a Golden Louis XV. I had never heard of this cake before but for anyone who has a sweet tooth this is the perfect decadent chocolate pudding.
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| Golden Louis XV |
As I usually prefer fruity desserts, I had the pear compote. I am not convinced of the quality of pear as a dessert fruit. I think pear is wonderful with cheese, but it lacks the tartness I love in fruity desserts. I think I definitely would have preferred rhubarb or raspberry (but then it was quite stupid to order the pear compote wasn't it?).
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| Pear compote, white chocolate jelly and cinnamon ice cream |
Cost:
2-course lunch: £18
3-course lunch: £25
Free still and sparkling water
£5 extra for half a bottle of wine.
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