This is probably one of the hardest reviews I’ve had to write. Because, ultimately, while the food was pretty good, I don’t think I’d recommend the place, nor would I go back. Why not?
A bit too disjoint and French.
We are greeted by a lovely guy in a doorway. I’d already heard about going down the stairs to get to the restaurant, so the setup wasn’t a surprise. He takes my name, the reservation time, and our coats. We head down the stairs.
At the bottom of the stairs, there is another young man, very young, who asks for my name and reservation time again. And I can’t help myself, i compare them to Gaucho where, despite looking a bit James Bond, the waiters wear headsets which allow them to communicate so I don’t have to repeat myself.
We get to our seat, and the young man asks us about drinks. We plead for a few minutes to consider the wine list. Within 10 seconds, a waitress shows up, and asks us about drinks. I think my partner was a smidgeon snappier than usual when he again pleaded for a few minutes to consider the list. Well. They got the message. We then had to catch their eye to put our main order in!
Dinner was lovely, but again I found myself comparing it to another restaurant. In this instance, Relais de Venise. They basically copied the menu nearly to the letter, and changed the salad dressing and the sauce on the steak (kidney instead of bone marrow). It was inevitable that I’d notice, being a regular of Relais.
Dessert was very very good. Chocolate pudding with ginger ice cream. Very refreshing!
But I think the odd re-checking of information and the order-taking latency we experienced, along with the inevitable – and very subjective, we know – internal comparisons we subjected the food to, have left us both wondering if we’d ever go back.
On verra bien.
Because if I forgot to mention this, the place, it was very very very French.
If I go back it would be to see what dress the hostess will be wearing that day…
Check out my review of Le Cercle – I am eurydice13 – on Qype