For this day we were waiting for a long time. We booked the tickets to Royal Festival Hall back in May to hear Beethoven’s 9th Symphony live, so there had to be a nice dinner before that.

Raymond’s place got picked shortly after he popped in to Dinings a while ago, the fact that his restaurant is a walking distance from the RFH mattered too.

Very, very pleasant place. Florek picked a bottle of Pinot Noir, for a starter we shared a steak tartare, very bravely seasoned, lots of mustard and capers, have to try it at Mum’s! With a baguette it was great. For the mains Florek had a hake, I went for the grilled scallops on a truffle mash.There was some baked fennel as well, not my thing though, it tasted like a bottle of perfume. Scallops though- fantastic. Maybe even second most awesome scallops dish ever, after those that Goemon made for us in Dinings last time, when we went with Moka. Goemon’s scallops sat in the truffle soy sauce and had some crispy parma ham on top, the only problem with them was the amount- 3 scallops for the 3 of us.Anyway, those today were spot on.

For dessert we went for Baked Alaska, something I’ve seen on Masterchef plenty of times, but never tried. It was nice, I love grand marnier and our waiter presented it in a nice way. He was so cool, that we invited him to share it with us, which he enthusiastically did.

Good thing is, that there is Brasserie Blanc in Cheltenham as well. 🙂

Over a month ago The Chief promised us a treat, a lunch in La Petite Maison. Kris has been there before, for Grace, Dovile and myself it was a first.

The place is cosy, overstaffed, but we were looking forward so much to it, that lots of things, like our grumpy waiter who didn’t smile once, I decide to overlook. Lovely food. Llllllllovely food. We’ve had quite a few plates of different things, the 2 most memorable ones are scallop carpaccio, simple, sweet, with dried cranberries and flaked almonds, stunning.

And the creme brulee, that I was waiting for ever since The Chief said it was the best one he ever had. Errm, yeah. It was like silk. A tonne of vanilla, huge portion, that I approved of, thin layer of caramel on top. Fantastic. Mine is never that smooth, kurwa.

There are perks of working in Dinings. Once we realised  we’re all off this evening, Gracelett, Kris and I, we decided to hit Nobu Berkeley. Fuku san was kind enough to ring Oba san, who got us 3 seats at the counter and off we went.

Berkeley, all posh, 2 chicks downstairs with long legs, blokes opening doors for us, orchids in the reception, all posh, pretty, expensive, nice toilet paper and all. We kicked off with some mojitos, which were lovely, just as sweet as I like them and not a stingy size at all.

Oba san prepared a couple of starters for us, I loved the first one, a trio of salmon tartar with wasabi soya, toro hagashi- that rocked- and some sea bass sashimi that was ok.

Then we requested a portion of yellowtail sashimi with jalapeno and yuzu soy, which was just as delicious as I remembered from Ubon, but the presentation  messy and looking like someone couldn’t be bothered…

The star of the show for me was a mixed plate of  new style sashimi, the scallop and king crab still warm from the hot oil they were seared with, melting in the mouth.

Next we’ve had lobster salad with spicy lemon dressing, very nice, but the garlic chips on top were to be looked for with a magnifying glass.

Rock shrimp tempura nice, but not amazing, maybe on the pass for too long? The shitake, zucchini and eggplant tempura nice, but not not as nice as in Dinings ( our tempura section is probably the size of their rice container altogether, but it’s crispy and flavoursome, this one was hardly memorable).

We’ve also had a rib eye with anticucho sauce, which was not as good as I remembered, we all agreed that our Korean spicy miso tops it by far.

But the biggest disappointment, and no offence to a lovely man Oba san is, was the sushi. I only had a piece of salmon nigiri and ama ebi, which Oba san called jokingly ” Dinings style”, but when he presented them in front of me I thought he was taking the piss. It didn’t look like much and the rice had no flavour- a crime! The sushi rice in Dinings is at times more flavoursome than the topping itself, it is lovely to eat by itself, to me it even smells appealing. We also had a soft shell crab roll, it looked miserable in comparison with our beautiful, round, fat, full to the brim perfect rolls.

The desserts were nice, but not mind blowing, Suntory whisky cappuccino probably the nicest of them, the texture especially, but nowhere near our black sesame creme caramel.

We tried a selection of cocktails, from which only mojitos were up to scratch, the lime and lychee martini I had smelled of….bathroom cleaning products to me. Not good. The flower floating on top didn’t help…;-)

All in all we had a great night out, the best thing about it was the fact, that it left us all proud of our own bunker, with shitty, basic decor, a tiny cocktail list, claustrophobic toilets and noisy sushi chefs. Our food though, the stuff that comes from under  Fuku’s hands is a Champions League in comparison with what they serve in Berkeley. Our seabass carpaccio when delivered to the table with fresh truffle aroma stops all conversations, it’s so pretty, none of Nobu’s dishes had that effect on us. Our unagi and foie gras signature roll is to die for, theirs are basic and lack excitement.

Dinings über alles!!

We’ve spent a great day in Florence today. Such a different experience to the previous visit 2 years ago in summer, when the heat chased us out after 2 hours. Today we’ve been everywhere we wanted to be and went for lunch to a random trattoria on our way back from Ponte Vecchio.

I ordered tortelloni stuffed with potato and cheese with black truffle sauce and thin shavings of parmesan, it was so good, that half way through the first portion I called the waiter and asked for the second one. It was outstanding.  Sipping my wine afterwards I rated in at 9, 5 in the scale of 10, it only gives way to Marco’s ravioli with pumpkin and walnut sauce in Bagni di Lucca, which, by the way is still on the menu and I did go back this time for more.

Photo a bit crappy, taken by iPhone. Memorable meal tough.

Christmas this year is very special, we’re in Tuscany, with the sheer purpose of doing  something different. No parents ( with exception of Alice ), no carp, no dumb Polish television, no cakes in huge variety. Just awesome Italian food every day. Alice and Ken took us all to a Christmas lunch today, menu, as displayed by Moka, 5 hours at the table…. Very enjoyable though. And great food. Pasta dishes as usual won my biggest approval, followed by a great chocolate fondant- served with unnecessary custard, but still great.

We went to see The Guyotki last weekend. As usual had a great time and ate lots good stuff.

A French baguette can’t be compared with anything baked in the UK.

The macaroons were mouth watering and the cake I snapped in the patisserie when Moka was paying for the macaroons.

One of the most awesome dishes from work, seabass carpaccio with ponzu, truffle salsa and fresh summer truffles. So good, we gladly give the customers spoons to finish off the sauce.

Yum.

A couple of pictures from the food training session at work the other day.

Wagyu tataki, beef so tender it melts in the mouth, rare, chargrilled- which gives it slightly bitter, wonderful flavour on the edges. Served with ponzu sauce. Yuuuuum.

Chilli garlic shrimps, chargrilled again and marinated in chilli garlic paste, the coriander and sesame oil give the flavour another dimension. I couldn’t get enough!!!!

Ken took us out last night, we went to the place we’ve been to before and I remembered it from its awesome creme brulee. Pub grub, said Alice, but I thought it was much more than that. Tonight I tried venison for the first time ever. LOVED IT! It was a grilled steak, served with roasted parsnips and carrots, some dauphinoise spuds and jus, very rich, but not overpowering. Gamey, tasty, tons of flavour. Lost my venison virginity.

I am definitely a fan.