We had booked into The French Table later in the month for our anniversary, but with the news of the lockdown I rushed to see if we could get in ahead of time. Normally they are closed on Tuesdays, but when I rang they said that exceptionally they would be open, so gleefully I booked us in.
After the usual temperature checks we were shown in to our table. It was pretty busy again, with the upstairs room being used too - others must have had the same sort of idea. We had suspicions that not all the other tables were from one household, but one can't be sure. We ordered our usual Viognier at £28 and settled down to choose between the 5-course tasting menu or the a la carte. We've always done the tasting before, as it is not much more expensive, but this time we opted not to.
That meant I could choose the special starter - a marmite of mussels and cod, with broccoli and celery under a puff pastry top. It looked very impressive - bigger than I expected with beautifully browned pastry. Inside the contents were swimming in a delicious yellow (saffron?) sauce - plentiful and tasty. B chose the crispy tempura prawns and plaice, which was very good - large prawns, plaice full of flavour. We'd turned down the roasted hispi cabbage with soya and ginger dressing, but it appeared at the table next us, looking very impressive - and collapsing dramatically when attacked.
After some discussion about the difference between the terrine of rabbit, ham hock and foie gras on the a la carte and the ballotine of the same things on the tasting menu (and why they had different recommended wines), we turned to our mains. After some dithering, B had chosen the pork belly with salsify, hazelnuts and hazelnut puree. The meat was topped with an intricate and delicate pommes dauphine web, and there was also a pork croquette to accompany it. She thought it was very good, though the hazelnut puree was a bit redundant.
I'd gone for the roast lamb, which turned out to be three round slices, glazed with rosemary sauce. It came with spatzle (German egg noodles - I had to look that up), some cavelo nero and a few rather chewy strands of greenery. Both dishes score very high marks again. There had been an option of a side order of vegetables which we had declined - at other tables they looked like huge portions.
I was pretty full, but B pressed on to order a mille-feuille with poached figs and pistachio ice cream. The cream with the mille-feuille was infused with Earl Grey, and the three layers of pastry very crisp and flavourful.
Service was a bit less chatty this time - they were busy and the PPE doesn't make for intimacy. We discussed whether a straight 3-courses was a better option than the tasting (it didn't come with an amuse bouche), and decided there wasn't much to choose between them. Larger portions make the a la carte a more recognisable lunch, but the tastings have always been well judged in their portion sizes too. With 12.5% service and a second bottle of wine, the bill was £136. Not cheap, but we won't be eating out for the next month (at least) so well worth doing.
