Roussillon

16 St Barnabas Street, SW1W 8PB

This was a special occasion. A couple of years ago, I decided to have a major career change and so am currently retraining, as an accountant (I know, but I enjoy it!) This means that at the moment, I am sitting accountancy exams twice a year, with results in January and July. This January marked the halfway point, so we decided to have an appropriate celebration. Banking on the fact that I had passed (it would have been a shit night out if I hadn't), we booked a table at Roussillon.

The reason we picked here? We had seen Alexis Gauthier on Professional Masterchef last year. And we loved the look of his food, and his general approach to cooking. It's very hard to convey, but he cooked very much using his senses rather than precise instructions. So he wouldn't cook something for two minutes, he'd cook it till it was ready. He was about learning how to see, taste, smell and feel that food is ready. We liked his philosophy, and he seemed like a good chef to work for.

We had tantalised our taste buds with a look at the online menus, but were well aware that the seasons had moved on and looked forward to seeing what the winter menu would hold for us.

The Menu:
The menu was beautiful. The first page, which we read knowing we would never order from it, was The Winter Black Truffle Menu. £25 per dish supplement. This comprised a scallop dish, calf's sweetbreads, and a winter vegetable dish.

Roussillon is well-known for providing exciting and creative vegetarian food. Although a confirmed meat eater, I was very impressed by the vegetarian dishes, and the Menu Légumes - every bit as exciting as the meat and fish options.

The à la carte menu was three courses for £60, with a wide choice of interesting and attractive dishes to choose from.

Recently I have firmly avoided tasting menus - I have too often felt that I've eaten way too much, waking up at 4am feeling uncomfortable and bilious. I also haven't been anywhere I've been that excited about what's on offer. But when I read Roussillon's, I thought I would like to try a lot of it, so skipped on to the tasting Menu D'Hiver - eight gorgeous courses for £78.

Our Meal:
We were very, very impressed. It was some of the best food we have ever eaten, and really there was not a course that disappointed.

We started with a crab & clam tortellini with a langoustine velouté (although we had a slightly hairy moment when a plate with one tortellini was put in front of us, luckily the velouté was not far behind!)

This segued into foie gras served three ways, the most unusual of which was the port & foie gras duck egg soufflé, but this worked very well.

We then moved on to the star of the night for us, the winter black truffe risotto with parmesan and brown butter. I'm not usually very keen on risotto, although Mr PP is a fan. But this was so beautiful, I could eat bowlfuls of it and never tire of it. Creamy, perfectly cooked rice with the salty parmesan, musty truffle and rich butter just combined perfectly.

Beautifully cooked halibut then moved us on to the beef with olives, both of which were exceptionally tasty, and from then to cheese and desserts.

I was also impressed with the wine list - not because I'm any kind of connoisseur - but that there was a lot of choice at the cheaper end of the scale. There were several bottles in the £20-£30 range, and we were very happy with our choices. A nice surprise was the dessert wine which was served as part of the tasting menu at the end of the meal.

Coffee and petit-fours finished us off, and we wandered back to Victoria, me clutching my lovely box filled with macaroons (as presented to all the ladies). The whole meal was well-balanced, and whilst indulgent was not too rich.

A celebratory glass of champagne, tasting menu, wine, coffee and service set us back £260. Unfortunately not everyday affordable for us, but worth every penny.

What we liked:
Obviously, the food! But we also loved the restaurant and the ambience. And the service was excellent - efficient and personable, no hint of stuffiness.

My favourite thing though was that, because we loved it so much, I rather gauchely asked for a copy of the menu. Expecting only the paper insert at best, I was delighted to be presented with a whole menu (although I did look rather odd on the tube). A nice touch.

What we didn't like:
Not much really.

The amuse bouches didn't blow us away, but they were still good, and that is a very nitpicky point. Otherwise my only other observation would be that, certainly on the night we were in, it's a fairly old, traditional crowd. While it suits us well enough, many people may find it a bit too quiet and sedate for them.

Will we be back?:
As often as we can afford!