Bistro Bruno Loubet at The Zetter

St John’s Square, 86 - 88 Clerkenwell Road, EC1M 5RJ

This night out was courtesy of our my very generous in-laws. We went with some of their friends who remembered Bruno Loubet from before, and were full of anticipation.

Mr PP and I arrived last, through the rather dreary drizzle, and were immediately whisked off to the table. The restaurant itself is quite comfortable, but a little cramped. Once all the tables were seated around us, we were blocked in and had to disturb at least two tables to get to the loo.

Service was a little slow at first, and I was rather desperate for a drink, but they soon seemed to catch up with themselves, and was smooth for the rest of the evening.

The Menu:
We liked the look of the menu, and there were quite a few dishes that tempted us. For starters, most of us ended up opting for the Onion and Cider Soup, upside-down Emmenthal soufflé. Mr PP chose the Mauricette snails and meat balls, royale de champignon and my namesake ordered Potted shrimps and mackerel, cucumber salad, Melba toast.

Onto the mains, and there was a bit more diversity on order. I chose Hare Royale, onion raviolo, pumpkin and dried mandarin purée and Mr PP went for Pan-fried breast of wood pigeon, cauliflower, almond and quinoa, giblet sauce. Our friends variously ordered Beef daube Provencal and mousseline potatoes, Confit lamb shoulder, white beans and preserved lemon, green harissa, and the fish special.

Our Meal:
I think we were all slightly disappointed with our soup - it was woefully underseasoned and really lacked flavour. Even the soufflé was bland, although it was technically very accomplished. The potted shrimps were better, but for me the star was the snails, which were beautifully cooked and very flavoursome.

The mains were also good, but not amazing. Mr PPs pigeon tasted delicious but I was glad in a way that I hadn't ordered it, as I didn't really like the combination of the constituent parts of the dish as a whole.

The beef daube was fine, and the mouselline potatoes were a beautiful texture but were served at a fairly tepid temperature. The lamb looked rather odd, like a big reconstituted lamb burger, and although I didn't try it, my friend told us it was delicious.

The hare, on the other hand, was fairly special, and my only comment would be that it was so rich, I shouldn't really have eaten it all - but I did. Strong, complex but complimentary flavours combined well in the hare, although the onion ravioli was neither here nor there, despite the excellence of the pasta.

The ladies passed on desserts, while Mr PP and his brother tucked into Rice pudding pannacotta and marmalade and Valrhona chocolate tartlet, caramel and salted butter ice cream respectively. The rice pudding pannacotta seemed like plain old rice pudding to me - but absolutely delicious for all that. Personally, I'm not a fan of marmalade (an adult taste that unlike anchovy and olives I've never developed a liking for) but Mr PP reported that it worked well. By this point, the richness of the hare was too much, and I couldn't even have a taste of the chocolate tart. At the speed it disappeared, I assume it was good. And my sister-in-law was very impressed by the ice-cream.

We finished off with coffees - I can't comment on the bill as didn't see it. As I say, very generous in-laws ...

What we liked:
Great service, nice surroundings, and great company. It's a very busy place, and good for big groups. I can imagine it's not so nice for a quiet meal for two. It was also nice to see Bruno Loubet actually working in the kitchen, rather than it just being his name over the door.

What we didnt like:
The food wasn't top-notch, and some of the dishes did disappoint. And it was a little cramped. Whilst I found that a bit of an issue, I am also cognisant of the fact that, due to the amount we drank, that the tables around us probably found us more irritating than we did them.

Will we be back:
I would safely say no. I thought it was fine, can imagine there will always be other places that are higher up the "To Visit" list.

Hélène Darroze at the Connaught

Carlos Place, W1K 2AL

This wasn't my choice of restaurant. We were dining with long standing friends, and it was their turn to pick the venue. If being very honest, I would have to say I had reservations about eating here. The menu I looked at online did not appeal to me, and it seemed very expensive. I went in hope the information I'd looked at online was out of date (unlikely and a faint hope, I know, but still ...).

On arrival we were whisked through to a lovely table for four in the window. The dining room is very beautiful. Lots of dark wood and period features suggests a stuffy atmosphere, but it wasn't. It was beautifully lit, and created a lovely atmosphere. We started not with the champagne suggested, but with martinis. They took rather a long time to arrive, but were worth the wait. As ever in such establishments, the question was still or sparkling water. Thankfully we have long got over any intimidation into such waste, and duly requested our tapwater.

And then the menus arrived ...

The Menu:
... and it was the same as the online one. Bugger!

It didn't appeal to me, I guess because it included a lot of flavours I'm not keen on. It was also very fish oriented. If you didn't want to eat fish or seafood, you were left with two starters and three mains to choose from. A lot of the dishes were for two people, and a lot attracted a supplement on top of the fairly stiff £75 for three courses (coffee not included).

We fairly quickly moved on from considering the tasting menu, as a lot of the dishes didn't appeal. For starter I ordered Jerusalem artichoke cooked in a velouté perfumed with Iberico ham, fine ravioli of Basque black pudding, chestnut crumbs, lardons and croutons, traditional Balsamic vinegar from Modéna – 12 year old. Mr PP chose Blue lobster cooked in a large ravioli perfumed with tandoori spices, carrot and confit citrus mousseline, wild sorrel, spring onions reduction with fresh coriander and beurre noisette. Our companions both opted for XXL scallop with black truffle from Périgord, steamed around a Swiss chard leave, roasted Swiss chard, ham jus (£8 supplement).

Onto the mains, and I plumped for Irish salmon pink cooked pavé, green cabbage with bacon, Brussels sprouts, smoked herring emulsion with salmon’s roe. Mr PP and one of our friends both picked Black Basque pork, roasted with black truffle from Périgord, mashed potatoes, braised lettuce with carrot, roasting jus (£15 supplement). Our other friend chose Racan farmed pigeon, spit-roasted and “flambé au capucin”, grilled foie gras from les Landes, quinoa with Medjul dates and Sicilian pistachio, intense jus spiced up with Mexican mollé. Under most circumstances I would have had the pigeon, but I'm not a fan of quinoa.

Rather annoyingly, we had to order dessert at the start. I've never had to do that before, and didn't really like it. I didn't know whether I wanted cheese, or dessert, or how full I'd be, or any of the other things that you take into account at the end of the meal. Still, if them's the rules you've got to play by them.

I went for champagne rhubarb compote and meringue, Sarawak pepper ice cream, almond crumble. Mr PP and one of our friends picked hazelnut roasted and cooked in a praliné mousse, chocolate cream, lemon and thyme foam. And our other friend chose Manjari chocolate dark ganache, passion fruit wafer, passion fruit and orange sorbet.

Given the fish emphasis to the meal, we opted for white wine and settled back in anticipation ...

Our Meal:
As expected, the service was impeccable. Efficient, but personable, with no hint of stuffiness. Glasses were never anywhere close to empty, and any items we finished with removed promptly.

Our first amuse bouche arrived with the menus, consisting of courgette velouté with a parmesan foam, some breadstick type things and some ham on a slate. The velouté and breadsticks were the least of it, but the ham was delicious.

After ordering we were offered bread from a fairly impressive selection, and the second amuse bouche arrived. Foie gras with an apple sorbet and a peanut foam. I couldn't taste the apple at all, and the peanut rather overwhelmed the foie gras, but it was tasty.

On to the starters. There was a lot I liked about mine, but also a lot that I didn't. The Jerusalem artichoke velouté was beautiful. It had a lovely taste, and rich, smooth texture. But it was served slightly tepid - not cold, but not warm either. The ravioli were not terribly tasty and the pasta was a little bit crunchy at the seams. The lardons, chestnut and croutons were lovely, and did lift the dish. Our friends were not terribly impressed by the scallop, both feeling it didn't taste of much. The most flavoursome starter belonged to Mr PP. I tried some, but hadn't fancied curried lobster and I think I was right. Overall, an underwhelming start.

Before the mains arrived, we had a palate cleanser of avocado mousse with pepper and nuts. I don't like avocado, particularly the texture. I thought that might be improved by the mousse texture, but it wasn't and Mr PP had his palate cleansed twice.

I thought they rather missed a trick with the mains. The pork chop, ordered by two of us, was carved at the table. The table behind us. We didn't realise it was ours, so we weren't really watching. A little bit of theatre missed, which was a shame. The star of the mains was the pigeon (and I really regretted my decision not to have it). It was supposed to be served blue, but our friend had it pink. It was, for me, still very pink but perfectly cooked. The pork chop was also delicious and flavoursome. Also served pink, it was moist, tender and surprisingly flavoursome. The mash served with it was smooth and very rich. All this was nicely balanced with the braised lettuce.

In comparison, I was disappointed by my main. It was fine, but it didn't blow me away. I was a bit taken aback that the advertised brussel sprouts were actually five (I counted) leaves peeled from a brussel sprout (that'll keep your costs down - they could serve the whole restaurant using two sprouts). The salmon was cooked perfectly, the skin was gorgeously crispy, and the sauce was full of flavour. The consensus was that the mains were much better than the starters.

If I could have chosen at this point, I'd have had cheese. The rhubarb that I did have was fine but again, I wasn't blown away. The ice-cream tasted very bland, and I don't remember finding the almonds. The hazelnut went down well, but the star of the show was the chocolate, for the passion fruit wafers. They were really rather spectacular looking (apparently they require very particular skills) and tasted delicious.

Overall, for me, I think I found most of the dishes did not have the complexity of flavours that I expect from Michelin starred establishments. And as a fairly expensive menu, I had hoped for better.

We then retired with armagnacs, from the very impressive Darozze collection (I'd missed a table with at least 40 bottles on it on the way in!) and petit fours, to a comfortable lounge, with a fire and the Duchess of York at the table next to us. The armagnacs were delicious and actually rather heady. After that, instead of going on, we were ready to head home on a high.

The bill, including two bottles of wine with dinner and service at 12.5%, was £568.69 for the four of us. To me, far too much really. All those supplements really add up!

What we liked:
The company, the armagnacs, the dining room, the service.

What we didn't like:
The lack of complexity of flavours, and of course, the bill.

Will we go back?:
I can't speak for our friends but I'm afraid to say I wouldn't. Not even if somebody else was paying. I just think there are better places out there.

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!