Lunch at the L'Ortolan

Two of my colleagues and I went for our Christmas lunch today. It wasn't your usual one neither. We went to the L'Ortolan restaurant in Shinfield/Reading. It was just exceptional. To start with we had drinks in the bar with "nibbles". The nibbles were  tapioca crisps, venison tartar and some deep fried ball, that I couldn't quite get what it was, but all three were amazingly delicious.

We then were asked to our table where we were served a celeriac volute with pickled pear - I know my descriptions are getting boring, but it was exceptional. We then served our individual starters and I had smoked wood pigeon with artichoke and hazelnut.

For main, I had stone bass pan fried with confit potato, pickled chanterelles and a truffle jus

Now, pre-desert was fun. It looked like soft boiled egg with soldiers. Well, the soldiers were coconut shortbread and the egg shells were filled with coconut foam and mango.

The desert was simply called "Cherry":

It was chocolate macaroon, chocolate & cherry ganache, Kirsch cherries, cherry gel and cherry sorbet.

The service was just like the food - flawless. One of us was vegetarian and she was equally blown away. All round probably the best Christmas lunch ever.