15th November 2007
just fabulous
I recently dined at the Poule au Pot with a group of friends, it was possibly one of the best suppers I have ever had.
The restaurant itself is in a lovely area, Pimlico Green could hardly be described as anything but affluent! You cna walk from Sloane Square or get a bus from Victoria.
The restuarant has the feel of true french country lifestyle, although the hops and lavender hanging from the ceiling makes it feel a bit on the cramped side. We sat in a window alcove surrounded by bookshelves. Although some people may not like having to wedge books in the window to open it up a bit i thought it was great!
The waiters were charming, although i found the relaxed parochial ambience at odds with the fact they had a different waiter for every foodstuff (a mild exaggeration perhaps) with these prices one would expect a sommelier but we had another guy for water, another one for bread and three or four for the courses!
Onto the food, which was exquisite!
Three of my party dined on the crab salad for a starter although it could easily have been a main course, it was delicious! We also had the snails, and the foie gras which was very nice although tainted with an unpleasant ethical taste in the mouth!
for the mains we had on the table 2 rabbit dishes, both very nice, 2 steaks - some of the best I've ever tasted, a boeuf bourginon and my dish was the venison in red wine sauce. I had never had venison before and it was unprecedented in being the best meat dish i have ever eaten, also decided by table vote that mine was the best dish on the table, out of this world! We were too stuffed for dessert but the coffee was nice enough and the chocolates proved very popular.
However now comes the price, well considering our party of 6 started the evening with 2 bottles of champagne, and then followed with 5 or 6 more bottle of wine (we're not alcoholics I promise you)the night ended up being £90 a head! Hence living on rice and porridge for the rest of the month.
It was the most expensive meal I've ever paid for but boy was it worth it! Honestly the price was bumped up by the drinks, the food is gorgeous and not at all over priced, my venison was in the region of £20 which i don't think is extortionate, and if you like seafood you could quite easily have the crab salad for a main course, so it doesn't have to be too expensive.
Go all of you, at once!