The Ledbury - Part 3

It's always a relief to find that after the dizzying excitement of the first time you fell in love with a restaurant, the third visit is just as good. The Ledbury is my favourite restaurant in London and the third lunch we had there was just as stunning as the second and first. After a glass of fizz, these goats cheese canapes topped with black olive tapenade foretold the meal to come; deliciously delicate and it got the mouth watering for more.

From the £33.50 set lunch menu, a raviolo stuffed with grouse and pheasant was sauced by a brown bread veloute, nestled on strands of cabbage and topped with little vibrant purple berries. The gaminess of the meat was subtle, but there. Mushrooms added an autumnal depth to the plate.

Sea bass was nice and crispy, giving way to tender white flakes. In a lightly curried sauce, the florets had been roasted to a dust and had the intense flavour of broccoli. Our waitress had misheard us and so our companion was given the wrong dish; her face flushed with embarrassment but we were the real winners, as the dish was left for us to share rather than it going to waste. Cod with confit squid was very clever indeed; the squid was shaved into thin, translucent strands and were just like pho-style noodles.

Excellently kept cheeses were well matched on fig and walnut bread. Later, when we queried the bill as they'd seemingly forgotten the cheeses, they told us it was with their compliments; along with some decent wines by the glass, they more than made up for their earlier blunder.

Vanilla and prune custard tart with pear sorbet had us all cooing over it. It had an amazingly smooth texture to it, the pastry impossibly thin and crisp.

Coffee and petit fours soon followed, and we rolled out into the night, a good 4 hours after we sat down, vowing to return at least three times next year.

The Ledbury

127 Ledbury Road,
Notting Hill,
London W11 2AQ

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7792 9090