I'm sorry guys, I'm so behind on my food blog! Still on the start of November and got many to do still. I promise I will catch up.
This time mum, dad and I had been to the BBC Studio Tour to look round in the daytime and we were all starving when we came out so decided to go for lunch somewhere near by. We eventually agreed to go to Cafe Rouge. They offer a very reasonable priced lunch time prix fix menu so we knew it wouldn't be toooo expensive.
The atmosphere was very buzzy and it was fairly busy, the service wasn't great though for somewhere that wasn't very busy. It took a while for a waitress to take our drinks order and then it took even longer for them to get to us, I wasn't very impressed by this as drinks should be on the table quickly but we had already decided on our food by the time she eventually bought them over and there was no apology, disappointed by this point. However, she took our order and the starters came very promptly and the service did improve throughout the meal, I think she could tell we weren't very happy.
I decided go for the prix fix menu which was about £12.95 for two courses, I can't check their website as their Christmas menus are up.
Vol-au-Vent: filled with ham & gruyere cheese
I felt the presentation was lacking, it could've been presented a lot nicer-it looked like the rocket leaves had been thrown onto the plate with a few bits of tomato thrown in between and the Vol-Au-Vent placed on top-not impressed at all with this. I was also surprised to see it was in a triangle form with bits of pastry placed in random places, I've always seen Vol-Au-Vents in a pastry cup (almost like a soufflé) with the filling filled in the middle, but this one was the filling underneath with the very crispy pastry placed on top-I wasn't impressed at all and it was only lukewarm, which I also didn't like. I wasn't keen on this starter and was expecting a lot more, I understand it was from the set menu but it wasn't like a normal Vol-au-Vent and it didn't taste overly nice. Hoping this main course was going to be better..
Pork Tenderloin with a mustard cream sauce, colcannon mash and spinach
The presentation of the main course was 100% better, it actually looked appetising and good to eat! It also tasted delicious- the pork was cooked perfectly and wasn't too chewy at all, it had a slight barbecued crisp taste on the outside which gave it a nice touch, the mash was very creamy and tasty-a different touch on normal mash potato, the spinach could've done with a bit more flavour but thats because I like to mask the taste of vegetables, ha! But the sauce the dish came in was so flavoursome and delicious, it wasn't too mustardy either which was good and the flavours went so well with the other components of the dish. 9/10 dish and this did make up for the very bad starter, I was beginning to gain faith again.
I decided to have a dessert, I didn't fancy any of the desserts from the set menu so I ordered from the normal menu.
'Le Pot' potted white and dark chocolate ganache, fresh summer berries cherry coulis and cherry cream
£5.85
This was AMAZING. It was presented perfectly, I loved the little jar it came in, so inventive and looked almost too good to eat! It wasn't a massive dessert for the price but it was just enough, especially as I was already quite fall but when I ate it-I could've eaten so much more of it, delicious! At the bottom is a combination of white and dark chocolate ganache so therefore it was quite hard but was very tasty, then there was a mixture of berries including blueberries and strawberries and then the cherry coulis and cream topped on top-the flavours blended so well together and it was probably one of the best desserts I've ever ever had!
Therefore, an average dinner but amazing dessert-7.5/10 over all but 10/10 for the dessert!! Cafe Rouge usually doesn't disappoint but this one had its faults but it also had its positives.
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