Mark's birthday provided an excellent reason to go and live it up in London for the weekend. It is now a tradition that we take each other away for our birthdays, usually to London, but the details are kept as a surprise until the last minute.
This year I feel I have surpassed myself and we had one of the best weekends ever!
On Friday we left for London on the train. It was only then that I presented Mark with his birthday envelope containing all the details of our impending escapade. I had booked a suite at the ultra modern and chich St Martins Lane Hotel; we were going to dinner at Veerswamy (the UK's oldest Indian restaurant) on Friday and Clos Maggiore on the Saturday. Mark was considerably impressed :-)
Neither of us were disappointed when we arrived at the hotel. It looked like something from the Ugly Betty series: highly fashionable and ultra stylish. However, the staff were really friendly and the ambience wasn't at all pretentious. Our room was a fabulous white suite which overlooked the bustling streets of Covent Garden. We had floor to ceiling windows around most of the room and a bathroom to die for. There were also funky additions such as the mood lighting which you can set to any colour. The furniture and decor was designed by Philippe Starke and was very stylish.
We then head off for Veeraswamy. We had a delightful meal; my favourite part was the cameralised banana kulfi which tasted just like banana fritter ice cream and was to die for!
We had a lovely day on Saturday. It began with a visit to Tate Britain to see the current Alter Modern exhibition. It was mostly pretentious bollocks but a good laugh. We then headed off to Kettners for some champagne. This place had been recommended by a couple of people but quite frankly we thought it was pretty dire. The service was poor and there was a group of middle aged women having what can only be described as some sort of WI meeting.
Not to worry, a spot of shopping in Covent Garden soon put things back to rights. An afternoon siesta was the order of the afternoon before getting dolled up for a night out. We had lovely pre dinner cocktails in our hotel bar: the toffee champagne was to die for before heading off to Clos Maggiore...
This was a beautiful little French restaurant in Covent Garden. The service was outstanding and the food even more so. We both had the vegetarian tasting menu which consisted of:
- Pumpkin and pinenut soup with parmesan wafer
- Tian of smoked aubergine with buffalo mozarella croquette
- Hand-rolled tagliatelle with pesto
- Gnocci stuffed with blue cheese, accompanied by walnut pesto and poached pear
- European artisan cheeses
- Chocolate fondant with spiced ice cream
Each course came with a recommended wine. We've had a number of tasting menus but I would say that this was the best. Each course was excellent and most of the wines were delightful. I was particularly taken by the idea of a sweet dessert wine with the aubergine dish. it worked beautifully.
All in all a stunning weekend, I'm just sad that it's over :-(
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