Try this excellent value celebratory
meal at The Montagu (Hyatt Regency Hotel, London), until 6th June.
For £20, you can indulge in a two-course lunch and £25
will get you three courses, including half a bottle of wine. Evening prices for
the same menu are £22 and £27.
The enchanting choices - complete with info
about when they were originally served, in Buckingham Palace, Sandringham House
and The Royal Yacht Britannia - are all French classics and relatively simple dishes. I had heard
the queen does not like garlic, and her taste for delicate flavours seem to be
reflected here.
We chose Crêpe au crabe
and Oeufs Pochés à l’Ecossaise
to start. The crêpe was sweet and light,
the ‘eggs’ were actually one poached quail’s egg perched on a really tasty
spherical salmon cake and covered in a seriously good frappé of hollandaise, dotted with pink peppercorns – it was
thoroughly delicious.
Next, we went for Côteletts
d'Agneau à la Menthe avec Les Legumes and Chicken poached in Champagne –
both were cooked to absolute perfection, with the lamb chops browned and crispy
on the outside and pink within, and the chicken wonderfully moist and only just
white with its gentle, creamy wine sauce and crispy skin.
For dessert, we had a
fantastic and generously portioned tarte tatin and an unusually good selection
of cheeses. I wished we’d also had room to try the Soufflé Glacé aux
Framboises (served at the State Banquet in honour of King
Khaled of Saudi Arabia on 9 June 1981, no less). I wished it even more when I
saw the pretty dessert being served to someone else, but we were replete with
royal dishes by that time.
The regal surroundings of The Monatgu add to
the sense of occasion for enjoying The Jubilee Set Menu, with the great space
of the restaurant itself, dramatic pieces of art (including from the Saatchi Gallery)
and the green of Portland Place outside.
Chef Mervyn Wycherley created The Jubilee
Set Menu. He worked for the Royal Household between 1972 and 1995 and travelled
all over the world with the Royal Family.
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