Ok here goes.
Just come back from a few days in London and went to two fine dinning restaurants for lunch while there.
The first, The Square in Mayfair, was a rarified space of civility and decorum. Top end staff who were attentive and helpfull from start to finish. I had a six course set lunch tasting menue with wine pairings, and a glass of champagne to start for which the cost was around £140 {including coffe and petit fours}; Wifey was there as well so double this figure for two of us. The food was really good as would be expected in a michellin star establishment - but the star of the show was the wines. Six of the most unusual but appropriate glasses that I have ever tasted [and I've drunk waaay to much wine in my time
]. Well worth a visit for the food - but with these wines, almost a must!Second we come to The Ledbury, Notting Hill. Rated tenth best restaurant in the world by San Pellegrino you have high expectations from the start, but nothing - nothing - can prepare you for the explosion of taste and artistry that these guys can deliver. This is your eyes and tastebuds treated to a Monet and Motzart level of food preparation. I had again champagne and a set lunch menue [we could only get a one and three-quater hour slot so this four course 'set-piece' fitted the bill perfectly] with an accompanying wine-flight and coffe with petit fours. This lot was an amazing £238 quid for the two of us and before you do bacward somersaults at the price, consider that to eat in Ducasse's Plaza Athené in Paris for lunch would cost you £1000! London is fantasic for eating the best food the world produces at a cost that sure, while high is still doable.
You eat three meals a day for the whole of your life [if you're lucky]. To be served the best experience of your gustatory life is worh springing a shilling for.
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