black truffle risotto with chicken jus reduction & brown butter
The big freeze seems to have taken a strangle hold again. The temperatures earlier this week thrusted our month of November into London’s history books as being the coldest in over 30 years. We’re bundled up and trudging through the heaving (or trickling, depends where you are) snow, barely managing to keep frostbite from claiming our little noses.
Well thank god some establishments still have open fireplaces for us to defrost a little. Like Gauthier in Soho, for example, where I parked my butt on a very chilly Monday night and enjoyed a thoroughly satisfying meal by an open fire, kept warm and comfortable with heat and fabulous company.
open fire place in Gauthier dining room
amuse bouche: fillet of halibut with sultanas and crustacean sauce
light pumpkin cream with Scottish girolles, ricotta gnocchi & crispy pancetta
foie gras with apple, sultanas, crispy herbs caramel and
calavados reduction deglazed with verjus
crayfish velouté with blond chicken liver, truffle & chervil
quail & smoked eel with pickled autumn vegetables and herb & cèpe dressing
scallops & caramelised red onions with braised & crunchy rainbow chard,
sauce choron & brown butter
cut of Highland’s venison with Williams pear, celeriac cream & squash
palate cleanser: roasted apple with yoghurt sorbet
classic rum baba with whipping cream
Golden Louis XV with dark chocolate & praline
pineapple “couple glacée”: vanilla & rum caramelised pineapple
with light vanilla foam
petit fours: vanilla marshmallow, madeleines, caramel tartlettes
Gauthier’s menu is structured in such a way to offer up to five courses, but you need not have five. They are priced as £35 for 3 courses, £45 for 4 or £55 for 5. Or if you opt for the tasting menu, it’s £68 for 8 courses.
Note though that the truffle risotto (top) comes with a £10 surcharge for black truffle or £25 surcharge for white truffle. I chose black truffle because you know, I’m totally pretending to be posh but I can’t actually afford to be white-truffle-posh. SO. Worth. It. The risotto oooooozes of decadent truffle goodness!
I completely rate my experience at Gauthier. The food was superb as is the service. Our waiter looked all of 14 years old (and remarkably like Tintin) but he was attentive, professional and oh SO French-cute!
Gauthier
21 Romilly Street
Soho, W1D 5AF
0207 494 3111
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