Pied à terre

Jessie and I have decided to go to Pied a terre for her birthday (her brithday is 20th May, we are going on 18th). We are very excited!

We made the decision by working out a long list of 9:

1. Morgan M

2. Pied a terre

3. Gordon Ramsey (Chelsea)

4. Nobu

5. Chez Bruce

6. The Capital

7. Tom Aikens

8. Maze

9.  Petrus

From this we eliminated Ramsey’s three (3, 8, 9) due to their menus seeming rather dull (if that adjective can reasonably be used for a 3* restaurant then it seemed to fit Ramsey’s flagship, or perhaps not dull, but flat).  Jessie felt the food at The Capital seemed a bit “old fashioned”. Nobu we eliminated but not on any particular basis, perhaps underlying the decision was AA Gill’s recent review which focuses on what Nobu has perhaps lost in the ten years since it opened: fashion. Also it is very expensive. Tom Aikens’ was difficult to eliminate as we have both had our eye on going there but in the end it seemed rather fussy.

So we were left with three: Morgan M, Pied a terre and Chez Bruce. Really it could have been any of these. I feel that you could blindfold me and have me point randomly at the menu at Morgan M (or at least the sample menu on their website) and I would be excited by what was brought to me. In the end, we eliminated Chez Bruce because of location (we could walk to the other two!) and Morgan M due to cost: it was too reasonable! The thinking is that Morgan M is within our price range for an occasional, but very good, meal. Pied a terre wins out for a special occasion.

So there it is. I have the understanding that Pied a terre is one of Gabriel’s favourite’s, I’ll have to ask what he thinks!