Ritz

The Ritz has now added to its menu some dishes that involve a little tableside theatre. The meal tonight began with excellent raw scallops, prettily presented, with pickled cucumber, avocado mousse and little spheres of fried pigs head (16/20).  Next were very high quality langoustines with broad beans, the shellfish tender and having excellent flavour, served with a verbena sauce that mercifcully was very subtle (17/20). Foie gras terrine was served in a brioche with Sauternes jelly; this was very good, though not having quite the depth of liver flavour that the best versions can have (15/20). Asparagus with a morel sauce and a poached egg was very good indeed (16/20).

A roasted celeriac was carved open at the table, served with candied walnuts, pea shoots and a sauce flavoured with tomato: the celeriac was very soft in texture and worked well with the morels, but it was very salty even to my taste (15/20). Whole sea bass in pastry was also carved tableside; this was a sort of fishy version of a beef Wellington, the pastry containing a mushroom duxelle, quail eggs and lobster mousse, separated from the pastry by a layer of spinach. On the side was a mireille sauce (béarnaise sauce with a reduction of lobster) This was served with leeks; the fish had good flavour, and the pastry excellent texture (16/20).

For dessert, strawberries with basil sorbet seemed rather out of character for the Ritz, but the strawberries had quite good flavour (5/10). Much better was Amadei chocolate dessert with a chocolate sauce, tonka bean ice cream and pear puree, which had really rich flavour and several textures of chocolate: a classy dessert (17/20). Service from the large team of waiters was very slick. This was another very fine meal at the Ritz, clearly cooking at a strong one Michelin star level; at some point Michelin will hopefully acknowledge this. 

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