Tuesday 15 October 2013

Restaurant Review - Galvin La Chapelle



Restaurant name: Galvin La Chapelle
Location: Spitalfields, London
Description: Michelin-starred restaurant run by Chris and Jeff Galvin, whose other outposts include Galvin at Windows and Brasserie de Luxe. Voted restaurant of the year by Tatler in 2010.
Reason for visit: I saw a Livingsocial deal for three courses and a glass of champagne for £29, and it listed what was on the set menu - set meals can be a bit hard for me and my boyfriend as we were both quite fussy, but this looked delicious. It also looked like a real bargain (the average main course here is about £30 alone) so I decided to book it as a treat.


I ate: We had a choice of three dishes for each course which is pretty normal for a set menu. I had a pate starter but can't remember exactly what it was, then chicken breast with pommes puree and broad beans for the main course and Valrhona chocolate ganache with honeycomb and ice cream for dessert.
My companion ate: We actually had exactly the same.
The food was: Absolutely top notch, my only complaint was there wasn't enough of it! We had bread brought to the table separately which I ate with the pate, which was lovely and creamy. The chicken for the main course was beautifully cooked and the pommes puree was possibly the best mashed potato I'd ever had, but we only got about 2 tbsp. of potato, which was spread thinly across the plate. The chocolate ganache was out of this world. I've only had Valrhona chocolate once before - in fact when I made a recipe from the Galvin cookery book, which wasn't this exact dish but not dissimilar. The way the dishes were presented was also very impressive.
The atmosphere/service was: Exemplary - you would expect nothing else at a place like this. What really stood out was that we were treated no differently to the people at the next table who had ordered the very expensive seven-course tasting menu - we were spending a fraction of what they were but weren't hurried and were treated as deferentially and politely. The restaurant itself is in a converted church (hence the chapel name) which is beautiful.


Price range/value for money: The set menu offer we had was excellent value, especially as it included a glass of champagne. The normal menu is very pricey but I would say it is still probably worth it.
Would I recommend it? Very much so - excellent food and service and a great experience all round.

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