Awarded some money from my mother for no reason and from Google for helping them out with the AdWords API and having failed to show Louise a good time on the event of our 4th anniversary, I spotted an opportunity.

Last night Louise and I went to the three Michelin star-rated Restaurant Gordon Ramsey at Chelsea Hospital for dinner. For posterity, I ate:

• An hors d'oeuvre of avocado straw things (can’t remember the terminology!) and potato crisps sandwiched around sour cream and truffle
• A slice of fresh olive bread and unsalted butter
• The first “surprise”: a tomato mousse with sun dried tomatoes served in an egg cup, accompanied by a tiny brioche and some basil jelly (which was orange)
• A carpaccio of beef with dressed rocket salad, pear and caviar served with rosemary ciabatta
• For the main course, shoulder of lamb stuff with walnuts, served on a bed of sauteed potatoes and spinach with a wild mushroom sauce
• The second “surprise”: strawberry and champagne soup with mint foam served in a tall glass with a straw
• Desert: Plum soufflé dusted with chocolate and icing sugar
• And finally, chocolates, strawberry ice cream in white chocolate, dark chocolates with passion fruit, white chocolates with apricot, mango pureé in teeny cornettos

And a single glass of a very nice if not stellar Chilean Pinot Noir.

It was sublime. Exquisite. Remarkable. So many flavours, yet each distinct. Salad dressing like fireworks, the meat melting in my mouth, the walnuts soft and not at all bitter, the strawberry and mint bursting with colour and delicate flavour. The confusion of consuming what looked for all the world like marmalade and having it taste entirely of fresh basil. Each dish decorated with two or three extra token flavours beyond what I’ve listed above, adding different slants to separate mouthfuls. The huge pink-fleshed plum soufflé that refused to be anything but perfect all the way through to the bottom. So much to experience. The only reason I’m blogging this really is to try and relive it vicariously, I could go on for ever.

In fact, the only down side is the effect on eating normal food. Natural stuff, a pear, some honey, still works fine, but everything prepared is like cardboard in my mouth. Flat and lifeless.

I’m not going to tell you how much it cost :-), but it was about what I’d spend in the pub in a month each. If you fancy your food, it was more than worth every penny. Unforgettable, I feel like a kid unable to wait to go again.

Nicely, there was a full-moon as well. Louise and I wondered to the river at gazed down the embankment and over the Albert bridge, fattened by the best London has to offer.