Sunday 4 July 2010

An A-Maze-ing meal

Yesterday was the third (and final) part of my 40th birthday celebrations...

We were supposed to go for this meal on the weekend of the end of May bank holiday, but NXEA in all of their wisdom decided decided to run engineering works that weekend!  So the meal was rearranged for last night.

We went to Maze restaurant (one of Gordon Ramsays more reasonably priced places, or so we thought!).  We got there and were sat down and were asked what drinks we would like so we both ordered a diet coke each.  We got our drinks then another waiter then came over with the menu and explained to us that the dishes were all tasting sizes (think of half the normal size), he said that people tended to order two from the cold and warm and two from the meat & fish (parts of the menu).


Flipping heck I was planning on just having a main course and a dessert!  So I rethought what I was going to have and decided to just have one thing from each so that I would still have room for a dessert ;o).  I would always rather have a dessert than a starter.

They werent kidding about the portion sizes being small!  They were tiny!

James did as he was told and had two & two, and the place being as posh as it was they would bring over a plate for me too so I could share it ;o).   I knew it was posh in there when I went to the toilets and saw that they had Molton Brown hand wash & hand lotion.



I had quail from the hot & cold part and rack of lamb & shoulder from the meat & fish part, James had octopus & asparagus from the hot & cold and Pollock & deer from the meat & fish - I got to share the asparagus & deer (it was so nice of the chef to know which order to bring them out in ;o)

I was looking around (like you do) and saw that the lady sitting next to James was drinking a passion fruit drink (I thought I want some of that) so when James second hot & cold taster came I asked the waiter if I could have one too ;o)  It turned out to be a cocktail of passion fruit & vodka and was lovely ;o).  I ended up having two of them!

When it came to the desserts I was hoping that the same thing of ordering two was applicable, so James asked the waiter and he said "no they are normal sized servings" damn I now had to decide which dessert to go for!  So I went for the peanut butter & cherry jam sandwich (I managed to get the cherry jam down my top) and James had the rice pudding.


Just after we paid, the waiter brought us over some petite fours (which I forgot to take pictures of).  The table sitting next to us were taking pictures of their food too.


Incidentally the hand wash was good at getting the cherry jam off of my top ;o).


The waiting staff were very attentive and even folded up your napkin went you went to the bathroom.


The meal was really nice and I doubt that I will ever go anywhere that refined again ;o)

3 comments:

Al said...

Just been looking at the pictures on Flickr and it all looks very nice. I agree about the portion sizes being tiny but then at least you get to try more of the menu.

I'd have ordered two desserts anyway and feigned ignorance when questioned! It's your Birthday so you make the rules. That's how it works!

Kelly said...

I bet James is happy you finally wrapped up your birthday month and a half or two! ;)

What a neat experience, and good foresight to bring along your camera and photograph everything. The drink looked refreshing!!

chocolat lover said...

Al - I did think about ordering 2 anyway...

Kelly - I think he is pleased...

...I take my camera to most places I go to (just in case ;o)).