The 5th choice by Annette was the 2 Michelin star restaurant Bibendum in a very unique building, which used to be an old Michelin garage – so the Michelin name and man was represented in many places.
We therefore also started with admiring the building from the outside and take a few pictures – that this was quite special. The restaurant is on the 1st floor and again really impressive from the inside with beautiful stained glass windows with pictures of the Michelin man. It was also really spacious and we got a nice round table with a view to the action in the kitchen behind some big glass windows. We also found out later that the Michelin man was being used in many places – so we both saw him on the napkins and the plates with the butter.
We all 4 quickly decided on the 6 courses surprise menu + the additional cheese board, which we didn’t want to miss. The Sommelier helped us to choose the wine and we watch with interest when he poured the red wine into a carafe over a candle – not something we had seen before and made the pouring quite interesting.
Before we started on the Surprise menu we got some nice tasters and one of them particular stood out when we had a mushroom compote served in an egg shell. I am not normally a big fan of mushrooms but this tasted absolutely delicious. When we started on the menu the Vegetable Nosotto was really special but the smoked French green asparagus just made me laugh. Looking at a big asparagus with a spoonful of Hollandaise sauce served right at the end – I am sorry but that just gave me associations to something completely different – I say no more but definitely brought at smile to my face. The other thing that was really special was the dessert the Tarte Tatin Parfait, which got served looking exactly like an apple so really beautiful and tasted good as well.
Despite being able to follow the action in the kitchen through the glass windows – we still asked for the kitchen tour since really just wanted to say hello to the kitchen staff and also just feel the action from the other site. Therefore Carlos, James and I went out there and had a good chat and laugh with the Head chef who could be proud of the very modern kitchen.
We all had a really great evening and a good interaction with the staff but unfortunately things got ruined a bit when we got the bill. The bill was over a grand, which was not surprising but we noticed that they charged us £20 per person for the additional cheese board whereas in the menu it was only mentioned as an additional £10 per person. We pointed this out to the waiter, who said she would check with her manager – but she ended up coming back saying that the £10 was only if you have chosen the a-la-carte menu – so we had to pay the £20 each. We could have gone in to a big discussion at this point since no one told us up-front about the £20 per person and that price was not mentioned anywhere. However I decided it was not worth the discussion – but since they were not willing to take £40 of the bill – there was no reason to pay the optional service charge, which was £140. Felt badly for the staff who lost out on the service charge – but it became a principle and I was just a bit shocked that the restaurant was so
stubborn about the additional £40 on such a big bill.
Yes we had a good evening but unfortunately it is the last impression that you are leaving with – so where this could have been a real highlight we now left with a bit of a bad taste in our mouth instead – such a shame.
