Coq D'argent

Finally Britain is warming up and so, The Boyfriend and I are determined to make the most of this weather by eating and drinking outside as much as possible. Sadly, London is a city that makes this a pretty difficult challenge. My list for outdoor restaurants is a small one; 
The Chelsea farmers Market - is the obvious place for sunny weekends, if you can be bothered to queue, but gets cold and quiet at night. The Boundary - again if you can face the queue, is a good option but really slows down past nine pm. 

Both are in opposite hard to reach ends of the city and both aren't really known for their food. Is it too much to ask for a central al fresco restaurant that serves decent food? I had always written off Coq D'argent as an option because of its location in Bankerland assuming it would be boring and stuffy. 24 degrees and laziness on a Friday night and a degree of desperation, is how both The Boyfriend and I ended up there.

I thought I had been booking the Brasserie, which I preferred the menu of, as it was on the whole lighter, so I was disappointed to discover the Brasserie is only open for Lunch and not dinner. However, any disappointment was mitigated by the venue itself. It is beautiful. The only way to describe it was very un-London. It is too cool and glamorous to be London. We don't do bars, where you can drink on fake-grass lawns six stories staring at the twinkling lights of many tall buildings. That is New York or Dubai or somewhere else. Anyway, both The Boyfriend and I were very impressed - this is London's equivalent of the Standard Hotel Rooftop in NYC, except perhaps a tiny bit less cool. Sadly, our table had only a view of The Shard construction, and four cranes. Could have been worse though.

The Boyfriend and I started with two fairly simple starters. Oysters for me, and salmon for him. My oysters were up to scratch - no complaints there. The Boyfriend's, smoked salmon with blinis, horseradish cream and caper dressing was equally well received.

The restaurant has a pretty big flaw, at least on a Friday night, in that there was a considerable queue for the women's toilet. In a high end restaurant, this shouldn't be the case. One excursion to the toilet took about 12 minutes (I know this because the sun had actually set by the time I got back), which is a considerable chunk of time, especially given if someone is going more than once. Anyway, it gave the whole experience a club-going feel.

The mains arrived shortly after my return. My Camambert and Leek fondue tart with fondant potatoes and sautaeed wild mushrooms, (£15.25), arrived with a scattering of truffles, much to my suprise. This was definately a good addition to the dish, but I was surprised it hadn't been advertised as such, given truffles are such a dominant flavour. Spinach had also not been included in the description, which I also found a little strange as it was hard not to get a biteful of spinach when breaking apart the tart. The tart itself was distinctly lacking in cheese, and the pastry was on the tough side. Each bite tasted mainly of spinach and leek. The potatoes were hit and miss, one raw inside, one semi-cooked and one perfect. After eating the mushrooms and truffle, and testing the tart, the rest of the dish went uneaten, a rareity for any food near me.

The Boyfriend's dish - steamed sea bream ballotine, wilted fennel and soused shellfish (22.00)- was equally disappointing. The fish was very nicely cooked , but the octopus that accompanied it was overly chewy. The Boyfriend found the sauce too sour and aside from the fish itself he thought was subpar.

Still hungry, after leaving half my main course, we checked out the menu. Whilst nothing on the menu jumped out of us, The Boyfriend did spot a spelling error, in such a well established restaurant. The bill, arrived with the addition of three cocktails we hadn't ordered. Given we hadn't been to the bar, or ordered any drink aside from a half a bottle of wine, it was a little odd, but they graciously removed the service charge, as an apology for the mistake.

The bill came to roughly £90.00, (£30.00 on the half bottle) for two courses each and no service charge. Although the food was disappointing, the place is so incredibly gorgeous, I am still desperate to go back - for drinks, lunch and breakfast.