La Petite Maison - Round 2

Valentine's Day brings out the kind of irritation in me that I normally reserve for special occasions, like Holborn Station in rush hour, or Easy Jet flights. Why Valentine's Day seems to bring out hysteria superseding that seen at Christmas time, I do not know, but The Boyfriend and I are doing our bit to fight the stupidity and the system. We, therefore rebel when it comes to Valentine's Day. No flowers, no cards and certainly no overpriced "special set menu, with pink and heart shape themes, and matching rose wines". Instead we do nothing, except thank Anna Howard Shaw for her contribution to the suffragete movement from the comfort of either one of our homes.

We do however, go out to dinner the day after Valentine's Day, mainly as an excuse to patronise a rather expensive restaurant like LPM and for me to wear a pair of shoes I can't actually walk in, as above. I wrote about the place last February, which can be read here, so this post will be less wordy than usual.

We showed up on Wednesday, at 8.15, to find the restaurant as packed as ever. If there was a restaurant that would make you think: "Recession? What recession?", it is here. The crowd was glamorous, if heavily banker. Now maybe, I am getting grumpier with age or it was just Post-Valentine's Day irritation hangover but this time certain things annoyed me. Firstly, bread seemed to show up by chance, 15 minutes after we were seated. This is an improvement compared to last time when we missed out all together, but still I don't understand ensuring each guest gets bread can be so complicated. Secondly, I think its time to invest in bread plates. I'm guessing that it goes against the original LPM vibe, which is relaxed, with the tomatoes and lemons just hanging out on the table, but I do not want to have to use my starter plate, as a carpaccio rarely requires bread crumbs, and with only olive oil to have with my bread what else am i going to use - the table cloth?

We started with some of our normal starter choices - scallop carpaccio, lentil salad and artichoke. Lentil salad had still retained its gorgous flaavour, but I feel the whole thing would have beneffited from chopping the ingredients smaller to avoid mouthfuls dominated by one specific flavour. Scallop carpaccio, was as fabulous as ever, if more acidic than I recalled. However, it was still incredibly smooth and the almond, cranberry, fish combination, as disgusting as it sounds I will never get over. Artichoke salads, was bad, just bad. Not only is it irritating to pay £14.50 for an artichoke salad- why they have such large markeups on artichokes these days I do not know - but if I am, I would like it to taste of something other than vinegar. I considered it to be inedible, and left it after one bite, The Boyfriend however, who is made of stronger stuff, managed to consume at least half of it.

Now my second irritation with LPM comes from the fact that everything shows up when it's ready. In a restaurant of this quality, with these prices, I think this is a silly policy, for starters it works just fine as people share, but for main courses it is just inconvenient. Despite this, our first main course of Lamb Chargrilled Lamb Cutlets with Smoked Aubergine, was perfect. The meat, was a healthy shade of reddish pink, and very tender. The grill had given the meat a slight char, that was perfectly complemented by the aubergine. I could live on this meal.

Our second, more expensive (£45), main, Macaroni with Black Truffle was a total disappointment. The truffle was almost completely tasteless, and the sauce that came with it, rather heavy on the cheese, which took away from any delicate balance the dish used to have.  We left it unfinished.

For dessert, we went for Chocolate Truffles, which were one of the highlights of the meal. Smooth, with a drug like hit of chocolate with out significant amounts of chocolate. The bill came to £90 a person, for the food and two glasses of wine. At these prices, two of the dishes we had were completely unacceptable - the artichoke and the pasta. I don't know whether the expansion of the Waney brand with one new restaurant last year (Aurelia) and one new one this year (Banca), has caused standards to slip at LPM, but it certainly felt like it. From now on, I think I will be sticking with  Aurelia.

Tip: I'm pretty sure that LPM does do preferential seating so if it your first time at the restaurant, ask for a table far from the door. While we were there, a couple had the unfortunate luck of being on the table right in front of and facing the door. They looked like a welcome party for every new visitor.