For my birthday this year my friend Marc very kindly took me for lunch at La Gavroche in Mayfair. I’d been wanting to go to this legendary London restaurant for many many years. I met Marc at the bar where he’d already ordered a very nice bottle of champagne for us both. They actually do a very reasonably priced lunch offer of £49.50 which includes three courses, half a bottle of wine and coffee and petit fours. However as it was my birthday we were splashing out and having the Menu Exceptional. There were nine courses in total so I won’t describe them all, but highlights were definitely the stunning, feather light Soufflé Suisse (apparently the late Princess Diana’s favourite dish) and also the black pudding and crumbed egg dish, which was a cleverly executed, perfectly balanced combination of wonderful ingredients. A really nice touch is that at the end of the meal Michel Roux Jr comes out afterwards and stops by every table to say hello. What with many ‘celebrity’ chefs now rarely actually cooking in their own restaurants it’s nice to see that he was actually in the kitchen and it was lovely to meet him. A stunning meal all in all, I can’t wait to go back.