Again, it's been close to forever since I last posted. Funny enough, I come back with another wonderful Victoria & Albert experience to share. I am spoiled and lucky and (I think) still full from this experience.
This was my third trip to V&A, my first experience in The Queen's Dining Room. This room is exclusively for 10-course tasting with wine pairing (which I did not do but managed to drink too much anyway). I went on the day of my birthday and they went out of their way to make me feel special.
I love the special touch of having a purse stand on the floor by the table. I hate, however, that I forgot to bring a cute bag to go with my cute dress and had to carry my "running around the parks" bag.
A week or so before your reservation, the restaurant calls to make sure they verify the spelling of the party's names (because you get a personalized menu) and to check on dietary restrictions. I mentioned to them that we would not like caviar. I just don't like it--it's salty, the texture is off-putting--in other words, my response to it is, "Excuse me, this is gross" (which is a blog for another time).
The first big decisions once we got there, what to drink? Lucky for us, they supplied us with a water list (when house water just won't do).
Yes, two pages of bottles of water. A note at the bottom says that the higher the ph, the sweeter the water. I chose one from England because, why not? If you are going all out, go all out.
Artistic picture of the very expensive water I chose from the two-page water list.
Cocktails to start us off. Left to right: some sort of cosmopolitan, a ineapple mojito, and a classic manhattan (with Luxardo cherries).
The amuse bouche was Colorado bison with black garlic and a deconstructed charmoula. Basically, cilantro, garlic, and spices. It was tender and a lot more delicately flavored than most of the bison I've ever had, which I tend to find a little tough and gamey. This was not. It was delicious. My bouche is amused, let's keep going.
Because 10 courses is probably not enough for dinner, we also had several rounds of bread with artisan butter. This was a hand-rolled baguette with unsalted VT butter, with a well of English sea salt. Anyone who knows me knows that this is just about the perfect butter situation for me, as I really hate salt. The bread was light and flavorful, the butter rich and creamy. I couldn't comment on the salt. :-)
This was a king salmon with cucumber and dill. There was dill in the pieces of meringue and dill in the "drops" on the plate. Fresh salmon, mmmmmm. The savory meringue was new to me as well, and I really liked it because it provided a great textural contrast.
Accompanying the next course was real, fresh wasabi from Japan. Us Americans think we are eating real wasabi all the time but actually we are eating horseradish with green food coloring in it. This was a little milder at the start with a fresh, hot kick once it sat on the tongue for a minute.
The wasabi came with this Alaskan sablefish that came with a soft sushi rice cake, a crispy sushi rice cake, a mushroom mix with sauce, and a few fava beans. This fish was so perfectly cooked and so mild, delicious, and buttery on its own, it almost felt wrong to put anything on it. The wasabi did taste good with it but I preferred it without so I could really enjoy the fish.
This course was a New Zealand langoustine with a cream sauce made from the poaching liquid (nage). Notice the tiny little dots of what look like fish eggs on the right. This is actually a new kind of lime grown in Florida, I think the waiter called it a finger lime. He said that when it's squeezed, these little balls come out as the pulp. It is super intensely flavored. It was very fun to try this.
I know it sounds crazy to say that the best part of an extravagant menu like this might be bread but, you guys.........black. truffle. brioche. With black truffle butter. Wow. This bread was light, crispy on the outside, savory in a way that I cannot explain, and every bite was loaded with black truffle flavor. It was probably one of the most over-the-top things I've ever eaten, it was like black truffles in perfect bread form. Amazing. I raved and raved about it (because also I was 2+ drinks in).
My niece and I agree that the next course was the best dish of the night. Veal done two ways. Veal en croute, hen-of-the-woods mushroom, and seared veal, all with black truffle on top. I am trying hard to remember what the sauce was, I just remember it was buttery and the veal was cooked perfectly and again, black truffles. My favorite dish of the night and so wonderful. I also had a California cabernet with it that was perfect.
This course was a smoked duck with Fuji apples and celery root with prosciutto on top. I feel bad for this duck because it could never compete with two courses of black truffle. It was very good though. It was quite smokey and stronger flavored than the other meat courses because of it. The apples did a good job of mellowing that smoke out a bit.
Then, more bread. A table-side carving of a 5lb mold of butter....
...to accompany an Austrian peasant bread. This bread was not my favorite. It was quite heavy and dense with not a lot of flavor. While eating it I wished it had a drizzle of molasses.
As if that wasn't enough, finally the main course. Austrailian beef with garlic potato puree, some pickled turnip slices, and bone marrow reduction. Succulent, savory, sensational. Every bite was perfect.
When you finally get to coffee, they brew it in this reverse vacuum thing that is fun to watch. I will say, however, that the coffee was weaker and not as bold and flavorful as it has been in the past. I think they have switched up the coffee they use. I was disappointed, even though it was good.
I confess I did not eat this cheese course. I can't even remember what the cheeses were except that there were some smoked almonds and the middle was a cheese-filled pastry and the jar had cheese fondue for dipping. I wanted dessert and I was running out of room but this was a pretty plate.
The first dessert was a chocolate mouse with chocolate "eyelashes." It was dark and rich. The little balls were crispy and added to the texture.
On the menu, the second dessert course was an apple mouse; however, this not being my first rodeo, I knew I wanted chocolate souffle. I asked them if they would substitute for me and the waiter confirmed by asking, "So, you want TWO chocolate desserts?" Um, yah....do you know me? And it's my BIRTHDAY! They were happy to oblige of course. This also came with chocolate gellato and a godiva chocolate liqueur creme anglaise.
In case we still needed a nibble, they bought a giant box with 5-6 different kinds of chocolates for us to sample. I got a lemon, a chocolate hazlenut, and a white chocolate raspberry. Yum.
When it was finally time to go (I think the whole dinner took 4 hours), they gave us each roses and gave me a loaf of orange date bread as a birthday/thank you gift. This restaurant is consistently an amazing, over-the-top, luxurious experience. You forget you are in the middle of Disney World and are in a world class dining environment. I already can't wait to go again.
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