Last night Sue and I ventured into Buckinghamshire to visit Brasserie Blanc, Raymond Blanc's restaurant in the heart of Milton Keynes. I'd been wanting to go for ages as I've been to his flagship restaurant, Le Manoir Aux Quat'Saisons, twice and it was a truly memorable experience with excellent service and food, as it should be for the price! So I was interested to see how his famous hospitality would carry over to a brasserie type restaurant with obviously lower prices.
Well, I was impressed! From the moment we were greeted at the door by the French Maitre d' and escorted to our table it was a wonderful evening and I'll definitely be going back. Our waitress for the evening was a charming young lady who was training a new member of staff and it's obvious that training plays a vitally important part of the restaurant's philosophy. The brasserie became very busy as the evening wore on, with a party of around 26 sitting down to eat, but the standards didn't slip.
We were given two menus, the normal carte and a "Dine and wine" list. Two courses and a glass of wine were £16.00, while three courses and wine came to £18.45. Sue was tempted but in the end we chose from the normal menu - chicken liver parfait with onion marmalade for both of us, followed by calves liver, colcannon mash and marsala sauce for me and hot salmon fishcake for Sue. We were offered lots of fresh homemade bread and Sue enjoyed two glasses of Sauvignon Blanc while I sipped away on a bottle of sparkling water.
The restaurant is very French - lots of wood, bottles of wine, black and white photos of M.Blanc at work and smart tables. The staff were exceptionally friendly and efficient and there were no long waits or mistakes with the food. We felt very welcomed and there was a lovely atmsphere as the place filled up.
Neither of us could resist dessert! I chose the special of cherry crumble while Sue opted for meringue and fruit which she pronounced delicious!
After we paid the bill (£65 for the two of us), we wandered into the small Brasserie Blanc shop and had a look at all things French, including wine, champagne, olives and chocolates...Yum!
On our way back to the car, we had a look at the nearby restaurants which included Nandos, Zizzi and Las Iguanas, which I fancy trying next time. It was a lovely evening and there were many people sitting outside and eating and drinking in the cool night air.
It was a most enjoyable evening and I can't wait to go back, hopefully with Keith and my parents who woud love it there!
2 comments:
Sounds great Jane, you should definitely try Las Iguanas, great food and a good choice of wines and continental beers SWS
That's recommendation enough for me!! Thanks, sws! :)
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