Dorchester Grill

4th September
A birthday treat. A top table booking at the Dorchester Grill. I had tried to go her earlier this year, but had an accident when someone jumped a red light crossing Mile End Road. The menu is short, and the extras are expensive. The hotel is full of American travelers and visitors from the middle east (see later). The grill is decorated in what I can only describe as an excess of Caledonian. There are tartan decorated seats, and imaginary or caricatures of over life size clansmen and women on the walls. If you do not have a love of Scotland, it can be a little trying, and for my part, I was unhappy the day Hadrian's Wall fell.
To begin with there are five different kinds of bread with three different kinds of butter: caramelized, ordinary cows' milk and blackened with Charcoal. You can't actually taste the burntness of the charcoal, but the breads have lots of flavor

There is an amuse bouche for absolute beginning and a glass of champagneFor starter, I have sour (consomme rather) with cep mushrooms:

The portions are not big, and the fact that the consomme comes as a liquid in a steel boat that is ostentatiously poured means that it can never be hot.
The main course option is belly of pork with strange trimmings. I we had not ordered sides of chips (only 9 had crafted wedges) and cauliflower au gratin, one might have felt under supplied..

Wine is too expensive to contemplate and Ruth buys a couple of glasses of nothing special at £9 for a 125ml glass.
Deserts are excellent, but the picture I took of mine is blurred. but the petit fours are very photogenic

It was a good night, and they gave us a little birthday cake to go home with. It was very expensive, but our kids paid. The food was good, but small portions and very rich. I think I would think of other places to go first rather than do a return visit.
On the way out, I spotted an interesting car. A Bugatti with Saudi plates. Anyone know who this is?