Clos Maggiore
May 9th, 2008 • Fine dining, Restaurant
Ahh, Clos Maggiore, the one fine dining restaurant my wallet was able to temper while I stayed in London. It really wasn’t too expensive, especially if you compare it to New York City’s Restaurant Week. In New York, I’ll generally have to fork over $55 for a 3 course (usually mediocre) Restaurant Week meal. I believe I paid 23 pounds, which comes out cheaper.
It was such a spectacular dining experience. One of the websites I definitely suggest checking out is Toptable.com. They give you many, many deals for dining out as well as theatre tickets. I found a 3 course dinner at Clos Maggiore or around 20 pounds, and it was on a Sunday night! It was in a prime location, Covent Garden, so really, we got tons out of it.
Each day their menu changes, and as this is a long overdue blog, I can’t remember the exact names of the dishes we ordered, not that I knew half the stuff on the menu. Another suggestion for many of the fine dining restaurants in Europe is to look up their menu online ahead of time if possible. Even if their menu is liable to change, you’ll get a good sense of what they are serving and you can look up unfamiliar terms.
For the appetizer, I ordered the Ballotine of Smoked Salmon & Artichoke Butter. The salmon was extremely fresh, but the one complaint I had was the small piece of toast that they gave us. It was literally 3in by 3in while the ballotine (protein wrapped so it looks like a swirl) was 3 inches in diameter at half a inch thick, with cream in between the layers. That’s pretty dense for me, so I would have liked more bread to balance it out. Speaking of bread, I forgot to mention that they serve this wonder Focaccia. The only thing is you have to ask for more bread because they individually serve it.
For the entree, I ordered the Bellini with Paris Mushrooms. I’ll admit that the presentation wasn’t the best. I mean, it didn’t look appetizing at all. I never had a blini and didn’t know what it was until Top Chef, but this was delicious! (A blini is basically a Russian pancake). But my favorite part of the dish was the mushrooms. They were delicately savory.
Dessert was hands down, the most unique chocolate cake I’ve ever had. The bottom had a crunchy chocolate crust, the cake was dense yet moist, and near the top there was a little ganache filling. On the surface, they drizzled a buttons of dark chocolate and served it with a scoop of mocha ice cream. Heavenly!
To top that off, they served us a platter of complimentary petit desserts- eclairs, cakes, and chocolate truffles for us all!
The prefix is 19.50 and with tips it came out to around 23 pounds. Here’s their menu if you’re interested.