Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons

After a short jouney down the motorway, we arrived at Le Manoir Aux Quat'Saisons. As we entered the some what Grand building, we were pushed into the bar area to enjoy a pre lunch drink, while reading the Menu we got comfortable in the dusty and dirty bar area while enjoying flat champagne. After a while the canapes arrived on a slab of slate, something similar to whats on my roof. We decided to skip them and move on into the restaurant.

A young lady took us through to a nice table in the corner of the main restaurant, immediately the big fan spinning around above my head comes to attention, after sitting infront of a big warm fire it's quite a contrast to be put in a seat with winds similar to a stormy winter night, it chilled the red wine down nicely. The amuse bouche arrived, nothing amazing, crab and mango. We asked the Sommelier to recommend us a white wine that would complement the starter, instead he gave me some over priced twaddle poured with a freestyle on how it would compliment the dish, for me the wine had no comparison or similarites to the dish i was given. The pathetically small portion of foie gras was served with some toasted soda bread thicker and bigger than everything on the plate, the token of swiss chard just made it look prissy. Everything so far seems to be ascetically pleasing with no content, the slightly oriential theme is becoming noticable now, and it doesn't seem to be exciting me!

On numerous occasions I poured my own water and wine, in what is supose to be a fine dining 2 Michelin starred restaurant, unbelivable! The best thing so far is the variety of breads.

When the main course of dried out pork arrived kindly already sliced for the older customers, with burped up purees i was not impressed. At £45 for this course it just didn't reach the standard for this sort of money. All in all i was pretty let down by the whole experience so far, after the average main we moved onto cheese, terminator pushed the cheese over, he looked like he was straight out the army, didn't smile once, and made me feel some what uncomfortable every time i looked at him. The cheese was all old and over ripe, we selected what we liked the look of and that was it, he wheeled it away.

We were offered the sweet wine list, which would have been a good idea if there was something original. But it consisted of the same old formula every mediocre restaurants offer "Muscat, Cote de Layon and some other sweet over priced fashionable nonsense. Dessert was alot better than everything so far. Just nothing though. We had coffee, petit fours and hairs served by some dillusional girl who didn't even know what Armangac was. We recived the bill which was upwards of £500 for 2. That rounds up one of my worst dining experiences ever.
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Mr Legit
1 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, October 27, 2009

There are some 'interesting' reviewers on this site.

I have just enjoyed a short break at Le Manoir. Our room was spectacular. The staff were attentive and friendly: not at all 'surly-French', apart from the demi-Somellier.

We chose the 10-course tasting menu: which was a delightful 3 hour escapade through a splendid variety of dishes that were prepared and served perfectly. The accompanying Ruinart champagnes and selected wines were magnificent.

What seems to spoil the experienece are pretentious 'know-it-alls' up from London for the weekend who are under the false impression that they could improve on the event.

Advice.....relax, and let RB and his team do what they do best!
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10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Sunday, May 03, 2009