3 days to DD | 2 wks and 3 days into ML

Last supper
We went for what we figure will be our last just-the-two-of-us meal last night at the Bentley Kempinski hotel's restaurant, 1880. SL&D recomended it months ago but we never quite got round to trying it, partly because, on browsing the menu outside, the prices seemed quite high for a relatively unknown place.

Alex originally booked a table because there was a Toptable deal going where you got six courses and a glass of champagne each for £40, but we were slightly put off by this when we saw the actual menu because the main course was pork belly. I've really been pork bellied out at a lot of restaurants - there's only so much even my Chinese greed can take.

Was going to go for the a la carte menu (£45 for three courses) but Alex wanted to try the eight-course grazing menu (£52), which did contain the scallop and cauliflower dish I'd wanted as a main, so let my arm be twisted into being a pig. Mm, was v glad I did.

Great bread
The bread basket was the first better-than-expected surprise - about nine different kinds, all looking very serious and, I thought, a bit too heavy, seeing as they were about to be followed by a solid procession of food. So I asked for a light-looking baguette with walnuts and a simple slice of wholemeal with unsalted butter. A had slices of a cheese and bacon loaf and focaccia with a grassy and faintly rosemary-tinged olive oil.

Don't you love bread that's still warm and fresh from the oven? The walnut bread was that delicious combination of crusty outside, warm and yielding inside: heaven with cold butter. A's focaccia must have been good because it was gone before he'd even thought to offer me any (though to be fair we were wrestling with the wine menu at the same time so maybe he ate it all out of stress). And the cheese and bacon was much lighter than I thought it would be: light crunchy cheese and crisp lardon bits in a light white loaf - yum. I wonder if they have a patisserie from which they sell the breads?

Lobster consomme
First course was lobster consomme with saffron vermicelli and parmesan bread straws, which was nice but reminded me a lot of won ton mein. (It was the umami in the consomme and the texture of te vermicelli, which unfortunately triggered memories of one too many msg overloads.) Not bad.

Duck confit pudding
Then came the duck confit pudding with a fried hen's egg, which the maitre'd recommended when I was choosing a starter, and for which we'd swapped a seared tuna dish. Figured we might be overloading the menu a little early on, but I have no great fondness for seared tuna and anyway I'm not supposed to be eating either raw fish or too much tuna.

This was good! Very good! Tender shredded duck encased in a thin layer of steamed, English-style pudding was accompanied by a little square of roast foie gras and - really nice touch - a hen's egg yolk which was rolled in breadcrumbs and deep-fried but still molten inside. The pudding was beautifully savoury, there was a dark, deep gravy slick and the yolk added another layer of unctuousness. A pointed out the foie gras was not doing much to contribute to the dish overall but were we complaining? No.

Seared scallops
Then came one of the restaurant's signature dishes: seared king scallops on cauliflower puree, with little bits of roast cauliflower and brocolli, cauliflower and courgette sauce, sultanas and capers. It's hard to explain why it's so great. I think it's the contrast of the light bite of scallop with puree and the sweetness of the seafood with unexpected savour of the cauliflower. It's so good I'm almost tempted to learn how to cook it myself.

Fried sweetbreads
I like sweetbreads and these were fried nicely crisp. Er that's all I remember now - that, and that there was foie gras. To be fair, I'm updating this after the baby's arrival. My memory for things past is not so good.

Roast duck
Ah as with all tasting menus, this main course was a nice, solid piece of tasty meat. But by the time you've been through so many tastes and temptations, any piece of meat, however tasty, seems a bit boring after the fifth mouthful. Also, the chard and confit mix that came with it was rather oversalted on my plate and unevenly salted on Alex's. I expected more of a bitter/sour bite from the chard but it just tasted of the meat. And any truffle flavour in the the accompanying truffle sauce was rather drowned out. We would have been pretty satisfied with a piece half the size it was really.

Cheeses and the pomerol
One of the lovely waiting staff asked if we'd like a break before the cheese board and we gratefully said yes. Gave us time to polish off the remainder of the half-bottle of pomerol we'd ordered. When we finally felt up to it, the groaning board was wheeled out - there were about 15-20 French cheeses and they looked absolutely gorgeous. Such a shame it was wasted on us because, being pregnant, I could only eat the three hard, pasteurised ones, and Alex wasn't really up to the interesting smelling ones with alcohol-washed rinds. Am really fed up of nine months of hard cheese, so these may have been ambrosial hard cheeses but I didn't particularly care.

Dessert
Was really so stuffed after all this that dessert could only make the faintest impression. The first creme brulee dish that came out was alright but unexpectedly cold. Two mouthfuls of thick custard with a sugar crust. The raspberry and lime sorbet that followed was a better idea, a welcome refresher after all the rich food. Would have liked more of it, less of the sesame seed twirl that came with it.

We then staggered home, very happy and definitely going back to try the other dishes another time.