Four of us went to L'Etranger last night before going of to a show at the Royal Albert Hall. As we arrived my first impression was good, the decor was light and crisp; modern. Expect the a subtle feeling of opulence, be sure to look down to the beautiful tile mosaic on the floor in the front hall.

The greeting we received from staff was warm and freindly. We quickly felt relaxed and at eased us in and seemed genuinely happy to have us there.

Be fore warned about the wine list, at first glance, it can be overwelming at 40 pages long, with with hundreds, if not thousands of items most priced over £100 a bottle (some as much as £10,000) you may be frightened that you've perhaps sat down at a table that's outside your budget. Don't hesitate to ask the staff for help finding something in your price range, there are a number of reasonably priced bottles starting at around £20.

We had arrived early enough to order from the ‘early bird’ menu. When the first course arrived, a misscommunication at some point between the kitchen and service staff meant they brought out the wrong order. I had to watch the rest of my party merrily munching away as the kitchen scrambled to prepare another rocket & daikon salad.

When it did arrive, it was very good, but left me feeling it was lacking something. My partner discussed whether it was missing toasted walnuts, pine nuts or pecans. Just a hint of nut would have placed this very tasty salad on the verge of perfection.

On the second course we ordered the shoulder of lamb and the chicken with shitake mushrooms. The lamb was well prepared and presented, very soft, but the chicken was most definitely missing something: MUSHROOMS! We enquired about it, perhaps they've been pured and infused in the sauce in some modern cooking technique that we didn't know of. As it turns out “the kitchen had forgotten to put them in” we were further told that it was probably ok because you can't taste them anyways.

On the third course we ordered banoffee pies… More