Sammii here! So last weekend was my annual fancy dinner meal with my girls from back home in Manchester, we like to gather together yearly just to celebrate in style all our achievements and milestones that we've made in the year. For me I would say the biggest one is that I've got into Uni and knowing for the first time ever what I want to do with my career. For anyone still on that path thinking, 'hey I have noooo clue what I wanna do', it really does take time and just throwing yourself out there trying different things. Everyone reaches points in their lives at different times, so don't put pressure on yourself if you haven't found what you want to do yet :)
Soooo anyway enough with the life talk :] We went to Galvin at Windows for this years fancy meal. We wanted somewhere with a view and we cut it down to this place or a restaurant at the Gherkin, we went for Galvins as I was told that the Gherkin's food isn't all that, and seeing as all three of us were big foodies, a place without decent food was a no go!
Galvin at Windows is on the 28th floor of the Hilton on Park Lane, it offered 270 degrees panoramic views of London. Unfortunately we were not sat at a window seat- we learnt for next time to request for one! We had a reservation at 7pm, and when we reached there it was still light outside and when we left it was dark out, so we caught the sunset which was laaavly. Great time to go on a date.
So the olives and the bread came out first, we were asked if we wanted olives and we said ok. Is it me or whenever I go to a fancy restaurant I'm not sure when they ask if you want something, is that thing on the house or not? lol! But it turns out the olives were not on the house and cost £6. Bread and butter came out too which tasted fresh.
This was apparently the amuse bouche which is eaten to cleanse your tasting palette before the dishes come out. It was lovely indeed to start off our meal, though I wasn't sure what it was as the waiter talked very quickly and in a strong accent xD
For a fancy meal I always go for a cocktail, they had a very extensive list, so I had to ask the waitress what she recommended which was sweet, she said that this one was good, it was a whiskey based cocktail, which was barely sweet at all and quite strong! XD I had problems finishing it and only drank a third of it. The biscuit thing on top was very nice though.
For our meal we opted to go for the 3 courses for £79, there was a tasting menu as well which was pricier.
 |
| Orkney Scallop Ceviche, Soy Vinaigrette, Pickled Ginger & LIme |
I really enjoyed my scallop dish, I thought that the vinaigrette went so well with the tangy lime and coated the scallops. It really made the taste of the scallops pop and the flavour really complimented each other.
Our table of starters, the starters were good all around, bring on the next course! But first let us take a minute to appreciate this beaut view!
It was relatively empty when we got there at 7, but it got much more busy at 8 when there were groups of people that came in and sat blocking the view you see here, they even requested the blinds to be drawn down T__T, you can tell a regular fancy diner to one that doesn't get this sort of view often. No way would I want anyone to put down the blinds on this view here if I were sat by the window. What travesty?!
 |
| Seared Fillet of Brill, Cauliflower puree, Orange Glazed Endive, Pine Nuts and Curry Oil. |
We were told that Brill is the known dish of the Hilton and seeing as I've never tried this fish before I thought I'd go for this dish. The fish was cooked to perfection, it was very light and I loved the orange glaze and pine nuts that went with it, the textures and again the flavours came together beautifully. The cauliflower puree, I didn't even think tasted like cauliflower which was good cause i'm not a big fan of cauliflower. Thumbs up for this dish!
I had a hard time choosing a desert but in the end i went for a souffle as I only ever had one one time before and I love the look of the spongy cake rising over the top of the pot.
 |
| Mango and Passionfruit Souffle & Coconut Ice Cream |
Doesn't the pillowiness of it just make you so happy? :D So the thing with souffles is that I have only tried one once and I have a thought in my head of what it will taste like, this mango souffle did not taste what I thought a souffle would taste like, but apparently they are meant to taste a bit moist inside and not like a soft chiffon cake. The top was the best bit as it still had a little bit of a shell on the outside, after that it all tasted like moose.
The size of the souffle, I thought, was very big in comparison to the rest of the courses that came out, I felt like it was the size of the starter and the main put together and more! I couldn't finish it xD It was disappointing, but this may be because it didn't fit my expectations of what souffle were meant to taste like. Lesson- never going to order souffle again!
They put postcards on our table and said that they can post them for us, so we each wrote a post card to the person on our right and got them to post it for us. It was a nice little touch.
At the end of our meal we were also given a pot of marshmallows for the table, which you can see peaking out of the receipt in the picture below. I wasn't keen on the marshmallows, they were very wet.
All in all Galvin at Windows was a lovely place for a dinner, the scenery- gorgeous, the staff-very polite, the food- amazing (though it was let down by the desert). I would defo come here again, but let us see what fancy restaurant next year will take us. Cheers to another year of successes! :)
Atmosphere- 10/10
Service- 9/10
Food- 9/10
Chocolate Sushi Rating- 9/10
