Harrods is a landmark in London, lit by a silhouette of white lights. If you don't arrive on the top deck of a London bus for a view, or in the luxury of a chauffeur driven car, you can use London's underground which is enjoying a continuous upgrade with natty artwork and histories and modern innovations such as posters which turn into movies.
One tube (underground station) exit brings you up alongside the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, favourite rendezvous of royals in the ballroom at the back, where the renowned restaurant overlooks the park. We had once opted for lunch at the world famous upstairs restaurant with its view of the park. Why would anybody go downstairs? It's cheaper, but not that cheap. No view.
We went downstairs to Bar Boulud for a wine tasting. My feeling about the restaurant rocketed from minus five to plus five star. Why the bad start?
I asked for the coffee menu. Nothing annoys me more than being told you can have anything you want. I want the menu.
It's actually a legal requirement. The law was brought in after a murder or two when ordinary fellows lured into a drinks bar by girls were persuaded to order bottles of champagne, not told the prices, asked to pay hundreds of pounds, which obviously they couldn't, and fights ensued.
In steps consumer legislation. You must tell the customer the prices. I ask the prices and I'm told that all the coffees are four or five pounds.
This results in my evening out, my wedding anniversary evening, starting with a row with my spouse because I've committed the faux pas of asking for prices.
I shouldn't have to ask for prices. Really annoying for the lady. I've been in restaurants where I've asked for kir, the waiter has suggested kir royale, the price has leaped from £6 to £12, and I've really upset my blind date or acquaintance.
Then the next date, I've denied myself the kir royal. Only later I have discovered my host was on expenses. What's more, the only difference in price was 50p.
In addition, I might order the same as my dining partner, an espresso coffee, but I am missing out on all the other items which are on the menu I can't see. I decide to ask for a juice. Do they have juices? Yes. But without the suggestion from the menu, I might not have thought of that.
We don't need coffee. My dining partner and I have had three or four already today. He's already over-hyped, irritable and argumentative. Maybe I'd like a hot chocolate instead. Or decaff.
Why am I doing all the work? The restaurant manager or buyer has spent ages stocking up with all sorts of delights and I am not being offered them. What can this place offer which I won't get at Costa or at home?
My next question is ask what is the choice of juices. The list includes one unexpected item, lychee. I've never had lychee juice before.
I order lychee. Delicious. I still want to know why I didn't get the menu. Don't tell me that the Mandarin Oriental does not have the resources to print. They could even print their own menu. The hotel has an office. A business department. They must have access to a printing machine. Next time I'll ask when they want and print out my own menu and give it to them.
Or call in Trading Standards.
Eventually, on my way to the ladies, I pass a counter with a stack of menus. I take one. Oops - customer seen taking restaurant property - somebody comes rushing over to 'help' me. Yes, I may take the menu. Still can't find a menu listing coffee and juice. I bet they can make Irish coffees and all sorts of things.
By the way, whilst the toilets are on my mind. Coming out, I don't know whether to turn right or left. Neither does another patron. Glad there's no fire. i suppose you just run in either direction. I presume the other door leads you out somewhere.
Downstairs, basement level, is Bar Boulud, named after chef Daniel Boulud, with wine looked after and presented by French sommelier David. Some say the restaurant has the best burgers in London.
A long, high table, flanked by high chairs, was laid out with semicircles of six glasses, the exciting setting for a Chablis wine tasting. Our pre-booked anniversary treat for two cost about £35 each, which as wine tastings go was good value. We wee given six glasses of dry white wine.
Plus wonderful little cheese puffs. (Only about one per person, but I was sitting next to the diet police. You could taste two, even three, if you are no on a calorie count diet and the others aren't eating because other drinkers are too busy drinking and dieting).
Berry Brothers & Rudd were charging over twice that price. But our recent Berry Brothers tasting included a folder of tasting notes, the setting of a historic wine cellar, a platter of cheese and nibbles per person, two talkers, chocolates (for that tasting which was on pairing wine and chocolates) and a slide show. (See my previous blog.)
To avoid a row I go off to the ladies. Very nice. On a second trip I discover hand lotion. The dispenser bottles for liquid soap and hand lotion are identical with small labels you don't see from a distance.
Back in Bar Boulud we heard an amusing talk on wine, but received no tasting notes. However, I wrote down some notes for you.
Sommelier David started by asking us to look at the colours of the glasses of chablis, held against a white, revealing starting on the left from a glass of almost transparent wine through to yellowy.
Next we were sniffing the aromas. These ranged from the negligible, through honey and acidic pineapple.
Finally the tasting. Most agreed we liked the third and sixth of the wines.
My favourite lightbulb moment was when David explained the terroir. Your own garden faces the sun in one direction, whilst your neighbour's faces another direction and they succeed with different flowers and fruits. Aha - my UK garden has sun on one side, shade the other, so one side has the wide flower bed, the other just a line of trees. Profuse flowers grow on the flowerbed side. Not a single wallflower, despite plating a whole packet of seeds, two years running, the shady side. So that is why two adjacent vineyards produce different amounts and tastes of wine. Slopes on opposite sides of the river get more or less sunlight and rain, in addition to have different owners, one buying new plants and tools, the other cultivating old plants the traditional way.
We stayed in the restaurant for a meal afterwards. The set meal is available lunch time and only early evening so we were too late. Diet police assured me I'd already had enough calories from the wine and cheese and did not need a starter but should save myself for dessert.
By now the restaurant was getting full. I told the server that we really wanted a table, not to have to walk around London Looking, because we'd already had lots of wine and it was our wedding anniversary. She found us a table for two, not the proper tables, which you find at the back room, or on the left facing the windows, but the lower tables on the right nearer the door. Good enough.
What is everybody else eating? The prices are high but no shortage of people willing to spend on an upmarket bite in this upscale corner of cosmopolitan London. Russians inhabit an upmarket tower block next door. Arabs with concealed faces jump out of taxis.
Bizarrely, a man speaking French to two lady friends turns out to be an Israeli who was sharing with them a huge platter of pork delicacies. Maybe he's trying to please them - or trying out what he can't get at home. Forbidden fruit? Live dangerously? Novelty? Or just a relaxed attitude, any person or food welcome, so long as it's good.
We chose one coq au vin main course, another of chicken. Tasty. Quick. Well cooked.
However the piece de resistance was desserts. Great choice. More a page back on the dish of the day page. I opted for the rhubarb tart. Beautifully presented. And at short notice, surprise, an extra teeny morsel of dessert with the words written in chocolate Happy Anniversary. Fully marks to the restaurant. We left with a very good feeling.
Before we left we took the opportunity to stop to say goodbye to another couple who had been at the end of our tasting table earlier in the evening. They tried to persuade us to book for another tasting. In addition to tasting more wine, a delightful, convivial way to renew a friendship with fellow wine enthusiasts.
Address:
Bar Boulud
Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, 66 Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7LA
Phone:020 7201 3899
In case you are looking at this on a small screen such as an iPhone, the middle plate has the words Happy anniversary written in chocolate. Full marks to the chef and management.
