L'Ortolan — Restaurant in England

From the moment you walk up the steps into the main entrance you feel like you are transformed to a country estate in the middle of the French countryside.

We were welcomed politely and probably too professionally, but the type of characters and clients they would normally have at the restaurant it makes complete sense.

We were taken to our private upstairs dining room which had limited edition sultry prints by a wonderful artists. Gorgeous maroon walls and French style decor in each corner.

The elegant and oversized round table reminded me of a Chinese restaurant which would have a lazy sally in the middle of the table.

We were then welcomed by Alastair (sorry if I spelt it wrong) who was friendly and adapted his personality to each individual on the table which I can say with 12 of us was extremely impressive. Tailoring his skills with natural friendliness.

For a 9 course meal which was tailored just for us was extremely impressive. I finished every single course and I mean every crumb and morsel. We started with a forest styled pine branch displaying the lightest of crab tartlets which were finger tip sized brilliance. For such a small amount of food it packed a punch of seafood flavours of salty sweetness. Beetroot candy canes which were almost like tasting air! incredibly impressive texture and flavour from something so small!

Second course was a terrine of game birds which was finished with crisped shallots and wild button mushrooms! My least favourite course of the meal. Personally I couldn't tell the difference between the trio of birds on the dish but I can appreciate the effort gone into the dish. I would not choose to have this again but this is a personal opinion.

The third dish was one of the most impressive culinary artistic dishes I have ever been served. A bauble of foie gras mousse wrapped in a green apple jelly on a bed of apple compost and granola. The sweet, savoury balance and texture of the foie gras was heavy but packed a punch of flavour that just lit up your mouth with every bite. One of the most sensational and interesting flavours I have ever experienced. Personally the size of the dish was too large for the richness of the flavours coming through the palate. I understand though that the size needed to match that of the art of the dish which was mind-blowing.

The next dish had to be my favourite by far! When I go for a meal I look to eat food that puts a smile on my face every time i take a bite. Genuine joy that takes you to a place of pure happiness and the Lobster Ravioli did this for me. Just one piece of ravioli with a white / light / wine cream sauce was just sensational! To cram that much flavour into such a light sauce was impressive. The lobster bisque and chive just balanced such a strong flavour of Cornish caught Lobster! Everyone around me ate the lobster in two bites and I just couldn't do it! I made every bite the smallest I could to savour the dish. I didn't want it to disappear off the plate! Please someone teach me how to cook this!

The next dish was our main course which was a miniature and petite Christmas masterpiece! The Turkey pithivier and Cranberry Jel blew me away! The succulence of the Turkey I did not even know you could make Turkey that soft! The Turkey was so succulent it was softer than some of the best pork and chicken dishes I have had in the past. The pastry was something I have never tried before which was almost on the same texture as a wellington but lighter in the mouth.

Our mulled wine was a fascinating shot of warmth and chilled deep flavours! Almost as if Moses had come and parted my mulled wine into two sections as it flowed into your taste buds!

The final dish of a chocolate and citrus ganache finished with an almost frozen mandarin segment chilled to 1 degrees was light, packed with flavour and flair!

Congratulations to James the chef and his team! To send out food like this at 24 is just a feat of brilliance! Thanks so much! An...

After hearing from other people about L’Ortolan and to celebrate a special occasion together, we decided to push the boat out and have dinner there. The service was very good throughout and the drinks menu was priced relatively well. However we were assigned the Gourmand menu which had some interesting combinations on there to say the least. The 7 course menu was £79 per person which we thought was not too bad. Then commenced the food. The confit trout was very nice but the portion size (why is it the more you pay, the smaller the portion size is ?) however it was a light start. Next was goose liver pate which was super sickly with a microscopic slice of duck and could have done with an accompaniment of either crackers or bread. Next was the Halibut which was basically a mouthful at best, however the fish was cooked perfectly well. Venison was next and having tried it before elsewhere I wasn’t a big fan, but I reluctantly agreed to try. It came on a big plate with 2 minuscule slices of Venison with a rich Jus. At this stage I was thinking sadly either a KFC or McDonalds was going to be calling my name on the way back home. Fortunately, we were offered a cheese board option (an additional £14.50 per person). I have to say that was my favourite round as finally this started to satisfy my appetite !!!!!

We were then brought a palette cleanser which was a citrus foam with Ice Cream. This was ok, which then prepped us for the finale of banana parfait encased with dark chocolate with small lashings of honeycomb and ganache on the side. The banana parfait was far from “perfect” as I found it to be very icy. We were left an additional menu with hot drinks/petit fours which was £5.50 per person but I politely declined as £5.50 for a N’espresso capsule was a bit stiff for my liking.

So, then came the dreaded moment of the bill ! Boom ! Over £300 for two and we did not order more than a glass of wine each !!! I would say for experience and I cannot fault the service but for the portion and standard of the food I wasn’t impressed at all and I’ve eaten in many establishments around the globe and this didn’t impress sadly. It will be our first and last time we will be going. I would recommend that you eat well during the day if not a few hours before so that you won’t be heading to the local takeaway...

Went on a weekday in Mar and the restaurant is not full so I won’t expect the service is like such. After sharing with few a friends and found we all have similar experience which I didn’t see in any review at all so prompt me leaving one here for a honest feedback as I do wish Reading to have a great fine dining experience.

Food 3/5 - brilliant appetiser and dessert, the two main dishes - pork and fish are ok, not exciting - a gastropub standard.

However, how we are being treated is something I won’t recommend and no surprise they don’t maintain their M star.

A plate is presented as table setting and once you seated the waitress would immediately pull it away and that’s set the tone of the pacing in this fine dining restaurants.

Amuse-bouche came and it looks great, however one of them are made of mini tartelette which is quite oily on the surface hence I requested a fork. She was amazed in her response and ask ‘ a fork?’ Yes I would like to have a fork. She then followed up questioning with ‘You need a fork with Amuse-Bouche???’ LOL right? I am glad I had get what a asked for but the attitude was a surprise.

Then come with appetiser and bread (the bread n butter is heaven) however when we presented with so many dishes at the same time we found it we are rushing everything and didn’t pay full respect to it as it’s been cold down / warm up so we asked the waitress if we could pace a bit slower to the coming dishes as we are not in hurry - how could you imagine you have to request this in a fine dining place but again another blunt response are given “oh we cannot, the dishes are ready so we have to bring to serve” - we were like , excuse me - shall you go to give a headsup to the chef and reflect that so he would adjust the pacing?

Don’t wanna repeat and make it lengthy review but I could just tell by all the engagement we had with the waitress - we didn’t feel like being very welcome or up to a fine dining experience expectation.

For a mid week menu - it’s great ROI however they lost the chance to make me a loyal one and giving me & my other group of friends similar experience on a different day, not in our recommendation simply due to the services...