This evening, my dad and I had tickets to see War Horse near Covent Garden, so we headed over to the area early in order to eat dinner before the 7:30 show. We walked around for a bit and scoped out our options before settling on Chez Gerard, a French restaurant in the heart of the Covent Garden Market.
Though it was a bit nippy, we opted to eat outside. They had a gorgeous deck, and our table was settled into a little nook so it wasn't too windy.
While we perused the menu, they brought us a basket of French bread with unsalted and anchovy butter.
I had two slices over the course of the meal, as well as about 90% of the dish of green olives they brought us.
My dad also ordered a carafe of Sancerre white wine for us to share. We both agreed that the bottle might have been a better option, because it was really good- and we all know I'm usually a beer girl!
For our entrees, we both ordered the Salade Nicoise: grilled line-caught yellowfin tuna steak, hard boiled free-range egg, French beans, plum tomatoes, new potatoes, black olives, fresh anchovies and mixed leaves served with Dijon vinaigrette.
Tuna steak is one of my favorite fish, and this was thin and perfectly seared, yet still raw in the center. When it first arrived it looked rather small, but there was a hefty amount of potatoes, tomatoes and beans hiding under those greens!
The two of us also split an order of steamed spinach with butter.
After finishing our entrees, we got two desserts- our first in London! I opted for the pain perdu avec chocolat chaud, a traditional French twist on bread and butter pudding served with warm Valhrona chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream.
Basically French toast with Valhrona chocolate sauce. Um, yes please. I can't even remember the last time I had French toast, and the sauce was perfect- dark and chocolatey, but not sickeningly sweet. I may or may not have finished the entire pitcher with my spoon...
My dad got the torte au chocolat noir: moist chocolate cake served warm with vanilla pod ice cream and caramel sauce.
Since my dad "doesn't love dessert" (lies), I ended up eating about half of his, as well. You can never have enough chocolate.
After the meal, we hurried a few blocks away to the theater. War Horse was incredibly touching and beautifully told, and the puppet horses were probably the last thing that would come to anyone's mind when they think of "puppets." It was a definite tearjerker, and rather intense as well- as much as I loved it, I can't believe it's based on a children's book! I'd recommend it, but mostly for adults.
Time for bed- we've got a busy day that includes a high tea service tomorrow!
Do you enjoy live theater? What's your favorite show? I actually used to act in plays in middle and high school! My favorite is West Side Story .
