céleste - the lanesborough london

i went here with my boyfriend and a friend for some post-promfoodin july. i was not really looking for full on fine dining that evening or to spend a small fortune on one meal, but i was outnumbered. ultimately i was glad i was!

i have eaten in all sorts of restaurants on five continents, and i have never, ever, ever had such memorable food. it may seem an odd thing to say, but thefoodat celeste has flavour. i can't think of any other way to describe it. where do they get this magic food? whatever an item offoodis supposed to taste like, it does, but amplified a thousand times! simply incredible.

the service was excellent, not intrusive or stuffy, just an endless stream of sweet little women in flat shoes. post-prom and post-wine, my boyfriend was in the mood for a bit of low volume singing. one of the little women came to inquire whether we wanted any digestifs but couldn't quite figure out how to get a word in, it was simply adorable.

yes, it is expensive. but get yourself a sugar-daddy/-mommy and go!

there was a terrific posh scotch egg - a burford brown encased in mince of chicken and rosemary-spiked lardo from colonatta, crispy, with a rich and golden runny yolk and earthy truffle mayonnaise (£14 a la carte, also on set lunch menu). my brother had a cold starter with lobster - good chunks of meat presented as a sort of salad, with tagliatelle-style ribbons of a vegetable we couldn't identify and forgot to ask about. 

i had lobster in my main, with conchiglioni pasta and it's own light and frothy bisque. i enjoyed it, but i suspect i would have done so much more with the absence of peppers, the flavour from which i felt had no place on the plate. the capers though, definitely (£34 on a la carte).

my brother nailed his choice - roast norfolk black chicken, confit crispy leg, and girolles mushrooms. as good as it reads - savoury, umami, like the chickeny essence had been extracted from 50 fine birds and concentrated into one plate's worth offood(£24 a la carte, also on set lunch menu).

laudable desserts came in the form of a vibrant mango eton mess, shards of meringue sticking out like ship sails in the wind (£12.50 a la carte, also on set lunch menu), and a gloriously seductive guanaja chocolate mousse with streusel crumble, demonstrating some impressive paint brush skills (£12.50 a la carte).

its only been open about six weeks but they don't seem to be having any teething problems here.  the dining room is incredible ( even though i'd seen it before when it was apsleys) thefoodis perfection and the service is exceptional.  i had the 7 course tasting menu with wine, the wines was so perfectly matched.  each course was mindblowing! cannot recommend enough!