We went the main restaurant Rogano on the ground floor this summer for our wedding anniversary. I like their lemon sole meuniere so I already made up my mind that this was what I was going to have.
Our dinner started with two amuse-bouche - first, scallop mouse canapé with caviar, followed by seafood bisque (unfortunately my memory totally escaped me if it was scallop or lobster bisque...).
We then had Rogano Fish Soup with rouille and parmesan croutons for starter.
Rouille is, according to internet, a sauce made of olive oil with breadcrumbs, garlic, saffron and chilli peppers and is served as a garnish with fish soup. So I float a crouton with rouille and sprinkled shaved parmesan on my fish soup. The soup was lovely but also very very rich and I could only have half of the bowl. I remember having thought of what the calorie of this soup might be and wished that I had something different for starter to try, after having seafood bisque for amuse-bouche earlier.
Still, I had never had rouille before so it was an quite interesting experience, and we did really enjoy the soup.
For main course, my husband had Lobster Termidor with shoestring fries and I had my favourite Lemon Sole meuniere. We also ordered panaches of vegetables.
I must admit that I did not expect to see so much Lemon Sole Meuniere on my plate - it could easily feed two people. I could not eat everything and this is being a posh restaurant, I did not even have an audacity to ask for a doggy bag so I had to give up half way through the dish. Oh, by the way, I was wondering what 'panache' of vegetable means. This simply means mixed vegetable. Anyway, vegetables were perfectly prepared, and especially baby carrots were really tasty.
It always amazes me how much one can eat at one setting. Everyone around us at other tables seemed to have no problem at all to consume everything presented to them on plates one course after another. And here we were already full half way through the main course....
Yet there is always some space for dessert, surprise, surprise! I had Creme Brûlée with ginger shortbread and my husband had a trio of rhubarb desserts - a sampler of rhubarb creme brûlée, rhubarb crumble and a rhubarb crackle parfait. They were really delicious.
Having finished our desserts, I looked around the restaurant. It was Friday evening, very busy with bustling atmosphere. There were families with children, there were couples, there were business people, there were groups of friends dining out etc. I always remembered Rogano being opulent and elegant but this time I felt like it being a posh family restaurant. I am not saying it's bad, just felt odd as that's now how I have always felt, not that we dine here often. The same decor, the same menu for many years but somehow the restaurant feels different. Is this a sign of my old age, maybe....
We then ordered coffees. The restaurant was so busy the waiting staff must have forgotten to bring them to our table. We waited for well more than 30 minutes before our coffees arrived. Not that we were in a hurry. We were chilled so not a problem. Coffees came with petit fours, which were really tasty. We asked for a bill. The waiting staff told us that coffees were on the house for having kept us waiting for so long, which was a lovely gesture.
We really enjoyed our meal. Would we go back again? Probably yes but not for a long time as it is an expensive restaurant (although you could go for a set menu rather than a la carte menu) and would need to wait till next time I feel like having another courses of Rogano's famous Fish Soup and Lemon Sole Meuniere again!
Well that's what we thought until our daughters got us a voucher for Cafe Rogano for present, so we went back again but to downstairs this time. To be continued....
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