Gordon Ramsay At The London review-longer than I intended...

[Fallon]

Ate there last night w/Kiki. Aside-my phone just rang & it was Gordon Ramsay's booking us for dinner at the London Bar area in 2 weeks so their ears must be burning...
Wasn't sure what to expect. The formal dining room is suprisingly small-I mean that in a good way though. The service level was superb-our courses came out on cue w/practically zero wait in between. Most of the evening, I counted 10 servers on the floor at any given time-there were 30 something diners there for the majority of our meal. The servers were mostly french (perhaps even Eastern European based on our primary server's accent) w/very thick accents. At the end of our meal I cracked up when the waiter manning the Bon Bon trolley said "cotton candy" in almost an Inspector Clouseau way...
On to the meal. We had the a la carte menu for $80. They brought out an amuse of glazed chicken liver pate & truffle cream cheese along w/thinly sliced toasted french bread which was excellent. A server manning the champagne trolley rolled up immediately & although we weren't planning on drinking last night the multiple bottles housed in ice was too appealing to resist so we both had a glass of pink (strawberryish?) champagne which was quite delicious. Since I wolfed down the pate & a couple of slices of sour dough bread w/homemade butter I told Kiki I would be good in terms of ordering dinner. She doesn't eat beef, pork, fried foods, etc. so when I'm in a giving mood I modify my ordering to allow her to taste my meal as well as hers. So, I skipped the oven roasted foie gras w/carmelized William's pears & a date millefeuille and instead ordered the Mosaic of fruits de mer with saffron potatoes, tomato consomme and osetra caviar. It turned out not to be a big sacrifice on my part as this dish was excellent. It was seafood pate in gelatin really-very tasty indeed. Kiki had the Sauteed langoustine tails w/maple chicken, granny smith apple, cauliflower cream & cider glaze to start. She didn't like the chicken-mostly cuz it wasn't pure white meat & it had the skin on it so it resembled something you get from a chinese take out joint when you get chunks of chicken coated in something or other. The rest of the dish was excellent though. I had a piece of the chicken & have to concur w/her opinion-I also thought it was an odd choice to combine w/the langoustine. But what do I know...
Also, our menu's were slightly different as mine listed the mosaic of bouillabaisse while hers had mosaic of fruits de mer-I pointed it out to our server & she said they had determined bouillabaisse was not conveying the dish properly so they changed it to fruits de mer but had missed my menu...
For entrees, I had one of Gordon's signature dishes (at least thats what our server told me) the Line caught turbot poached in St. Emilion w/creamed potato, braised salsify, braised baby leeks & civet sauce. It was excellent-the red wine sauce transformed a fish dish into something otherworldly-kinda like a non-fish dish. Sounds wierd but as a bigtime meat eater/lover-this was excellent-I highly recommend it. Kiki got the braised pacific halibut larded w/smoked salmon, romaine hearts, artichokes & marinated lemon, smoked horseradish veloute. It was the whitest fish ever. I mean that in a good way. The smoked salmon was essentially stuffed inside the halibut-in fact after a couple of bites & looking under & around the halibut Kiki asked the waitress where it was-pretty funny actually. Another winner. For dessert, which they ask you to order from the get go due to the prep time-I had the apricot souffle w/amaretto ice cream which was out of this world. When the server came by to take the now empty recepticle he commented that they might not have to put it in the dishwasher as there wasn't a speck of souffle left... Kiki didn't feel like a sweet dessert & asked for a fruit plate instead. The one they brought was top notch. Included fresh figs as well as dried pineapple and apple w/the usual suspect strawberries, blackberries, etc. Every piece was ripe & perfectly ready to eat which suprised the hell out of both of us but kudos to the kitchen. They also brought us a split pea foamed cappuchino course earlier that was excellent & a mouth cleansing course of pureed pineapple, yogurt, shaved ice something or other w/candied basil leaf on top & a coconut cookie that was very good-it reminded me of a dessert version of a pina colada. The meal ended w/the aforementioned bon bon trolley & came to $230ish before tip-Kiki also had a glass of white w/her meal...All in all the dinner exceeded expectations, even though I started my lengthy post by saying I didn't really have any, and we will return. Actually, as I mentioned upon leaving last night I stopped at the front check-in area & requested a reservation for the more casual London Bar for dinner & they took my # & said they would call me which they just did. Lastly, you can book a chef's table for $1200 for lunch or $1700 for dinner which is located in the kitchen area & seats up to 8 people. The chef then prepares what he wants for you-Ramsay style omakase I guess. So if you are a fine dining guru I suggest you check out Gordon Ramsay's NYC foray-I suspect the pricing will increase in the future along w/good reviews in NY Times & good ratings in Zagats & Michelin.