Le Chalet by Q Grill

A couple of weeks ago I caught up with Rosie over dinner at Le Chalet. Le Chalet is situated on the roof of Selfridges and as it was Bonfire Night we were able to watch some fantastic fireworks displays over the rooftops of London.
Rosie and I both ordered a cocktail to warm up with. I chose the mulled wine to help get me into the Christmas spirit, and Rosie ordered the Winter Orchard. While the cocktails were nothing to shout about the food was a different story.

The menu was very meat based so, having recently made an effort not to eat meat, there were only a couple of options for me but all the vegetarian options looked great. We decided on sharing the sea bass ceviche for a starter which tasted beautiful. I would have easily eaten one to myself!

For our main course Rosie had the chicken schnitzel with a blue cheese fondue and a side of salad, while I had a mushroom risotto made with spelt instead of the usual rice. I would give the risotto 10/10. It was bursting with flavour which, to be honest, isn't always the case with risotto. Maybe it had something to do with the copious amount of cream and cheese in it. Rosie also rated her meal very highly and it certainly looked good from where I was sitting.

The only thing that dampened our evening was the bizarre service. We had to wait a very long time for each dish to be served and our main course initially came out before our starter. After being allocated a relatively short timeslot to eat in I was surprised by the lack of organisation. By the time all our food had come out we had been there for almost two hours. The waiter was very apologetic, and he made an effort to make up for the inconvenience of having to wait so long for our food which was nice, but we just wanted to eat!
I'd definitely recommend Le Chalet for the food and the atmosphere, but not for the service. It wasn't cold at all but they do provide blankets for everyone, just incase, which reminded me of the bars in Sweden. When we left the restaurant we were escorted downstairs and through Selfridges, which was closed and totally empty by this point, into the cold London night.

Visit Le Chalet's website to take a peek at their menu, or to book a table you can reach them on 0207 318 3287. They had an impressive list of specials on offer when we visited too so don't forget to take a look before ordering! And you can see Rosie's write up of the evening on her blog.