The Chancery 2

The Chancery certainly didn’t live up to my expectations this time around, which was a shame, as the food is still pretty decent.

Food

Things didn’t get off to a good start. We were promised we could choose from the full a la carte menu, then when we got there, they said we had to choose only from a reduced menu. Slokky and I had already tried most of the dishes on that menu, and if it wasn’t for the 2 “specials” they added to it, we would have had a very limited choice meal.

Entrees were pretty outstanding. The Tempura of oysters with lemon grass, ginger and sesame seed dressing was only lukewarm on arrival, but at least you could taste the flavour of the oyster. I didn’t use too much of the dressing, prefer the natural oyster taste. The Wood pigeon cassoulet, salsify crisps was a mixed bag. Pink, glorious pigeon was let down by some overly salty cassoulet, but the salsify crisps were a textural sensation. We also ordered the Rioja Crianza 2003/04, Solabal, Rioja, Spain (£27), which I liked very much. Won’t comment on the wine here since I know nothing.

We were served our amuse of Butternut pumpkin soup after entrée. This was more of a token gesture. It didn’t add anything to the meal and was not particularly exciting. Slokky got the Ballontine of chicken and black pudding, butternut and vanilla puree, cèpe sauce which, unfortunately, was not so great. The chicken was tasteless and even the black pudding was not good enough to pull it out of bland. They had those little potato “tubes” again (in fact, they were on all the plates). The Duck with ginger, orange mash and spinach. had the same vegetables and mash as the chicken, and three small pieces of very succulent ducks. I wasn’t really a fan of the orange mash either.

Pre-dessert was very disappointing, especially after the knockout jelly from last time. The Guava jelly looked bad and didn’t leave a lasting impression. We were very unhappy with the limited choice of dessert, as we had tried the apple tart previously and didn’t want to try the chocolate mousse as it came with white chocolate sauce, so I managed to get them to especially serve up a Prune custard tart instead. I certainly give them points on consistency, as it was wonderful, just like last time.

We didn’t get enough petit fours, but I’ve had them before, so I didn’t care. I asked for lemon ginger tea list last time, but they said they don’t have such a thing this time, so I settled for camomile, which was really just coloured water, as it didn’t taste like anything at all. I didn’t even get a teapot or a teabag like everyone else, so I don’t know how they brewed my tea. Slokky was wise this time and ordered an English Breakfast instead of a coffee.

Rating - 6.5

Atmosphere

There were a lot more people tonight. The restaurant was running at full capacity and the downstairs bar area was taken up as well. It was quite a different atmosphere to last time as it was quite noisy. We took up the back room table, but had to share it with other people. We were pretty squashed in though, so each time we cut anything, we elbowed the person next to us.

Rating - 1.5

Service

There were certainly a lot more waiters today. Useless glasses guy was still there, and was as forgetful as always. He did better on the recommendation this time, picking a wine that I quite like. We had the “head guy” explain the menu to us, but I found that quite patronising, but at least we were “important” enough.

In terms of service, things were haphazard. A few of us were missing our coffee and tea order and had to ask again for them. Our amuse-bouche got served AFTER our entrée, after we enquired why they were missing. And they turned the music up to kick us out at 10:30pm!!

Rating - 2.5

C-factor

Why oh why do people not do what they say? We were first told we could have the full a la carte menu, then we couldn’t. Then we were told we would be charged the same price for 2 or 3 courses when the email that was received clearly stated not. It was such a hassle to have to argue with them several times so that they would honour their agreement. We had to ask to be given amuse-bouche, and they skimmed on the cheese sticks and the petit fours, so there wasn’t enough for the whole table. We only got 25% off our bill instead of the 50% we got last time. It still would’ve been fair value if they had charged what was quoted instead of trying to deck us at the end, which left a sore taste in the mouth.

Rating - 0

Brownie Points - 13

Info

9 Cursitor St
London
EC4A 1LL
Phone+44 (0) 20 7831 4000
Website