The Landau, Langham Hotel

After the weekend at Bectival it was something of a rush to book this month's MealClub...as it turned out, we went for the first offer we saw on TopTable. £28 for 3 courses (set menu) and a glass of champagne at The Landau. We were:

James
Linz
Pete
Vicki
Ger (not really)

Vicki, James and I met in the bar beforehand where James regaled us with a tale of a woman he'd shared a lift with who had hairy boobs but was wearing a low cut top. Good bar snacks. Regularly topped up spicy nuts and some dried salted bean thingys (although precisely 2.5 nuts were deemed to be "bad nuts"). Good attentive service which was to become a theme for the night.

We moved into the restaurant where Linz joined us. The space is excellent. Lots of sweeping curves, high ceilings, good level of lighting, not too many tables and little alcove tables. The aircon was a bit high but we soon forgot about that.

They opened up by immediately pouring our free glass of champage. It wasn't the cheap stuff either. I think it's actually quite good that they know immediately who the TopTable cheaops are because it avoids the embarrassment of having to say "you do know we're on the deal don't you?". They obviously had our number right from the start. We ordered tapwater and Linz refused the champagne before being informed that it was free. Nice.

Speaking of Linz, it seems she's been standing idly and accepting an outrageous infringement of copyright. Her colleagues have launched "LunchClub" which takes place on the last Thursday of evey month. Expect to hear from my solicitor soon.

Back to the food and drink. They waited until we'd finished the champagne before pouring our chosen wine (true to form we went for the cheapest red on the menu. £28. Quality wasn't great). The bread and butter was offered. Good butter presentation with separate malson sea salt to add if you wanted. Sam would have loved that shit.

The food was great. In terms quality of food vs TopTable value for money this was right up there with Villandry. But the environment and faultless service actually pushes it ahead I reckon. This place was up there. Three of us had an asparagus, duck parcel and poached egg starter. Execellent stuff. Linz went for a lightly curried cauliflower soup to get her in the mood for her impending trip to India. She claimed she "won" the starters but she blatantly didn't.

The plates were whipped away with great efficiency and the mains arrived in good time. Again, Vicki, James and I went for the same dish. A lamb thingy. I embarrassed myself by asking for it rare only to be told that it was a ragu. The waiter then jokingly asked James if he wanted his rare too. James fell for it, the loser! (In actual fact it came as casserole-sized chunks of nicely cooked lamb over a potato base with vegetables and sauce....that's not what I know as 'ragu'). Linz went for an atlantic cod dish. All of it was good stuff (although the sauce for the lamb was a little salty). Deserts was good too. Very rich but not too filling. Petits fours finished the evening off.

So that's it. A really good place to go on the TopTable deal. It would be very expensive without that (my cocktail beforehand was £16.50).

In August we're aiming for £30 a head. And in September there will be not one but TWO MealClubs. Last Wednesday of the month as normal will be a cheap £20 a head place - but a few days before that a few of us are venturing away from London to the famous Fat Duck. Onwards!