The location of Toynbee Hall was weird and great with busts of Profumo & Dr Evil style portraits on the wall amongst shields.
All of this theatre played into the evening and as we all were led through to the dining hall we buzzed around the seating plan like flies around ganache (more on this later).
We sat down already buzzed on a couple of lagers we'd had in the Golden heart and first tucked into bread and White emulsion of tomatoes.
I'm the 1/3rd of 3M&ABL who doesn't eat meat so missed out on the liquorice infused beef.
Our wine was Italian Gavi and it was delicious and lubricated the conversation.
Next was Serrano ham and leaves but again I had the vegi option which was curd & strawberries.
Then fish course was king crab - juicy and sweet hunks of lobster like meat.
A main course of lamb & potatoes was served in giant pots with great bit of showbusiness as it was laid out in the banqueting tables but my asparagus & carrots in passion fruit tasted nice but didn't have the gusto of the others' meat & potatoes.
Pudding was an awesome banana tart tatin followed by olive ganache and Seville Zebras - jellied orange & blancmange halves that I think can't have been vegi/Pesci friendly.
It was great fun, with great people, good table wines and tasty crab and pudding. As an unhelpful fish eating vegi i must have seemed like the obnoxious American in a miss marple episode and I understand it's a bore to cook for different requirements.
A great evening, but I couldn't review most of the food as I didn't eat it.
Thanks this is a lovely review! Will work on the vegetarian options! I hoped that the wine suggestions provided and the BYO would help! Your writing really capture the environment well! Thanks again!
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