river cafe

Have you ever had a gift so generous and perfect, that you are not sure the words 'thank you' cover your bosom-swelling gratitude? Yesterday I used a voucher that HG and Anj gave me for my last birthday. It was incredibly thoughtful in that I was mid-moving house (yet again) so had nowhere to house any new objects: the slip of paper was very convenient and a delicious promise of a treat to come. It was vastly generous in that it was a voucher for the River Cafe : somewhere I imagined only celebrities would frequent, and Roys not at all. I have been reading about the river cafe - its food, owners and various famous alumni - for years; I couldn't have been more thrilled.

So yesterday lunchtime found me in a state of tremulous excitement, hurrying along the Thames with the gent and an umbrella, to the much-photographed warehouse building in Hammersmith - refurbished after the fire in 2008. It was as light and minimal as the photographs you will have seen and the peasant-bloused staff as helpful as described by the heavyweights of the restaurant critic world (for example...) - always in glowing terms.

I saw both Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray speak at the Hay-on-Wye festival about five years ago and I was school-girlishly excited to see Ruth Rogers yesterday in her whites, chatting to some customers.

Back to the food. There was a fantastic winter menu lunch offer and from it I ate:

Fusilli con cavolo nero e pinoli - a very tightly-screwed fusilli which made many ridges for scooping up a maximum amount of the pesto-like sauce the cabbage was made into. Not at all what I expected and completely delicious. The gent had 'Calamari ai ferri': chargrilled squid with some fresh chilli. A generous amount came my way and wolfed down - reminding me again how bad I am at cooking shellfish and how wonderful it is when done well.

Then came 'Spiedino ai ferri': chargrilled scallops and monkfish on a rosemary skewer, very soft inside, served with castelluccio lentils, salad leaves and a chilli and parsley sauce. I paused only to take a bite of the gent's 'coniglio in tegame' which was the most beautiful, moist rabbit, pot-roasted in soave (served with polenta). A rare moment where I couldn't decide who chose the best.

The gent's pear and almond tart was probably the winner at the Dolci course - although he triumphantly declared the pear was 'more ozoney' than in the version he made recently, rendering his baking the best. Quite a boast: I'm happy to say I have eaten both. I don't normally choose chocolate desserts (however delicious, they all taste of... chocolate) but I didn't regret my chocolate nemesis for a moment. It almost brought me back into the chocolatey fold, and certainly fired me to re-create it somehow at home.

We drank ... well, as is tradition, I hand over to the pastry chef on this matter. It was bianco, almost fizzy with sherbet, almond or lemon undertones and we will ONLY drink this going around Italy ... but I don't remember the name. Would you be so kind?

I have decided to try and re-create one or two of these dishes at home for my generous friends, as a thank you. Armed with magazine clippings from the last ten years I can only try. And I know they won't mind me practising a chocolate dessert on them!

This is Roy signing off, from cloud nine.