Q u i B e l l e: Le Pain Quotidien

I had the most wonderful dinner tonight. I went to the French restaurant Le Pain Quotidien.

The staff behind the counter offered to take a photo while I was snapping away at the yummies on the counter (some shown below), so obviously I obliged to having my photo taken through the counter glass 'in between som mooffins' (in the french accent).

Before tonight I had eaten at Le Pain Quotidien once previously. This was for breakfast at St Pancras before a two and a half hour train journey from Kings Cross up to Leeds. On finding out that this french restaurant was not just a breakfast destination, that it is actually a growing chain of french restaurants around London (I am a country bumpkin) and that all of its food is organic and sourced ethnically, I got rather excited.

We chose to go the restaurant on the Kings Road, Chelsea.

This is what my friend Eva ate: The Spinach and three cheese Quiche. Feedback from Eva was extremely positive.

The picture below here is what Laura (my twin sister) ate: The Smoked Chicken Salad. Again, a big thumbs up from her.

Below here is what my friend Phillie ate: The Tuscan White Bean and Prosciutto Parmesan Salad. She too was a happy bunny.

Below is a picture of what I ate: The Detox Salad

Now I can go into a little bit of detail about my salad as I ate the plate clean. To be honest the dish was not what I was expecting. However the simple flavours of the ingredients exceeded my preconceptions. On the plate was white cabbage, red cabbage, carrot, and celeriac all shredded around the main centre of mint parley raddish and cucumber quinoa. On top was two lemon wedges, avocado, a sun dried tomato (the dark obscure looking blob in the picture), a mint leaf, tomato wedges and a spring onion. The salad was dressed with a light drizzle of Rapeseed oil.

Now don't go jumping to conclusions that this salad tasted boring. It was the opposite. Because the produce was so fresh, the flavours were really brought out by the rapeseed oil. Mix these bits and bobs mixed together gelled well. I felt healthy but also surprisingly full after my salad. Did I forget to mention that each dish comes with some of their special bread. Mix your avo with a dash of salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar and spread that on your toast for a healthy taste explosion.

So why did we all eat salads? Well we made a trip to Snog on the way back, but more information about that another time...

So all in all a lovely dinner. I highly recommend it. It didn't harm my bank balance either.

Below are some of the little things Le Pain Quotidien offer at their counter.