Restaurant Review: The Bonham

January is far too busy a month for my liking - still I should be able to avoid a few weeks without dining out now ... Dinner with friends, postponed from early December, resulted in a meal at the Bonham last weekend.

Wine List

A pretty good selection - we tried a lovely crisp sancerre and a meaty ribera del duero. Both were good and also pretty good value.

Food

Truly excellent food. The amouse bouche was a butternut squash soup with vanilla froth. This was followed by delicious mushroom soup (*2), chicken and foi gras terrine, and seared scallops. For main course, we had chicken and venison - again delicious, but more on this later. Dessert was a mixed affair, with everything from banana tart, to trio of chocolate, and a cheese board - once again we all thoroughly enjoyed the food.

Overall Rating

Decent wine and excellent food with good company made for a very enjoyable night out. But here's the rub: wild horses would not drag me back for a second visit. The reason?? I almost had to get a magnifying glass out to see my main course. The venison was, at £23, the most expensive main available - and 3 of us selected it. Imagine our disappointment when we were presented with two very small slices of meat and a similarly small amount of potatoes and vegetables. Now whilst I appreciate that some restaurants like to serve smaller portions ("pictures on plates" as my father would call them), this was ridiculous. I quite like smaller portions, as it allows me to eat 3 courses, but my starter and dessert were both much larger than my main - surely that can't be right? The fact that the main was so delicious just served to underline the fact that there wasn't much of it at all.

Great food, but the smallest main course I've ever seen means that I won't be rushing back.