Early Birthday Dinner: Chiswell Street Dining Rooms

Just before returning to university, my father (in a strange burst of pro-activeness) organised a lovely dinner for my 21st birthday at the Chiswell Street Dining Rooms. He'd booked a little private room named 'Grubb Street' for myself, my sister and a few friends to wine and dine the evening away. I'd never been to Chiswell Street Dining Rooms before and so was rather excited to see what it was like!

Upon arriving, my friends and I headed straight for the bar where we ordered some delicious cocktails. I had a passionfruit martini which came complete with half a passionfruit and a large shot of champagne! Once we'd sipped away our drinks, we headed for our room.

I have to say, I loved our room. It looked traditional without being stuffy- the walls were panelled and the place settings were classic, yet the colour scheme was white and lime green which made the room feel bright and not too formal. Once we'd settled down (and had a glass of champagne), we began perusing our menus.

Picking food is always a tricky process. My friend Frannie and I were carefully calculating which dishes we liked the sound of most between us and working out how best to divide up our various plates. Finally satisfied that we'd covered all the best bits of the menu, we gave our orders to our private waitress.

Then, a little surprise in the form of a scallop and black pudding amuse-bouche arrived! Now, I've never had black pudding before as the idea of its ingredients has always put me off, but spurred on by my champagne, I braved it and dived in. It was delicious! The delicately flavoured scallop went beautifully with the richer black pudding (which, by the way, was scrumptious and totally not what I was expecting!). Fast as a flash, the little dishes vanished down our throats.

Soon after, the rest of the food arrived. Each plate looked beautiful and tasted just as good as it looked. I particularly loved the parsnip soup with squash raviolini and the roast duck breast, both of which tasted superb!

After we had scraped our starters and mains plates clean, I was again surprised by the entrance of a beautiful birthday cake! The cake vanilla and chocolate, with a crown of chocolate spikes surrounding it and pieces of fresh fruit on top. After a rousing (and wonderfully out of tune) rendition of happy birthday, I blew out my candles and we settled down for pudding, coffee and cake! 

As we munched through our final dishes, I was also allowed to open my birthday prezzie from my Daddy- I was very lucky to receive a lovely Gucci purse!

Once we'd all finished and were feeling slightly more rotund, we tottered our way back down to the main restaurant for a final cocktail and chat, before all heading our separate ways. 

I had a wonderful evening at the Chiswell Street Dining Rooms. The food was truly delicious, the drinks delightful and the service good. But more importantly, I had an evening full of laughter and happiness which I think just goes to show it almost doesn't matter where you are, good company is what makes an event special (although in my experience, the better the food, the better the company becomes!). So a big 'Thank you' to my friends and family who made this early birthday evening so memorable.