Back in Mid-November, The Boy and I decided to treat ourselves to a lovely weekend getaway at Atlantis the Palm.  The price included dinner at either Nobu or Bread Street.  We have heard a fair bit about Bread Street from various friends, so we thought we would give it a shot!

Firstly, we had the most divine waiter called Kyle.  He was new over from Cape Town and was a breath of fresh air.  We thoroughly enjoyed his service.  He was polite and chatty, and just fun!  Thank you again!

Now, dinner… the bit I had been looking forward to after running around Aquaventure all day like a loone!  (Ok, that’s a lie.  I spent the majority of the day on the lazy river!)

We started by ordering a glass of wine, and a gin and tonic with orange slices.  They got my wine right the first time around.  They got The Boy’s gin right the third time it came to us.  Oh well.

We were sat outdoors and it was just lovely.  The temperature had dropped so it was tolerable, and it felt like you were on holiday properly.  It didn’t feel like Dubai at all (well, aside from a couple of “Dubai Wanker” style guests but I think they are globally obnoxious!).  It was such a lovely and relaxing setting that we quite forgot we were meant to be looking at the menu!

We eventually ordered, and we did good!!!

To start with I had the octopus which was absolutely gorgeous.  It was smokey but fresh, and tender.  Perfectly balanced.  A dish worthy of the Ramsey name for sure.

The Boy opted for my second choice, the caesar salad.  It was very nice… after asking for no anchovies of course!!  Unless you do something really stupid though, you can’t really go wrong with a salad!

The bar had been set high for the main courses, but sadly we were a tad disappointed.

I had the sirloin steak and The Boy had beef wellington.  I am sure they both would have been very nice if they hadn’t mixed up how we wanted it cooked.  Equally, we should have sent it back but it was getting late by then and we could manage.

When beef is over/under done for your taste it just ruins the dish so I can’t really comment on how good it was or wasn’t.

We ordered some sides too, because we have no control when faced with good sounding choices!

Firstly there was the macaroni cheese.  Amaze!  I may have been a bit of a piggy and eaten the majority of that.  Pasta and cheese are two of my weaknesses!!

Then there was some chips, that never arrived.  Not a big deal as the chips that came with the meal were a bit rubbish really.  They were also meant to be taken from our bill but we discovered it hadn’t been when we were checking out of the hotel the following day.

The best though was the buttered greens and peas.  I love greens but hate peas.  The Boy likes peas.  I asked for the greens to come without the peas, and The Boy jokingly asked if they could just be split into two separate bowls.  We all chuckled and didn’t think about it again… until Kyle arrived with a bowl of greens and a bowl of peas!!  Fantastic!!  That was both of us happy!!

(Seriously, I don’t understand how anyone eats peas.  I love pretty much all vegetables, but peas make my skin crawl.  Blugh.)

After another little drink in order to digest, we ordered a dessert to share.  We opted for the Baked Alaska, which felt a bit like taking a gamble.  As we had discovered at Claw a few weeks previously, they don’t have room to actually bake the dessert.  They just attack it with a blow torch.  I personally think they all need to start calling it “Torched Alaska”.

This was the same, but thankfully they hadn’t gone as overboard with the meringue so it was closer to baked than not.  It was quite nice but a little too sweet for me.  It was pretty though…  Oh, and huge!  There was just no finishing it.

All in all we had a very mixed experience at Bread Street Kitchen.  I am not sure I would go back but I think I would like to.  I know that makes no sense, but it’s true.  I think they have the potential to be a very nice restaurant and I really enjoyed the setting.  I just think they missed the mark on the food and aspects of the service.

Also, I would have expected a lot more for a Ramsey restaurant.  I haven’t been to any of his before so can’t tell if this is his style and it’s just not my thing, or if it’s not his best.  I know that I probably wouldn’t rush to try another one though after this.

Maybe I am looking at this wrong?  Maybe it is meant to be simple food done well?  I just expected to be more wow’d.  The mess up in the kitchen didn’t help matters of course.  If you look at The Scene and The Ivy for example, both are British food done very well.  I just don’t feel Bread Street matched them.

Anyway, it’s a perfectly fine place to go for a nice meal. I just was underwhelmed by it.