It didn’t seem that long ago since I last visited Cafe Rouge Hays Galleria to try out their Summer Edition menu. This time, The Autumn Edition menu is filled with warmer, heartier dishes as we move on into the cooler months,
You’d think that we would be tucking into some healthy (sad) salad/smoothie after yoga, but we just skipped that and went straight for the good stuff: warmly welcomed with glasses of Rose Champagne before starting off with the Tarte Flambée, a savoury flat bread with cream cheese, sliced onion and bacon.
Comfortingly warm and crisp, it is also available as a sharing board which can be shared between 3-4 people.
Moving on to the starters, I have always liked their soupe à l’oignon, but decided to go for something different and instead had one of the new additions to the menu – the Salmon Rillettes, served with pickled fennel and chargrilled sourdough bread. Emma had the twice-baked Brie soufflé which was light, airy and delicious, topped with melted butter and toasted hazelnuts, served on a bed of salad with fresh apple slices.
Sticking to my seafood theme that evening, I ordered the salmon fillet as my main, which had a nice, crunchy skin. It’s usually served with buttered spinach but they had unfortunately run out of it. The manager was however nice enough to replace it with french beans which I was happy with, drizzled with lemon and beurre noisette. I had this alongside a glass of chilled Muscadet.
The Steak Frites, using premium Charolais breed, British beef, was tender and pink on the inside, served with garlic butter and frites. There was also a a selection of sauces to add on: both the Bordelaise gravy with bone marrow, and the beef dripping Merlot gravy sounded equally tempting.
For those of you who are in the mood for some meatier dishes, another new addition to the menu is the classic Bœuf Bourguignon that would be perfect for chillier autumn/winter days. And I’ve also been told that the Poulet Breton is pretty good too … you’ll definitely be spoilt for choice.
They have a good selection of sweet desserts, but we narrowed our choices down to the Rum Baba , a light sponge cake soaked in rum sauce, and the Tarte aux Pommes, a scrumptious warm apple tart with tarte tatin ice cream.
Both of them were really tasty, but if I had to choose, then the tart was definitely my favourite.
This was my second visit to the Hays Galleria branch which is a lovely central venue situated on the bank of the River Thames. Service is good and they also have relaxing outdoor seating that would be great on warmer days, or maybe whilst sipping away on a warm glass of mulled wine – it’s not too early to get excited about Christmas, right?
Feel free to read my previous posts about Cafe Rouge Hays Galleria and Cafe Rouge Kew Bridge.
The Cheekster, signing out x
The meal was complimentary, but views remain my own.
