by Celia Clarke
I’ve taken (1) __________ not booking table in my real name for these restaurant reviews, as there’s always the fear that I’ll receive special attention if they know I’m a food critic. For Adam Carter’s new restaurant, La Clara, on Kensington High Street, I took this one stage further by not booking a table at all.
Earlier in the evening, some friends had come (2) __________ for a chat and mentioned La Clara. We decided just to drop (3) __________ to see if there was a free table. There wasn’t – always a risk if you (4) __________ up without booking, of course – but we decided to wait. And wait we did. Having arrived at about 9:30, it was getting (5) __________ for eleven before we were finally seated. Incidentally, while we were having a drink at the bar, we ran (6) __________ the food critic of a rival newspaper. She said this was one of her favourite restaurants at the moment. I’d like to be able to report that I now agree, but unfortunately our meal turned (7) __________ to be far from wonderful.
I ordered mushroom troubadour as a starter. The sauce tasted like the cream had (8) __________ off. It was practically inedible. My friend Jane ordered salmon sentinale. Fifteen minutes after my mushrooms had arrived, the waiter came over to say that they had (9) __________ out of salmon. He went (10) __________ to say that they would be closing at midnight. It was already 11:30. The head chef of La Clara likes to try (11) __________ one new dish every day. This is called the Chef’s Special. I decided to have this – a not-particularly-exciting pasta dish – for the main course. It wasn’t bad, but the waiter kept (12) __________ coming over to see if we had finished. We hadn’t.
I’ll leave (13) __________ a description of the dessert. We had to eat it so quickly I can’t even remember what it tasted like.
I don’t want to (14) __________ anyone off trying La Clara – all new restaurants have problems at the start – but I for one shan’t be going back any time soon.