Smoked salmon - nicer than usual thick slice of fillet. Celeriac too mayonnaisey as always in the ccr.

Broccoli - the usual dumping of pea shoots (ccr signature for the last five years) and pickled onions (the 2025 theme) is doubly pointless but ok otherwise.

Lobster mc and no cheese - no gratin and no cheese but ok otherwise. Interestingly much neater pieces of lobster tail than in other poster’s photo. Cost saving means that apart from the garnish, they use tiny pink shrimps rather than lobster in the actual dish. Enjoyable despite the shortcomings and I do love lobster so I think I’ll have it again but simply know it’s not Mac and cheese.

Ribeye - two thin slices of overcooked ribeye - bizarrely two different mashes and no jus nor sauce but ok, I still appreciate the effort and again, I prefer a small serving of real meat like this than a big portion of minced/shredded/processed meat

Rice pudding. A generally fine dessert though I’m among people who prefer my rice pudding cold. Quite orange-ey but whisky nowhere to be found, and what’s with the current attempt to transform every autumn dessert into granola?! Next time I have it, I’ll ask for a small glass of whisky and organise my own whiskyisation of the dish! (« On n’est jamais mieux servi que par soi même »

photos from the actual courses.

in the ccr, everything is possible - sometimes we get boring sounding dishes which turn out to be surprisingly good, sometimes we get good sounding dishes which prove poor and so on. This time, I personally think we have a nice sounding menu which delivers and this feels like genuine progress.

Sure the ribeye is nowhere near the portion of the ribeye of a few years ago but I personally choose quality over quantity any day. The lobster mac n cheese is no mac n cheese but in a sense, I find this almost better as you can actually taste the lobster. Mine happened to be a decent portion (I suspect half the tail of a smallish one) and very nicely cooked. The smoked salmon is one of the better iterations and the rice pudding whilst lacking whisky was pleasant in texture and taste and the beauty of the ccr is that the lack of whisky can easily be remedied through self-help and with a choice of bottles too! The broccoli is weaker than the usual cooked veg side dishes and features unnecessary pea shoots and picked onions as though BA had a stock of both they really needed to dump, but is still a nice side in a menu which, in my view, is a bit too light on vegetables.

In short, in my view, this is one of the best menus this year and for the past several years. The tentative orbitmic menu of the month? For once I would have all of the above and finish with the sorbet (which I did today also, but thought I needn't add an nth picture of them!! )