la petite maison

21 July 2014

E and I are a little greedy. We have two dates that we call our wedding anniversaries - only makes sense, since we did technically have two weddings.

We had a very small, intimate ceremony on July 15th last year at the Chelsea Old Town Hall, where we were legally married (by a thoroughly entertaining and lovely officiate) and afterwards enjoyed lunch in the sunshine with some of our closest friends. I hadn't expected this ceremony to feel very "wedding-y", but it turned out to be such a special day and we did truly feel married from that day on, even though our main wedding a few weeks later kind of sealed the deal.

Anyway, who turns down any excuse to celebrate?! Certainly not us. We are off to Lake Como around our wedding anniversary in August, but to mark one year of marriage according to our papers, E took me for a fancy lunch at La Petite Maison.

He kept it a secret for a while, but I was delighted when I found out since it's a place I've been wanting to try for so, so long!

It was a gorgeous day, so we got to sit out on the terrace (not the most secluded as it's basically on the pavement, but it's not too busy a street so it was nice), which always makes it feel like a bit of a stay-cation.

E pretty much knew what we should order due to lots of research and recommendations from friends, so I let him take the reins and sipped on an ice cold glass of rosé while we waited.

The restaurants boasts cuisine from the South of France where E is from, so I had an idea of the Provençale cooking that would be the theme.

To start off with, we had tuna carpaccio and a classic pissaladière (a thin layer of pastry with caramelised onion/olives/herbs etc. on top):








The dressing on the tuna had a kick to it which was delicious, and the pissaladière was melt-in-your-mouth good.

For the main event, we had sea bream cooked en papillote, and a grilled veal chop that we both took one mouthful of, looked at each other and shook our heads in disbelief at how tender and flavourful it was.

We also had potato gratin on the side, which was an afterthought but my god I was glad we did - it was absolutely amazing. If it wasn't so rich I would have wanted a whole one for myself!









Having heard that their cheesecake is one of the best in town, we definitely could not leave without seeing whether it lived up to the hype.

You bet your pants it did.






Like a cloud of vanilla-y cheesy creamy fluffy heaven. This one and the cheesecake at Cecconi's are the best ones I have ever had.

This place is firmly in the "special occasions" category for us as the prices are pretty steep, but it was a real treat to be able to finally try it and enjoy such a delicious meal. We debated doing something exciting in the afternoon, but being the wild duo that we are, we ended up heading home and sitting in our garden which was the best idea. I roped E into taking some commemorative selfies and just chilled out to the max. It was perfect.



11 comments:

  1. Lake Como sounds divine! And there's nothing wrong with being greedy and celebrating your anniversary twice ;-) Good choice of restaurant as well. The food looks fantastic. I'd love a slice of that cheesecake! xx

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  2. Wow this looks so so so good and I'm so hungry and can't get my breakfast yet cos Simon is ironing his shirts right in front of the fridge .... sympathy please! :(

    Nothing beats a bit of pavement dining in the UK, it's such a novelty and it really does make you feel like you're on holiday.

    I'm so glad you managed to fit in a dessert, I would have been gutted if there were no sweet treat pictures to look at :)

    Chloe x
    newgirlintoon.co.uk

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  3. That place looks incredible - I've got to add it to my ever-growing list of places to eat in this amazing city. Also, happy anniversary! It was our wedding anniversary recently too, and we went for a 48 hour minibreak to Oslo! Again, very much a 'special occasion' kind of thing to do!

    Owl Girl | A London lifestyle blog

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  4. It's one of those restaurants that I've been meaning to go to for ages but never made it! I even had a reservation once but somehow that got cancelled. The food looks so fresh and healthy (well, apart from maybe the cheesecake!). Lovely pictures.

    Caroline x
    www.cocktailsandcaroline.com

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  5. Umm, YUM. I just ate but this is making me hungry again ;) I love how you have two anniversaries, any excuse to celebrate is a good one in my opinion. This looks so tasty! xx p,s, your food photos are always so great!

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  6. Firstly happy anniversary celebration, me and my future husband going
    to do 2 weddings as well to have 'good' dinner excuses, ha!
    Omg I'm a big big fan of steamed fish and I really want to try out their
    sea bream and the cheesecake!

    P.S. you should go watch Sailormoon with E. c: Xx

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  7. Everything looks fantastic!! Especially the veal chop and the potato gratin side! MMMMHHH!

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  8. Divine. I love a good cheesecake, I really don't like cake that much and I'm not a big cheese person either, but put them together and I'm in love. Also that veal looks PERFECT. I think splurging on a restaurant for special occasions is definitely acceptable and worth it...nothing like spending a special meal with a special person :]

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  9. What a perfect anniversary meal! As your adage goes...foodies need to marry foodies! I'm in love with your pictures of the potato gratin, the pissaladière and the cheesecake. Serious food porn. I want to know more about your two weddings! x

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  10. happy anniversary! looks so delicious! yangkyu and i also celebrated twice but we no longer do. in april we were officially married at city hall and in august we had our official ceremony with guests. the officiant we wanted to have wasn't licensed so we got our marriage license earlier! :)

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