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.