This is the first time I have had the pleasure of booking a restaurant for Valentine’s Day. I had already sorted the evening’s main plan, a surprise for Alasdair later in the evening, and I knew I had time to get a meal in too. I hadn’t particularly planned it, and then lo and behold BOX-E are doing a special menu for it and we are inevitably booked.
I am genuinely shocked that Alasdair doesn’t guess in advance where our surprise dinner is, given my proclivity towards going to BOX-E with any excuse to hand, but it remains a surprise pretty much until we reach the steps.
Everything is obviously delicious. Elliot has outdone himself this time. There’s even arancini to start us off! There’s a lot of BOX-E classics, with a twist. Leek with crab and a cayenne and lime butter; an absolutely beautiful piece of sea trout; sirloin with (of course) charred hispi cabbage and (of course) celeriac. It’s all wonderful. Alasdair’s vegan equivalents are also delicious, by all (his) accounts.
But the piece de resistance for me personally is something I’ve never had at BOX-E before, but of course Elliot has made the best version of it I’ve ever had - a chocolate fondant for dessert. It absolutely oozes the molten chocolate sauce, the creme fraiche cutting through the richness and the passionfruit coulis cutting through the texture. It’s divine and to die for and I want them on the menu at all times.
Tess serves me well with the drinks and has embossed the pink menus and decorated the tables and the whole thing is perfect. Because of course it is. Happy Valentine’s Day.