Here we go. The big first anniversary dinner. I’d managed to keep it a surprise until Alasdair asked when dinner was booked and when we’d need to leave, and it’s hard to really distract from the fact that it doesn’t take long to go up 10 floors or so in the lift.
There have been mixed messages about their ability to cater for Alasdair - online it indicates they can, I’m told the day before by the concierge that they cannot prepare the tasting menu for vegans, and then when we get there and ask, we’re told they absolutely can. What fun!
So we do it! The omasake menu, plus some oysters for me. Hot damn, what a treat. Much in the way of fish and seafood - the black miso cod was heavenly, the kind of thing that you need to force yourself to eat bite by bite to savour it. The raw tuna! Gosh.
The savoury highlight for me, before the sizzling beef, is the sushi. And this is such an obvious, trite thought, but it was the eating that and realising oh, yeah, duh, of course this is how good sushi can taste, I’ve only ever really had the supermarket meal deal stuff.
The evening ends sweetly in every way - an esperesso martini, because screw it, why should I sleep after all this; a lunch box that contains a chocolate fondant served with matcha ice cream, a lovely element of contrast to a very rich (if not overly oozy) fondant; and the final surprise, the petit fours of “happy anniversary” carved into a thin sheet of gold dusted dark chocolate, propped up by a tiny raspberry frosted cupcake. And, of course, the fact that it was shared with my wonderfully sweet boyfriend.