Fine Dining in Charlotte’s Place, Ealing

As an ex long term resident of Ealing, I have always wanted to try this restaurant which is situated just at the edge of Ealing Common.  I have regularly visited its next door neighbour, the Grange, which serves a fine Sunday lunch and is a lovely place to enjoy the sun in their garden with something chilled and refreshing!

Somehow, however, Charlotte’s Place has escaped me and it was time to rectify that!  My good friend, ex- colleague and owner of Bodyworks sports massage, Maria and I decided to meet for an early Christmas dinner and long overdue catch up.  Being a canny Scot, Maria booked the 7.00pm sitting to get the early diner deal (£26.95 for 3 courses and a complimentary aperitif) but that suited me fine as I am becoming less and less agreeable to eating late as my poor body just can’t cope!

So an early start it was and after a fine reunion and much laughter, we finally got round to choosing from the menu.  Maria and I both like our grub so choosing was a challenge

Once we had ordered, we had a discussion about our setting.  I love getting other people’s perspectives on restaurants as we all tend to notice different things.  For me, in Charlotte’s place, the thing that stood out was the nice atmosphere and the Christmas decorations. For Maria it was the widest choice of wine in the world- even the short wine list ran to six pages!  It took us ages to settle on a nice bottle of Vermentino (£24)

When our food arrived, I was delighted with my choice of beetroot cured smoked salmon with horseradish, cucumber and crème fraiche.  This was so fresh and delicious that I savoured every morsel.

For my main, I opted for the Creedy Carver Chicken Breast with Macaroni Cheese, leek and cep purée.  The absolute best bit of this dish was the macaroni cheese which was formed into a croquette and fried.  If it had been described like that on the menu, I probably wouldn’t have ordered it but it really was yummy and I was forced to donate some to Maria for her to try!

I didn’t really have room for pudding but it was included so I went for broke.  I chose the Dark Chocolate Marquise with caramel ice cream and honeycomb.  I loved this but really a taste was enough as I was so full.

The only downside to our visit was that the early sitting has a limited time span.  This was made clear to us when we booked and when we sat down so we only had ourselves to blame for chatting too much and taking an age to order!

Thumbs up for Charlotte’s Place- It is definitely worth a visit.  Both Maria and I agreed that we would definitely book again.