Wed 29 (Feb) - Ampitheatre Restaurant at the Royal Opera House

First, the only good food part of my day - a sausage sandwich from The Butcher in Leadenhall Market.  Whilst it's the best sausage sarnie in the city, I wish they were a bit quicker sometimes.  I'm already late enough for work by my own doing, without having to watch the cooks discuss the finer points of making bechamel sauce whilst doing nothing about the breakfast I've ordered.

Being the leap year, today's effectively a freebie.  Thank God, as that means I can rightfully forget about the terrible meal that was served to us at The Amphitheatre Restaurant, Royal Opera House, which we were visiting to watch a performance of Don Giovanni.  I chose a starter of hot-smoked salmon and beetroot salad.  No complains here, there were a couple of different textures of beetroot, the salmon was fine, leaves were fresh, but something you could knock-up at home.

All four of us opted for the same delicious sounding main of seared scallops with leeks and truffle.  Huge mistake x4.  The scallops were not seared, but had been baked with the other ingedients, judging by the pastry encrusted shells that they were served in.  The leeks were almost fully disintegrated, and overpowered by pepper, the tiny shards of truffle rendered unrecogniseble amongst the other flavours.  For a dish priced at £21 we received three scallops each (one cut in half), that were totally tasteless and of a curiously unfamiliar texture.  It was finished with an orange coloured sauce that tasted only of butter.  The Ampitheatre Restaurant, and by association The Royal Opera House, should be ashamed of serving this.  Needless to say, we opted out if desert.  A word for the waiter, who was eager to please and exceptionally polite.  The opera itself was great, and that's from an uncultured pleb, but there are so many good restaurant within a five minute walk from here that thankfully if visiting this beautiful venue you won't have to put up with the rubbish we were given.  It doesn't even look good . . .