Would you pay £18 for this as a main in a posh restaurant?

[Flowerwinter]

Ordered what I thought was a salmon fillet from the mains, this is what arrived…it was £18. I’m gutted.

It looks like a starter or child portion main course. The price is inexpensive for sushi sashimi grade salmon especially in a quality hotel restaurant establishment. I initially thought it may be a part of a highly regarded £100 per head multiple (8-10) course chief’s tasting menu then this seems fitting or possibly acceptable say in a celebrated French Rivera spot as uber light weight portions are über de rigueur where selected local wine pairings are as or more important than the accompanying cuisine.

Really depends on what restaurant this was.
Mains are typically £16-£22 in our local pubs but you do get a large meal for this.
We also enjoy eating a Michelin star restaurants where obviously we'd pay well above £18 for small plates but the quality of food, atmosphere etc make it worth it.
If £18 is well above the norm for your area and this restaurant thinks they can justify it by putting tiny food on a tiny plate with nothing to back it up I wouldn't be happy.

If you put them together it is roughly fillet sized!

Honestly, I’d have got up and walked out.

This looks like it .
Accurately described on the menu , and a pic on the website.

devonshirehotels.co.uk/lp-terrace-derbyshire/
Link here

With a starter and a dessert it’s fine, but if you only ordered one course light.

It's annoyingly shitly presented. If a chef is going to do those wee blobs of wasabi pea purée and dots of whatever oil, and bits of things balanced on other things, it has to look perfect not random splodges fecked on by a a drunk with no eye for detail.

I think that looks OK for a Japanese-style sashimi dish - I'm guessing the pale green splodges (technical term) are wasabi-based? It's not a dish that would fill you up, but I can imagine it might be exquisite as part of a faffy foodie meal (disclosure: I am a faffy foodie!). Somewhere I've got a pic of two green leaves that cost me over £5 at a gourmet place in Brighton - but I thought they were worth it as part of a well-constucted menu in a tiny place with great reviews where they were kind enough not to raise eyebrows at me taking photos of everything I ate :) I used to love eating this kind of pretentious stuff once every 6 months or so. Can't do it now as I live somewhere west of civilisation - but it has other benfits, so no complaints!

I kinda want to know exactly what was said on the menu before deciding who's bu

Chatsworth Gin cured salmon, cucumber & seaweed – £9.95/£17.00 according to above link

Perhaps you accidentally got a starter size?

It looks lovely as salmon sashimi, if slightly strangely curled (is it my screen?). Unless OP just quickly scanned the menu and saw “salmon” without reading the rest, it seems pretty crappy that it wasn’t clear what she was getting. It’s all a bit “Emperors new clothes” otherwise.

As an aside... Are the squarish white chunks boiled potatoes??? That’d be odd, but they’d be bloody big challenging hunks of daikon. I can’t see in the picture!

Cross posted! Cured salmon and cucumber does sound like a teensy main course, which is what you got.

According to SPH’s description that looks about right... The starter would be half the size, just three of the salmon bits? Seems fair to me.
Looks like exactly the sort of thing that would be served at a champagne bar. Often menus feature a low carb dish like this, for folk who don’t like to chow down.
And it’s fairly standard hotel prices, as far as I can see. You just picked a dud dish (if you were looking for a full meal). What did the others order?

It’s what Victoria Beckham would order, is what I’m trying to say!

Oh God, it's like deja vu and the bloody nouvelle cuisine restaurants of the 1980s with their poncey, la-di-da, over decorated food. You always ended up going home hungry and having beans on toast to fill you up.

@Flowerwinter

It’s a hotel/champagne restaurant in Derbyshire. It was on the menu as a main course for £18. I understand it’s sushi grade etc but I’d expect at least a piece of bread with it or some salad?! I did query if it was a starter and he said ‘it’s a main, as it’s on a big plate’.

I haven't tried sushi but I'd imagine sushi grade to mean "tiny food" to be fair.

@SpeckledyHen

devonshirehotels.co.uk/lp-terrace-derbyshire/ Link here

Well found! This is what it looks like on the website compared to what was served. OP, you’ve been had.

Okay, seafood bars do tend to serve dishes like this, just the seafood with little embellishment. I would like the option of some side carbs though.

I think the plate shown would not be unreasonable at all at £18. My only quibble is that I would want more (and would pay more) for a main course. Although if this is a champagne bar possibly not, not exactly arriving starving and tucking into three courses. Too many imponderables.

@SmartPriceHam

Chatsworth Gin cured salmon, cucumber & seaweed – £9.95/£17.00 according to above link

Perhaps you accidentally got a starter size?

If this is what’s been ordered then to be fair to the restaurant that’s not far from what I’d expect (I’d not order as a main though - I never order things like this or scallops as a main either unless I’d had a huge starter)

This blog post has a pic/details of the starter size

thetravelsofmrsb.com/2021/04/28/outdoor-dining-at-the-laurent-perrier-champagne-seafood-terrace-at-the-cavendish-hotel

Moules frites would never let you down like this.

The website and blog post give an interesting insight. You received less salmon for your main than they did for their starter. I have to say the website and blog post show good value for money so I'm not sure what went wrong at your visit. I would actually query it with them now.

@im2sad

The website and blog post give an interesting insight. You received less salmon for your main than they did for their starter. I have to say the website and blog post show good value for money so I'm not sure what went wrong at your visit. I would actually query it with them now.

I was going to say exactly this.

I think they were running out!