LE CHALET, SELFRIDGES

I was long overdue a catch up with Alex and realising we were both free on Bonfire Night, I booked the newly done up rooftop restaurant at Selfridges, Le Chalet.

Le Chalet is on the 5th floor, overlooking the Mayfair rooftops, but enclosed by plastic sheet walls. We had booked for 7pm, and knew we had to vacate our table by 8.30 for the next lot of guests, so got down to ordering our cocktails when we arrived. I went for a Winter Orchard, which was gin, Poire William, apple juice and Fireball, which is a spicy, cinnamon flavoured whisky. The drink was nice, very strong and very pear-y but perfect for a cold evening to warm my bones! Alex had the mulled wine which was also nice - neither were amazing, but they definitely weren't bad. Excuse the photos - it was really dark and I only had my iPhone on me!

Then we ordered our food, aware that we didn't have loads of time to chat. We decided to share the ceviche starter and get a main each. We waited for around 20 minutes, when all of a sudden our mains were brought to the table and things took a turn for the strange as far as service was concerned.... We mentioned that we hadn't had our starter yet, so they took the mains away and we waited for another 20 minutes or so until our plate of ceviche with sweet potato crisps was served. When it did finally come it was really delicious. The ceviche had been marinated for the perfect amount of time - often it's under marinated and a bit flavourless, or over marinated and starts turning a little mushy. The flavour was spot on though, although the onion slices were a little thick sometimes. The ceviche went perfectly with the sweet potato crisps and they were great little scoops to pick it up with.

Starter eaten and carafe of white wine ordered we were happy chatting away. Some time passed, and I began to wonder where our mains were. It was now gone 8.30 and we should've vacated our table. After half an hour I asked about our mains and the waiter looked a bit sheep-ish and said he'd find out. We were told they were coming but in reality I don't think they'd even cooked them at this point. Again, another 20 minutes later and they finally arrived. They were worth the wait though. I had chosen the chicken schnitzel with blue cheese fondue, and the chicken had a lovely crisp coating, was juicy inside and went really well with the oozy, tangy blue cheese sauce. This such a strange choice for me to order in a restaurant but I didn't really fancy red meat or fish that night.

Alex's spelt and mushroom risotto was also really good, although with loads of cheese on top of it, was hardly the dairy-light option she'd imagined!!

How lovely is all their crockery by the way!

We had a lovely view across the rooftops of London and watched fireworks pop off in the distance, and then much closer. The staff at the restaurant were wonderful when they realised the mess up with our food, and gave us another carafe of wine on the house (that we didn't really need, but drank anyway) and tried to give us free pudding as well, which we shunned in favour of a wander down the restaurant to the open air rooftop part, where I could have a ciggie! We returned to our table, that we'd now managed to keep for the whole evening, and snuggled up under the blankets provided. It doesn't really get too cold up there, but you can definitely tell you're not actually inside! The bill wasn't extortionate - I think we paid around £40 each for drinks and food. I really liked Le Chalet and will definitely be back over the winter for cocktails and food - it's a great place for a quick(!) bite if you're Christmas shopping in Selfridges and Oxford Street.