Ravel's Bistro

Went to Ravel's Bistro in Hampstead on Monday night for dinner... it's a nice little french restaurant in an unlikely location on fleet road. They have a really good-value early bird set dinner menu - £8.95 for 2 courses or £10.95 for 3 courses.

For starters, we had smoked salmon and mackeral roulade, duck liver and deep fried brie with fruit sauce. The deep fried brie was nice but I can't help thinking how many calories that single starter dish must have contained.

For mains, we had chicken escalope with mash potatoes, salmon and spinach crepe and steak with mediterranean vegetables. These were good quality too, with good sized portions.

For dessert, we had orange segments with mango sorbet, apple sauce crepe, and white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake. One of us wanted vanilla ice-cream in espresso coffee, which the waitress was very bemused about as she couldn't think why anyone would want such a combination... we told her it's an italian idea but she wasn't quite convinced. She humoured us though, and gave us the ice cream in a cup with espresso.

Overall a lovely night out... the bill came up to £55 for 4 of us. Quite good value for very good quality food.