Private Dining at The Milk Thistle

Last week I attended a very special evening at The Milk Thistle. It was an amazing private dining experience for myself and 10 other wonderful Bristol bloggers! It was a lovely opportunity to catch up with some familiar faces and meet some lovely new people, all while we got served some extraordinarily tasty food.

Before I get onto the evenings antics I wanted to share with you what the rather wonderful Shonette from Life Less Organised (@Shonette) has been quoted as saying after she received the menu for the evening…

“The menu looks so good, I want to rub my face in it!”

I think this would be a great tag line for The Milk Thistle to use moving forward. And yes, the menu for the evening was rather fabulous!

Our face rubbingly good menu for the evening!

When we arrived we were greeted in typical Milk Thistle style with a rather lovely cocktail! You must excuse the fact I can’t remember what it was actually called, but it was essentially a delicious spiced pear concoction served in a delicate vintage champagne glass. Simply yum!

A very yummy welcome cocktail in the lounge

Along with our cocktails in the lounge we were treated to a lovely selection of canapés. These included fillet steak with a fried oyster, which I didn’t actually get to try because I am not a red meat fan and mackerel on a mini bruschetta which was totally full of flavour! A perfect way to start the night.

Steak with a fried oyster canapés

Joining us at dinner were two lovely gentleman who are suppliers of wine and rum to the Milk Thistle. It was lovely to speak to them and see how passionate they are about pairing the right food with the right beverage.  It was a lovely touch.

Anyway, time for our dining to begin! We got shown up to the attic, which really is as romantic as it sounds. There we were treated to a famously laid table, crystal glasses and all. It was all very fancy and I kinda loved it! There is something so lush about having the finest out.

I sat next to the wonderful Jess from Crumbs Magazine and Dan from Simple Lampoon, a pretty ace combo in my opinion! A full list of everyone who attended is as the bottom of this post and I would highly recommend checking our their blogs too!

The attic

Beware! The next section of the post contains food porn. Please look away if you are at all hungry because I can’t be held responsible for any screen licking! (Or facing rubbing…)

First for our delight was the ‘Seared fillet of brill, bacon, girolles and mussels’. This was truly divine! I am bias because I am a big fish fan, but this seared fillet was beautifully cooked and went wonderfully with the bacon and creamy sauce. There was a little surprise lurking in there too which I did not expect but that worked really well – this little surprise was sweetcorn! Jess also agreed that it was a surprisingly good addition to the dish and really did make it a stand out!

Pan fried brill with girolles, bacon, mussels with some sneaky sweetcorn!

Up next was, ‘Roast breast of duck, crisp pressed confit of leg and Mission figs.’  The large crisp on the plate certainly intrigued everyone when it came out and I couldn’t resisted a nibble before we started. As a plate of food it was beautiful and just top notch! The confit duck was amazing, it just melted in the mouth and had a prefect crisp. I could have quite happily eaten it 10 times over.

This was paired with a very lovely Malbec which Patrick (@Chambave) had specially chosen to match the dish. It was divine! Patrick also tried make a case for why being a professional wine taster isn’t just fun and games because apparently drinking wine and eating fabulous food all the time can become boring and sometimes all you just want a Big Mac! Patrick, you fooled nobody 🙂

Duck breast with pressed melt in your mouth confit duck leg and figs

Then onto the main event, it was the, ‘T-bone, foie gras chips, bacon salt and onion puree.’ As a non red meat eater-ish I was treated to a very special plate of gnocchi which I have to say were as light as clouds! I was also assured by Dan and Jess that the T-bone was lush! I did steal half a foie gras chip which really can only be described as so so naughty, but so so nice! A total indulgence of the highest form, but perfectly executed in chip form!

T-bone, foie gras chips, onion puree

Now onto puddings! Yes, puddings because we were treated to two! First up was the, ‘Apple and blackcurrent sorbets,’ which is just the kind of pudding you need after essentially three mini main courses. This was so unusual, but so amazing. The flavours of both where so strong and not at all wishy washy ice like most sorbets. The apple in particular was stand out for me, so much so I actually went home and Googled how to make green apple sorbet! Watch this space…

Apple and blackcurrent sorbets

Finally onto the last, ‘Panna Cotta, damson jelly and poached plums’. This was served with an almond biscotti which was the perfect vessel for dipping out the creamy goodness. Now, I am not normally one for Panna Cotta as it often conjures up images of a wobbly white mess but this was served in a glass with a thin layer of damson jelly and then a thin layer of spiced poached plums. It was perfectly balanced, not too sweet, yet unbelievably moreish and after trying it I couldn’t even believe what was slightly worried in the first place! It was lush!

Panna Cotta, damson jelly and poached plums with only a tiny bit of almond biscotti left!

After dinner we rolled ourselves back down to the lounge for a final cocktail and a well deservered rest after completely stuffing our faces!

Overal the evening was just wonderful – I mean what a great way to have an amazing dinner party without any of the fuss of sorting the food, picking the wine and the best bit, not having to do the washing up. In my opinion private dining should be the way forward and it is certainly something I will be doing again!

Originally, I thought it would be something you would just do on just special occasion but after such a wonderful evening it really would be a great alternative to going out for dinner with a big group of friends. A perfect way to have your very own special and much more intermit little Christmas party!

The Milk Thistle can seat 10 – 16 for private dining or have up to 60 for a buffet. They also use all local produce and as you can tell from this post the food is of the highest quality. For more information please visit there site – milkthistlebristol.com

Also, I would like to give a shout out to all of the other attendees! I had a lush nigh with you all and these are certainly some ace blogs worth checking out!

Emily from Bristol Bites – bristolbites.co.uk

Jess from Crumbs magazine – crumbsmag.com

Shonette from Life Less Organised – lifelessorganised.com

Dan from Simple Lampoon – simplelampoon.com

Becci from Bristol Foodie – bristolfoodie.co.uk

Dan from Essex Eating – essexeating.blogspot.co.uk

Nick from Frugal Feeding.com – frugalfeeding.com

Ishita from Food with Mustard – foodwithmustard.blogspot.co.uk

Lauren from RocketNParmesan – Rocketandparmesan.wordpress.com

Shonette and Lauren

Patrick very much enjoying his pudding!

Apple and blackcurrent sorbets