My taste in TV has been described as...questionable.
I never miss an episode of Casualty and I look forward to November every year, not just coz it’s my birthday, but coz I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here starts. I know it’s crap, I’m aware it’s “leave your brain at the door” rubbish but I love it.
First Dates is actually a really good TV show though. The producers generally try to match couples who they think may actually work on a blind date, and they always meet in the “First Dates Restaurant” in London.
The restaurant itself always looks like it serves amazing food and drinks, and myself and my boyfriend often find ourselves trying to work out what people are eating, and laughing at them trying to sort the bill, as well as wondering how the date will end.
For Christmas, Aidan gave me the best present ever – we were going to London to the First Dates Restaurant (aka The Pater Noster Chop House). It’s located behind St Paul’s Cathedral, which would explain the odd “Pater Noster” bit (it means The Lord’s Prayer in Latin, shout-out to Google for that one).
Dinner was booked for 7 and we got there to have a drink at the bar at 6.45pm (we were doing EXACTLY as they do it on the telly). Except - our table was ready so we sat there and ordered a drink instead. The taxi man who took us to the restaurant (“alright Treacle”) couldn’t believe we’d flown over just to go for dinner there, and for the splittiest of split seconds, we were slightly embarrassed but that wore off as soon as we saw St Paul’s Cathedral.
The restaurant is much darker inside than on the TV show, but considering they have to film it, this isn’t surprising. There’s also approximately 60% more tables in there when they’re not filming, which is also not unexpected but the place is really big so it isn’t a problem. The staff wear the same uniforms as in the TV show and nope – none of the staff from the show were there. They are, I suspect, actors. No staff can be that good looking across the board!
The menu is varied and the wine was lovely (white, because even though we prefer red, nobody wants mulberry-mouth at 7.30 in the evening). Crab to start for me, chicken and bacon terrine for him and for mains I went for duck and he had a steak. The food was really good, and for dessert, we had the chocolate pot we’re always looking at on the TV show. It was served with popcorn - we were both a bit bemused by this because we were given the equivalent of around 8 pieces of popcorn and a pint of chocolate.
After, we went outside to the sofas they show in the smoking area and had a cocktail (raspberry-champagne yoke, wankey and pricey – lovely) and observed all the other couples who were experiencing the First Dates restaurant like us – through their Snapchats and Twitter.
We finished off the night with Aidan running into Sainsbury’s next door to buy plasters for my tortured feet and off we hopped in a taxi – “Soho please!” - just like they do in the TV show. It’s a shame the TV show doesn’t follow their journey into Soho too, to save us having to actually think for ourselves and find stuff to do.
Verdict: great restaurant, great night and would highly recommend even if Maitre d’ Fred wasn’t there (to answer everyone’s favourite question).
