My Grandad chose to spend his 90th birthday at The Somerville Hotel which is located in St Aubin’s in Jersey, a quaint fishing village. The restaurant was booked for forty adults at 13:00PM.
The afternoon begun with a Champagne reception, there were a selection of juices you could add to the champagne which I was happy about as Champagne isn’t my drink of choice I would always opt for Prosecco out of choice (my Mum would kill me if she heard me say that). The juice purees included peach, orange and blackcurrant I went for the peach flavour and it was utterly delicious, the Champagne was flowing and the waiters were brilliant at topping up the glasses which we were more than happy with.
We were seated at 13:30PM and in front of us was a personalised 90th birthday menu which was a nice added touch. A waitress came round and served us fresh warm bread and there was the option to have white or brown. We were given enough time to decide what we wanted to eat from the menu before the waitress came round and took our order. We didn’t have to pick our dessert which we were happy about as this is something we often struggle to choose prior to eating our main course as we are never sure what we are going to feel like; are we going to want sweet or do we want cheese? Oh the struggles.
There were four starter options; Cauliflower soup with bacon lardons, smoked ham hock, citrus cured salmon and marinated tiger prawns. I went for the cauliflower soup which was beautiful and very flavoursome, I would definitely recommend.
Prior to the starter being served the wine was poured which was a delicious crisp white Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough New Zealand white wine. White wine isn’t usually my drink of choice I am much more a red wine kinda gal. I find White wine gives me really bad heart burn and it can be incredibly tangy, but this wine was utterly delicious and I found myself going back for more, in fact I didn’t go back for more the waiters were going round topping up our glasses which can become dangerous because you lose track of how much alcohol you have consumed!
There were four main course options; Roast Rump of lamb, char grilled scotch rump steak, pan fried fillet of sea bream or pan fried breast of chicken. I went for the steak which really isn’t like me! I almost always go for the chicken but for some reason steak is what floated my boat that day so that is what I went for.
There were also 4 Desserts; Raspberry soufflé with white chocolate mousse, dark chocolate tart with macerated cherries, Brie de meaux with apples and biscuits oe a selection of ice-creas and sorbets with poached peppered peaches. I went for the raspberry soufflé as I had never tried one before. I certainly was not disappointed it was beautifully served and it was ridiculously light and fluffy. The chocolate tart was also Moorish and I helped myself to several spoonfuls of my boyfriend’s lol. My mum did comment that there was only one type of cheese on the cheese board which was slightly bizarre especially if you are not keen on a brie like cheese.
After we had finished our desserts a surprise birthday cake was bought out by the waiters for my Grandad which was a chocolate ganache cake decorated in macaroons. Of course we couldn’t say no to a slice of cake so what was 3 course meal had now turned into a 4 course meal (not that we were complaining). If you are celebrating a birthday we would definitely recommend ordering a cake, I am not sure whether they made it or whether they ordered it in but it was a lovely touch and tasted just as good as it looked.
Teas and coffee were served with mini plates of petis fleurs.
We enjoyed several gins as well which were served beautifully, we especially liked the tanquray gin with a slice of grapefruit and sparkling tonic water. The waiter knew a lot about his gin and how each of them should be served so it was interesting to learn a little bit about the different gins.
Couldn’t fault anything about lunch at The Somerville Hotel and we would definitely recommend it to anyone, whether you have a party to arrange or you just want to enjoy a nice lunch or dinner at the weekend whilst visiting jersey