Dining Out - Gordon Grill with guest chef Michel Rochedy

Three tastes still linger in my memory of the dinner at the Gordon Grill on Saturday.

The seaworthiness of the scallop tartar (a bed of sliced raw scallop mixed with some chopped onion) and its generous topping of oyster and caviar. It just had such a fresh taste of the sea. Nothing fishy at all.

The sweet and crispy honey and chestnut dessert I shared with my sister with a slight kick from the ginger juice on the side. Soft here, crunchy there, rightly sweet all over. The only disappointment was that the chestnut ice-cream didnt have enough of a chestnut flavour.

And strangely, a delightful little surprise at the end of the meal. A sort of fruit gum, the kind you might find at Marks and Spencers I guess, but handmade (I'm guessing here), with a lovely springy gummy/jelly texture bursting with hints of peaches and champagne. Part of a trio of little sweets to end the meal, its neighbours were a caramel candy wrapped in cellophane paper and minute chocolate sponge cake with pistachio.

I have to admit not being too taken with my main.
The lobster was beautifully cooked, just the right amount of bite to it, but the spiced herb butter it was smothered in takes some getting use to. It reminded me a bit of the spices that go into Christmas snacks (some call them treats, but that's hardly the word I'd use) like mince pie and Christmas pudding. The type of spices which I presume are meant to warm you and make you all toasty from your head to your toes. The pumpkin compote I wasn't too fond of - the citrus oil tended to overpower the pumpkin taste and made me feel like I was eating an orange custard. But the lobster claw tempura was crispy on the outside, slightly soft on the inside, lovely.

I was a little jealous of my dad's starter of duck foie gras and smoked tuna terrine. The instructions from the staff was to cut a sliver of the terrine, place it on the spoon, add a bit of the roquette sorbet, down that and follow with a slosh of the cappucino (served in a shot glass). I love foie gras but the layers of tuna interspaced within layers of foie gras sent this dish skyhigh on my approval list. And pairing it with the strange salty green sorbet gave it an extra, intriguing dimension.

Since no one else was having any wine, I could only order myself a glass of Gewurztraminer from Domaine Ringenbach Moser in the Alsace region, which was a slightly sweet wine and something I quite liked. (I never know how to describe wines so I'm not going to start.)

There were plenty of other tempting dishes on the a la carte menu, which had two soups, eight starters, eight mains and eight desserts, which seems a highly extensive menu for a visiting chef in town for less than two weeks. I could only wish I were able to try them all....

Mr Michel Rochedy helms the kitchen (and making the occasional appearances in the dining room to chat with diners with the help of a couple of staff who are able to translate for him) at the Gordon Grill until Wednesday. Otherwise, he cooks at his two Michel-starred restaurant at the ski resort Le Chabichou in France, which The Observer named among its top six ski hotels two years ago.

My dinner
Scallop tartar with prune seed oil, oysters and Aquitaine caviar in a dandelion vinaigrette sauce.
Roasted lobster with spiced herb butter, lobster claw tempura and pumpkin compote with orange oil.

My dad's
Duck foie gras and semi-dried smoked tuna terrine, roquette sorbet and mustard leaves cappucino
Tenderloin of Australian Black Angus beef cooked in a wine reduction, foie gras "creme brulee', canneles of mushrooms and orange braised chicory.
Soft semi-baked guanaja chocolate cake, banana ice-cream stewed rubarb flavoured with Indian wood, crisps

My mum's
Celery royal and Dublin Bay prawns in a mushroom and herbs emulsion
Oven-roasted lamb fillet and cutlet, with garlic jus and small stuffed vegetables

My sister's
Grilled Atlantic cod with olive oil, green vegetables, shellfish risotto and Parmesan cheese emulsion
Mountain honey crisp dessert, potimarron and vanilla mousse, pumpkin ginger juice, caramelised pepins, toffee-pumpkin biscuit, crispy chestnut crisp and chestnut ice-cream

The cost? Steep yes, but worth it.