Happy Birthday Susan SilverSpoon with lunch at Rivea at the Bulgari Hotel

My mum is often my dining partner in my restaurant review blog posts, but I’ve never really told you much about her. She’s quite a private person and doesn’t like her photo splashed across social media or for me to give lots of background information about her. I’ll say just that she is a wonderfully kind and generous person with a minor obsession with playing bridge and with drinking coffee! She’s the only other foodie in my close family and so I love going out for meals with her. I even renamed her Susan SilverSpoon, or Susie Spoon for short 😉

On the momentous occasion of her birthday, a mother / daughter lunch was in order and after checking out menus I booked London House. However, on the day we were thwarted by transport strikes and a last minute change saw us at Rivea in the Bulgari Hotel.

The Bulgari hotel is as sleek and stylish as it’s namesake brand, and I loved the long metal bar located on the ground floor of the hotel. From here we descended into the rather cavernous depths of the hotel’s main restaurant.

The restaurant was beautifully designed and the curved lines and blue carpet gave it a rather nautical feel.

The only problem was that because the room was so big, fairly empty and accented with blues and metals, it did feel a little bit cold. It was a shame as the design really was gorgeous and super chic. The menu is made up of small plates with dishes from the Riviera, with a focus on simple food with high quality ingredients.

A few bready nibbles were bought to the table for us to munch on. Unfortunately, the sourdough was slightly dry but the olive focaccia, made in house, was much better.

The restaurant is owned by world-renowned Chef Alain Ducasse, with the executive chef being his protege Alexandre Nicolas. There was a great amount of choice on the menu of Italian and French cuisine and it was difficult to decide as there were so many dishes that we both liked. Fortunately, we could try quite a few as the waiter recommended we choose four or five dishes each.

My marinated sea bream was so colourful, it was like the Rivera on a plate! I loved the fresh and zesty flavours and plenty of citrus notes came through in the taste. Apologies that it’s not quite in focus.

Susie Spoon chose a vegetable caponata as her first dish. It was a very simple dish but one both of us love, Rivea’s offering was perfect for her but I found it a little under seasoned.

A warm dish of octopus with pesto was my favourite of the day. The potatoes were beautifully cooked, and the octopus had the perfect texture, not too chewy.

My mum is a bit of a soup connoisseur and a warm bowlful will always be her first choice on a menu. She’s rather particular though, and she can’t eat it if it’s too salty but the chestnut veloute with ricotta ravioli was absolutely perfect for her as it was rich and creamy with the finest handmade pasta.

A melt in the mouth sea bass with fennel and lemon was the next of my perfectly cooked and light dishes. Now, the plates really are small and I would definitely agree with the waiter that you need to order at least four and those with bigger appetites might want five or six, also they’re not really intended for sharing, which was fine for us as my mum doesn’t eat raw fish or shellfish so the sea bass was the only dish of mine that she tried.

My mum chose the option of a pasta course and was presented with these beautiful pillows of pumpkin ravioli with salty parma ham cutting through the sweetness perfectly.

My blue lobster was perfectly pair with artichokes and a very light jus.

We shared a cook pot of vegetables and the inclusion of apple made it not quite savoury, I wouldn’t have thought I would like this but I actually really enjoyed it.