Jade Wright samples the festive menu on offer at the London Carriageworks

FORGET blue sky thinking and getting your ducks in a row, there’s a new business speak concept that really gets me down – that of managing ones expectations.

But, when it comes to choosing the perfect Christmas dinner, it seems that’s where I’ve come unstuck.

As I browsed through the proliferation of Christmas menus from city centre restaurants, one in particular caught my eye.

The London Carriageworks had a great deal – their Festive Prix Fixe offered three courses and an aperitif for £25 for lunch, early evening and until 9pm on Sundays.

So, when looking for a nice spot for a meal on a wintry night, it seemed the obvious choice.

I’ve often walked past the London Carriageworks, but never eaten there. Walking in, I was impressed. It’s a stylish, low-lit, well-decorated venue with views out over Hope Street.

The menu looked fantastic too. But I was a little surprised that it was £35, and not the £25 I’d been expecting. We asked if there had been a change, and were initially told that the Festive Prix Fixe had finished at 6.30pm. It hadn’t, as it turned out, and the new menus were quickly delivered.

They were equally impressive – almost identical in fact. From the four choices, I opted for pan fried haloumi with wilted Roma tomato, beetroot puree and balsamic reduction.

My boyfriend went for the warm salad of spiced Gressingham duck livers with wild mushrooms, griottine cherries and winter leaves, and ordered a glass of Merlot to go with it.

We sat back and enjoyed our aperitifs – beautifully spicy merry berry bellinis – and looked out over the prettily wintry Hope Street.

The only problem was the music, an incessant conveyor belt of Christmas tunes, which was too loud.

There are a million places out there where you can sit eating a Christmas menu meal with Shakin' Stevens blaring in your ear, so perhaps a restaurant that looks so stylish and offers a sophisticated menu should distinguish itself from the rest.

But my starter more than made up for it – the haloumi was nutty and chewy, the beetroot puree was packed flavour and it was perfectly complimented by the balsamic reduction. It was one of the most imaginative vegetarian starters I’ve had in a long time, and one I’d definitely go back for.

The Gressingham duck livers were well received too – they were tasty and the texture was just right, moist but powdery.

The cherries tasted like they'd been marinated in a bit too much alcohol and so added a bit of a sharp aftertaste to the dish, but overall, it was a good starter, with crisp salad giving it a bit of a crunch.

But, he bemoaned, it was a bit of a small portion, which, for the price, could have been twice the size.

We’d finished the starters but the wine still hadn’t arrived. While the staff were polite, it was hard to catch their eye, and they didn’t come to ask how our food was once it was served. For the main, there were four options – Portobello mushroom, turkey, pork and salmon.

I opted for the chargrilled mushroom, which came filled with Burt’s blue cheese, walnuts and squash, served on a bed of barley risotto with spinach and pecorino.

It was a real treat – with all the flavours perfectly balanced. I’m not really a risotto fan, but the barley was an inspired choice, giving a fantastic texture to the dish.

My boyfriend had chosen the pork, which was excellent.

The meat was tender and had a lot more flavour than pork tends to have, and where it can often be on the dry side, this was juicy and flavoursome. The cauliflower purée was sweet although a bit cooler than he’d have liked.

The greens, leeks and kale, were crunchy and colourful, but the dish could have done with making it to the table a bit earlier. It was further down the line of being cold rather than hot.

When it came to pudding, there was just enough room left for Victorian plum pudding with rum and raisin ice cream and rum sauce.

Again, I was impressed.

The plate was beautifully presented, with the rum sauce artfully drizzled over the ice cream, pudding and delightfully tangy plum reduction.

My other half chose the cheese board with celery, apple chutney, grapes and biscuits.

While I was delighted with my choice, he was a bit disappointed.

The waitress made no attempt to explain what anything was and the cheeses had obviously been left out that bit too long so that the Brie had formed a skin on the cut part.

The Stilton was subtle but piquant, but what he assumed to be the Lancashire, by virtue of it being too warm, was unpleasant.

But by far the biggest challenge was the fact that the cheese, biscuits, grapes, celery and chutney all came served on too small a piece of slate. While serving things on slate seems to be all the rage, it is not always the most practical podium, and a separate plate would have helped stop the cheese falling onto the table.

The London Carriage Works is known as one of the city's better restaurants, but on this experience, its Christmas menu, and its service, are not its best attributes.

I hold my hands up – £50 for two is much less than you’d normally pay in such a high end restaurant.

My food had been good and imaginative, but the service had been less than I’d have expected.

With restaurants having to work increasingly hard to get customers in, and everyone fighting for their market share, diners want to feel they're getting something that bit more special.

In short, there are as good if not better Christmas menus and service elsewhere at the same price.

Sadly, for somewhere I’d always thought would be so special, there was something frustratingly ordinary about the offer. Perhaps I should have managed my expectations.