High-tech oriental – not a great advert for technology

Looking for somewhere for a mid-afternoon “lunch” after a visit to the Bronzes exhibition at the RA (very good by the way), my researches threw up Inamo St James  in Lower Regent St (there is a sister Inamo Soho restaurant too).  It describes itself as an “Oriental fusion” restaurant and the menu looked interesting and pretty reasonably priced for that area.  But intriguingly all the comments on the Top Table website were about its interactive ordering system, called e-Table.  Not sure whether that’s a good sign or not (surely the food’s the point?) but I thought we’d give it a go.

It’s about 3pm on a Sunday when we get there.  There are more people in there than you might expect at that time, but it is a large place, so there should be no problems getting a table. But the waiter asks us to wait at the bar (without a drink!), so the stress levels start to rise.  

Eventually we do get shown to a table – not a great position, but never mind – and the fun starts.  The décor of place generally is very attractive – lots of smallish areas partitioned off by bamboo. But it is the table itself that is the speciality – it is interactive.  The waitress asks if we’ve eaten there before, and then proceeds to give as a quick demonstration of how the thing works.  Basically there is a touch pad for each of us which controls a cursor over the menu (ie system menu). From there you can select drinks, food, games etc, and a help/bill section.  You also get to change the “ambiance”, that is the background colour and design on the table if you wish – we stick with the bright snowflake design the waitress has chosen.

Now I like to think of myself as reasonably tech-literate, so I’m happy to give this a go.  I start by ordering some wine.  The cursor control is OK, but tapping the table to select seems a bit erratic. Anyway I do manage to find the white wine and scroll through in blocks of 4. Here one of the limitations of the system first appears – you can only see 4 options at a time, so can’t scan the whole list. Still, with wine that’s not too much of a problem, and I successfully order a Viognier at £26.

Then I start to order the “small plates”.  (Not “starters” as such, since we’re told the food arrives when it is ready).  Somehow random choices seem to pop up on my list, and I have to cancel them.  Again you can see only 4 options at a time (though you do get a big picture of one shining on your plate). This makes it harder to choose which combination to go for, but eventually we manage to select the crispy prawns, pork and apple dumplings and edamame beans (from the “sides” list).

Then comes the second limitation. The waiter arrives saying that they have run out of Viognier – it's not that interactive a system then.  A rapid review of the list is tricky to do, so I bail out and ask for a written wine list.  From there I choose the NZ Sauvignon Blanc (also £26) which had not appeared on the system. They’ve none of that either, so we end up with the Argentinian Torrontes at £19.

I now turn to the “larger plates” or main courses as we might say.  The 4 option limitation is really irritating now (bearing in mind we’ve not had a drink yet!), and stress levels are rising further.   I’m also struggling with tapping the table to select the option – softly and nothing happens, too hard and I feel I’m going to dislocate a finger.  (I once came away injured from trying to use an IcelandAir check-in terminal, as you had to hit the screen so hard –it took  4 months for my finger to recover!).  Soon I seem to have ordered a spatchcock chicken I didn’t want, and 4 portions of a beef dish. So I use the “Help” bell to call a waitress (logical problem here: if you can’t use the system you can’t call for help!). This seems to take a while and we’re on the point of leaving.  When the waitress does arrive, she says she’ll sort it out, and tells me not to hit the table so hard !

Finally I am able to order the cinnamon chicken, “beef beri bop”, and steamed rice. Actually there aren’t that many side dish options, so this feels a little limited.

The food – and drink – does now start to arrive. Small plates/starters do come first.  And very good they are too, though the projectionof the design onto the table makes the dishes look a funny colour.  The dumplings are full of melting pork, accompanied by a really flavourful apple and cinnamon/clove sauce on a spoon. The crispy prawns are in a nice light batter and come with a very spicy dip. And the edamame beans dish is ample, accompanied by a sweetish dip.  The Torrontes too is good –creamy and fruity – though perhaps anything would have seemed good by now!

As it turns out, the timing of the dishes works OK, as we’ve not long finished the starters (sorry) when the cinnamon chicken and steamed rice arrive.  The chicken (described as “poussin” on the detailed menu) is tender strips of breast, covered in a dark, dry crust, and accompanied by a spicy, dry salt on a spoon (again).  It’s very tasty indeed.

We’re making inroads into the chicken when the beef dish arrives.  This is the most spectacular of the lot.  The waiter brings a small hot dish containing slices of beef, rice, asparagus slices and a raw egg yolk. He pours over this a ginger and vinegar sauce and starts to cook the beef on the hot dish, and mix the rice and egg together.  The effect is nicely cooked slices of beef (not large or especially tasty, but quite good) on a tasty bed of rice, which has crunchy bits in it – presumably from cooked egg white. 

We polish off the beef, and the rest of the chicken, and indeed all the rice. Had we realised, we probably wouldn’t have ordered the extra rice, and maybe gone for spicy aubergines instead.

Finally I manage to ask for the bill through the system, and it duly arrives - £73. Given the location, we think that is very good value for very good food and a nice wine (even though it wasn’t what we originally chose) in pleasant surroundings, and I would certainly recommend what we had.

And the verdict on the technology?  Well, it feels like a gimmick really.  Its plus points are that you can see larger pictures of what you might choose, that you shouldn’t have to call a waiter, and that it is easy to ask for the bill. Minus points for the limitation of presenting 4 options at a time and the dodgy controls – and the lack of integration with stock control.  We didn’t play with the other features: I can’t see why you’d want to change the “ambiance”, especially with a “shuffle” option; a couple at the next table were using it to play games –duh!; and the “chef cam” option was only showing an empty room when I looked.   Without it all, we’d have come away impressed – as it was the stress levels had only just returned to normal when we finished our wine.

November - a few old favourites and couple of new ones

For once it’s a sunny Sunday, so we take the train to Tattenham corner for a walk round Epson Downs, and a visit to our old favourite, the Derby Arms.   It’s around 2pm by the time we get there, and the place is still pretty full, but we do manage to get a table.  Service is a bit slow and erratic – three different waiters are serving us – but cheerful.  In fact the whole place has quite a buzz going on.

The Derby Arms always have a special scallops dish on the menu – and mostly this is what B chooses. So it is today, as it comes with a spicy sauce.  I choose the soft shell crab, which comes with calamari, and as an extra go for the crispy aubergines with hummus from their “nibbles” list.  The crab is not great – the batter is supposedly tempura but is more corner-shop chippy, and the meat itself lacks much flavour.  The scallops though are excellent – big and cooked just right, with a tasty sauce. The revelation though is the aubergine dish. They are nicely crispy, dry not greasy, with a hazelnut crust and good garlicky hummus.

Our wine is a Rothschilds Viognier from France at just under £20 a bottle. Very round and fruity.

Main courses are roasted lamb rump for me, and spit-roasted chicken for B. The lamp comes with a chorizo dauphinoise, which adds a little kick, and is beautifully cooked, just pink and really tender. The chicken is also tasty, served with aioli, Asian slaw (crunchy with plenty of chilli) and chips.

                                                                                                          
So apart from the crab, we’re pretty pleased with the bill at about £80 as we wander out. Of course what we’d forgotten was that it’s dark early at this time of year, so the walk back to the station was a little hazardous!

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The following Friday evening, we decide it’s got to be Chinese. So we return to the Beijing Cottage in South Croydon’s “restaurant quarter”.  We used to go to the Sichuan garden in Coulsdon, but the service there can be so fast that you’re back home again within the hour. We’re hoping that being a Friday, the Beijing Cottage will be busy enough for a more leisurely evening. In fact there is only one table of 6 in there as we arrive – luckily a few more do arrive later – just as well as the place doesn’t have a lot of character.

To start we have the Beijing Dumplings, mixed meat skewer satay and, once again, spicy soft shell crab. The crab is a much better effort this time, though still doesn’t match B’s ideal (at Melati in Piccadilly).  The satay mix of three meats is a bit tough, and the dumplings in unremarkable.

Main courses are better: the paper wrapped beef is so moist and tender it melts in the mouth, and the “sea spicy ocean” a good and plentiful mix of seafood – prawns, squid, mussels – with a tasty but not overpowering sauce. Even the Singapore noodles were pretty good, with plenty of interesting bits, and we weren’t able to finish them all.

With an indulgent two bottles of cheapish Chilean Sauvignon Blanc, this all comes to £90 including tip.

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Returning from Morden one Sunday, we stop off at the Greyhound, the Young’s pub in Carshalton for a spot of lunch, even though B’s not that interested in a proper meal. It’s an attractive old building by the ponds, with lots of different bars etc, as well as a hotel area at the back. The bar menu is limited, so we go into the restaurant area, which as well as the inevitable Sunday roasts does boast an interesting menu on its blackboard. It’s busy, with several family tables with babies, fortunately not making too much noise. So we get a rubbish table in the dark room fairly near the cramped toilets. Service is slow as well – and the waitress gets the wine order wrong, blaming the bar staff.  She’s also not very helpful when another table asks about Christmas menus – they won’t be coming back.

As it’s a cold, damp day, I’m quite interested in the chicken curry which has an interesting description. But with encouragement I’m eventually tempted to go for the venison with blackberry sauce and parsnip crisps, while B just has a starter portion of fish cakes with chilli sauce.

The food is excellent, rescuing the whole experience. The venison is pink, but tender, the sauce sharp with whole blackberries dotted around, and the crisps good fun. It comes with a mustard mash which is not really necessary, but useful for soaking up some of the sauce. B’s fish cakes are not the leathery Thai variety but dollops of tasty salmon and white fish in a crunchy exterior – and the chilli sauce has a really envigorating zing.

Total bill including a reluctant tip comes to £55 – not cheap for what we had perhaps. The food was tasty, so my advice would be to avoid Sundays, be pushy about getting a good table and hope a more experienced waitress is on duty.

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It’s our wedding anniversary so, repaying hospitality from earlier in the year, we take our neighbours out for dinner at our favourite steak restaurant, just a couple of hundred yards down the road:   Buenos Aires. They are now building this up into quite a substantial chain, with a new restaurant in Watling St in the City being the sixth one to open.  And good luck to them – they’ll give Gaucho a run for their money.

Only the guys have starters – a chorizo sausage for me and beef empanadas for Mr R. The empanadas are always reliable with a great dry pastry and fillings full of flavour. The chorizo is quite soft and maybe not as spicy as some, but very enjoyable. Main courses naturally are dominated by steaks – it’s not a place to take a vegetarian, though they do now have some veggie and fish options for those who are not carnivores. Two of us have the 225g fillet (lomo), B has the 225g rib-eye and Mr R the “bife a caballo” – 300g sirloin with eggs. For those with bigger appetites they do steaks up to 340g (12oz) or larger if requested, and fantastic meat sampler selections. All the steaks were excellent, and the accompanying chips hot and fluffy. We also had some gratin vegetables and spinach, but these really weren’t necessary.

The other thing we really like at BA is their Tapiz Malbec. Rich, full of berries and strong, this is a lovely wine to accompany steaks – just shy of £25 a bottle.

With the ladies present, we had some desserts. A simple ice cream for Mrs R, and a pancake with toffee sauce (“dulce con leche”) for me.  Total of £200 for 4 including service – good value.

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Returning from a visit to Wisley,    as our favourite pub there, the Anchor, was full, we arrive at    The Bear  in Oxshott, another Young’s pub. There’s a nice warm pubby feel to the place as we arrive, and a surprisingly big range of spaces to sit. It’s late for lunch, but there are still several people in here midweek.

Again B only wants a light lunch, so she (inevitably) goes for the seared king scallops which come with crispy pancetta and beetroot crisps, and a splodge of some strange puree (celeriac apparently). The scallops are again cooked just right, and of a good size, and the whole thing is presented very elegantly for what is after all an upmarket pub.

The table next to us with young woman and elderly relative went for soup and charcuterie, both of which came presented on wooden boards accompanied by loads of fresh bread. Presentation is obviously their thing.

My selection was liver and bacon with bubble & squeak and curly kale – a very well-balanced combination, with the iron taste of the kale matching the slightly cloying liver.

With  mineral water and a bottle of French Viognier at £22.50, the bill comes to £60 including service (which had been friendly and efficient).

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We’d been to Napule e’… ,  a fairly new local Italian, in the first week it opened in January, and again shortly after. On neither occasion were we impressed, so it has taken until now to give it another try. We knew the patron from when he used to work in the local Pizza Express and he is always cheerful and positive, so it had seemed a shame we hadn’t been able to be more positive. Apparently the restaurant’s name is the title of a local folk song about Naples.

So one Sunday lunch we thought we’d give it another go. He’s been working hard with special offers and Sunday lunch deals to get the punters in, and with the closure of another local Italian, seems to be pulling them in pretty well. There is a large group of 12 or so down one end, several tables of 4 and one chap on his own behind the door with a good view of everything. So we get a cosy table for 2, one chair, and a sort of single banquette – odd but fine.

The menu is probably overlong – lots of pasta dishes, and plenty of main courses too. And on top of that, there is a selection of specials. So I decide I’ll see what his specials are like and choose the smoked salmon cured in fennel for 2 days top start, and the roast veal for main course. B meanwhile goes for the simpler mixed meats to start and a risotto marinara to follow.

First we’re proudly presented with a bowl of “home-made bread” – I think the waitress may have baked it herself. Just 4 small pieces, but it is good, and a welcome sign of enthusiasm. The smoked salmon is rather ordinary – the fennel does come through eventually, but the salmon itself was not of the highest quality. The mixed meat plate though was very generous – prosciutto, bresaoloa, salami, ham, with sun-dried tomatoes as well. Clearly not a test of the kitchen, but a creditable starter.

My main course veal is really good. The spirals of meat are very tender and come in an “Italian gravy” – a light sauce with rosemary. I’ve opted for the green beans instead of the spinach and there are boiled potatoes too. B’s risotto also passes the test – lots of seafood, mussels in their shells etc, and not too much rice (as had been the case back in January) – a case of less is more.   We opted for the soft Italian Merlot at £19 a bottle, so the bill comes to around £65 - it’s not a fancy place, so you don’t expect to pay a lot, but I think that’s a pretty good deal.