We get a “quick” bottle of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc (£19),
and set about choosing options from the limited permutations on the list. The
bean soup and prawns that B had enjoyed in Westfield are nowhere to be seen. So
we work through the options and choose a Barbacoa (beef) taco and a pork taco,
a black bean tostada and chicken quesadilla – all stuff in a pancake of
slightly different kinds. To be fair the
black bean is interesting and the pork nicely spicy. We’re not full, so we try a main steak taco
as well off the specials list – pretty good but £10. That comes to a pretty modest £46 without
service – cheap for Covent Garden – but I don’t think I’ll be rushing back.
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Nearer Christmas, we’re out with our young friends and
ex-house-sharers. We meet at the Crown and Two Chairmen, a nice pub on Dean
Street. Trouble is, of course, that at
this time of year the place is heaving, and we can hardly hear ourselves
think. So it’s a relief when the time is
right for us to move on to our dinner venue – Floridita in Wardour Street.
This is a grand multi-venue place, with the Cuban bar and
restaurant downstairs. So we order some wine and mojitos (managing to navigate
a tricky policy about running a tab), and head for our table. There are seven
of us, and we get what seems a good horseshoe-shaped banquette centrally in
front of the stage. But when the band starts up (good Cuban jazz) and the
dancing warms up, conversation becomes a bit tricky again!
I have Chilean beef empanadas followed by lamb tenderloin
skewer. The empanadas have a good bite to them, but the pastry is not as dry as
that in our local Argentinian. The lamb skewer is a fair portion of nicely
charred meat, with a good deal of flavour to it. B has the shrimp and grouper ceviche and is
impressed. Followed by lamb skewer too (there’s not a huge choice apart from
steaks), and then a knickerbocker glory!
This is not served in the traditional tall glass with long spoon, but in
a dish, but nonetheless scores top marks.
J has lobster and a baked cheesecake but I can’t recall what the others
had. There were no doubt copious quantities of wine and cocktails consumed, so
I was pretty surprised to see the total bill below £500 for seven. Excellent
provided you don’t need to chat!
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We managed two visits to the Spice Market in Hotel W at Leicester
Square. First between Christmas and
New Year with S & A late afternoon before a session at Ronnie Scott’s. Then early in January with T&K and H. There is a smooth bar with “cool” ambient
music and dim lighting on the ground floor, serving a range of cocktails –
which can get pretty pricey. But if
you’re meeting people, you need to be specific, because there is also a first
floor bar of Hotel W – rather brighter and busier, but also expensive.
On the first visit we were a bit disappointed to see that
the menu was not as extensive as that we’d seen online – because it was the
holidays we were told; but it was the same menu the second time too.
On our first visit, I had the salmon sashimi with warm crunchy rice to
start –very good. B had the pepper
shrimp, while S&A had the salt and pepper squid and the Vietnamese spring
roll. All perfectly fine. S&A decided just to share a Vietnamese
chicken curry with fried rice – and it was ample. B & I had the duck curry
(huge, really tasy), sea bass fillet (good, but out of context) and ginger rice
(again a full size portion). Wine also
not cheap at £27 a bottle, so the total was £170 – acceptable for Leicester
Square.
On our second visit, for some reason quoting our friend T’s
name seemed to guarantee special attention.
We were shown immediately to a good seat, and after an initial bottle,
were treated to a bottle of house wine free!
Not sure what’s going on there!
Overall we managed three (four) bottles of the white and one red, so
that did rack things up a little.
T&K both chose the sharing plate of starters – the
chicken samosas (surprisingly) came very recommended. H had the crab dumplings, which were light
with plenty of crab, B the shaved tuna (plenty of ginger) and I had the beef
skewer (after my first choice was unavailable) – average meat with a tangy
yoghurt sauce.
For mains B&I again had the duck curry (I said there was
a limited menu), and the grilled chicken (simple but good). Others had the
monkfish with cabbage and water chestnut, cod with Malaysian chili sauce and Vietnamese chicken curry – plus we had fried rice and a chicken pad thai. Again the portions were
generous and there was plenty left over.
I was impressed, but T less so, scoring it 6 to 7 out of 10. It was only £300 including service for 5 of
us, very close to Leicester Square, so for hungry eaters, I’d certainly
recommend it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
With P&M due to return to South Africa the following
week, we met up again at Il Ponte Nuovo
under the flyover in Croydon, where we’d
been back in October . It being a Monday early in January, the place is
pretty quiet, but we end up in a banquette down in the corner.
To start P&M share the calamari, which seems to go down
well. B & I share the gamberoni diavola, which although appearing to be
covered in tomato sauce, are actually full of flavour with a good chilli kick.
For mains I have the pork chops off the special menu, served
with small roast potatoes and rosemary.
B has the “Spigola in
crosta” - oven baked fillets of sea bass
“topped with a potato crust”. I’d assumed the potato would be grilled mash, but in fact it is fine slices
of lightly grilled potato. Overall this was a lovely delicate dish. P has the two medallions of fillet steak - one cooked with brandy & peppercorns, the
other cooked with brandy & wholegrain mustard, served with roast potatoes. Since he practically wipes the plate clean, I
assume these were good too! M’s choice
of risotto with 4 cheeses off the special lunch menu was a very modest £6 - it seemed pretty filling though. We also shared a cheese plate – four or five
interestingly different choices.
With the
inevitable 5 bottles of wine, this came to a pretty modest £195 including
service. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On B’s birthday, we’re up on Regent Street, having been “cultural” at the RA (Constable, Gainsborough and Turner and Landscape – something of a con, as there’s only one or two of each and a lot of other prints). We’ve been to the Living Room in Heddon Street a few times before for drinks and always thought it looked nice, so that’s where we settle on for lunch.
It’s a nice big space with large windows out to Heddon
Street. Further in are the more intimate bar areas. It’s not that busy but the we’re shown to a
table for 2 which is not that well positioned.
But on retrospect, it does have proper seats so maybe it’s a good choice.
The waiter is very solicitous and helpful and buzzing around, so gets us our
pre-prandial glasses of Prosecco pretty quickly.
He’s also very sharp at suggesting “specials”. And though we’d
both been looking eyeing things up off the interesting menu, in the end we do both
decide to for them. As we mull things over we order the edamame beans with
ginger and chilli, in soy sauce to keep us going. This is very good, with long
strips of ginger to go with the kick of the chilli on the beans.
For a starter we decide to share the crispy duck and
pancakes. This is unusual, different from
the Chinese version in that the duck is in larger pieces, lightly cooked so that
it still tastes of duck, and in a crispy coating, a bit like KFC (but in a good
way!).
B’s “special” is crab on avocado puree. Technically a “light
bite”, this is not a large portion, but OK for what she wanted. She is very impressed at the freshness of the
crab, and the sharp flavours that accompany it.
Mine is venison steak, left over from New Year’s Eve when they charged
£35 for it, but to you sir it’s just £17.50 (actually, I’m impressed by the
fact that the waiter meticulously spells out the price of the specials –
something that’s often not done). The steak comes with broccoli spears, sugar
snap peas, and roast potatoes. I’ve
asked for it medium-rare, and it comes looking beautiful, with parts of it red,
glistening with blood. The consistency of
the steak can’t be faulted, just a smooth regular texture, and the venison tang
excellent. As near as perfect a piece of meat as I’ve eaten.
The standard menu looks pretty good too, so this is clearly
a place to come back to. The bill (2 bottles
of Viognier?) comes to a creditable £110.
Try it yourself.
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Up on Regent Street again, this time north of Oxford Circus,
for a late lunch we call in at Ozer, a
Turkish restaurant I’d read reviews about a few years’ back. It’s quite a cavernous place, with little
natural light. There’s quite a few people in for a workday at 2.30pm – some maybe
ex-BBC having a reunion lunch, some Turkish, some singletons doing odd shifts
perhaps. They claim an “Ottoman” style – but it just seems large to me.
Apparently Ozer is under the same ownership as the Sofra
chain, but the menu reads rather more up-market. There’s a big selection of
starters, hot and cold, and of mains, though some are a little repetitive. But
you can’t fault the precision, when they tell you exactly how many king prawns
you get in the starter or main (6 or
12).
To start B has the marinated Malaysian prawns, which aren’t
on the online menu. The four prawns were large, fresh and tasting of prawns, in
a spicy sauce which overcame the tomato base.
My starter is the spicy crisp lamb liver – a large portion of well-cooked
pieces of liver, with onions, but not that spicy.
Main courses are lamb on skewer for B: good lamb shish kebab,
not actually served on the skewer, with a crisp salad. I go for the spicy fish
pot, which is spicier than the starter but not excessive and with nice pieces of
ginger. Lots of different fish in the broth, vegetables too, a healthy portion
served with basmati rice.
Turkish coffee and a bottle of Viognier at £20 take the bill
up to £76. More a steady meal than an excellent one perhaps, but certainly
somewhere to consider if you’re in the area.
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