Cay Tre, Vietnamese
restaurant in Dean Street. A group of 8 of us descended on the interesting
place recently. It’s lively and buzzy, maybe a bit canteen-like, more suited to
a group than a couple. Lots of unusual dishes on the menu, especially starters.
My choices perhaps weren’t the best – chicken and prawn pancake followed by a
noodle bowl . But others’ dishes did taste good. Definitely worth a try at under
£100 for 2.
Cape Town Fish Market
in Argyll Street is ideally positioned for shopping or the Palladium. Part of a
SA chain with a good reputation, this branch doesn’t quite hit the spot. It’s
attractive enough with a big fish tank, but the service was poor, and the food
unexceptional. The salt and pepper squid
was ordinary, though the queen scallops in the shell attractive and nicely
cooked. Fish “potjie” (spicy pot dish) was bland and the salmon teriyaki ordinary.
At £79 with a bottle of wine, it’s not expensive for where it is – but we won’t
be rushing back.
PJ’s in
Wellington Street is an old favourite, a warm welcoming straightforward
brasserie in Covent Garden. There were 6 of us for dinner – I had duck spring roll
“shots” – 3 spring rolls with different sauces served in shot glasses – very good.
Other starters were Arbroath smokie, Gorgonzola and fig tart, scallops and
pancetta, merguez sausage and lobster and crab pate. My main course tuna loin was just the right
shade of pink, while others enjoyed chicken cordon bleu, lamb tagine and tuna
Nicoise salad. With 3 bottles of wine this came to £83 a couple, but there was
a 50% off food offer (which they do quite often) which saved us £70 overall.
A weekend in Cardiff to watch Wales v Australia (enough said)
started with dinner at Woods Brasserie
in Cardiff Bay. Set in a lovely old building, this restaurant is quite stylish
and modern. There was a limited choice on the set menu, but a la carte
available as well, I had scallops followed by duck breast – very nice. B had
venison carpaccio then fish and chips; others had game terrine (very meaty) and
pulled pork. With 2 bottles of wine and
a couple of glasses this was £140 for 4. I was impressed; B less so.
Finding somewhere for lunch on match day was always going to
be a challenge, but S remembered a tapas bar they’d been to before - Ten feet tall in Church St, off St Mary’s
St. Remarkably this wasn’t very busy at all, though we did have to sit outside.
Tapas were 3 for £10 or 6 for £18, so we had spare ribs, chilli prawns, chicken pesto, belly pork,
Serrano ham, and meatballs. There were
4 pieces of each but they were rather small. Tasty though. With wine at £13 bottle, a useful place to
know for a quick lunch.
We’d pre-booked Pica
Pica in Westgate Street for after the match – just as well as not
surprisingly it was heaving. There was a set rugby
tapas menu for 4 available at £25 a head. This included pizza tostadas and
patatas bravas, potato wedges, grilled mushrooms, bread and taboulleh was so
was high on the carbs. Dates in bacon (nice idea), lamb kofta, piri piri
chicken, meze platter, whitebait and chicken wings were also included along
with a bottle of wine. Not as elegant as
lunchtime, but tasty. Somewhat disrupted
by someone rushing in from the bar area and stealing a lamb kofta from my
plate!!