Upmarket Thai in Victoria

It’s S’s birthday, so we meet up at The Grosvenor for cocktails before heading to find L at the Mango Tree, at Grosvenor Place.  For a Thai restaurant it is remarkably restrained, modern and low-key. Maybe some oriental music around, but no other obvious national references.

We’ve booked through OpenTable to get a 50% off food offer.  This turns out to be less than it appears, as the “signature dishes” (about 60% of the menu) are only 25% off, and the offer doesn’t cover side dishes at all.  It’s not a good way to put you in the mood for a special evening out.

So we decide to forget all about the offer and just choose what we want.  Starters are a seafood tempura, prawns in tom yum sauce with garlic and chilli, a crab dish off the special fish menu and a prawn, pomelo and coconut snack. All very good indeed – clean, sharp flavours and fresh ingredients.

For main course we share a pork salad (not as hot or coriandery as we’ve had elsewhere), a jungle chicken curry (supremely fiery), stir-fried beef with oyster sauce,  stir-fried king prawns and crispy deep-fried pork belly. The girls go on to have tropical ice cream and banana pudding.

Service has been friendly (after the initial encounter) and efficient, without being charming. With 4 bottles of £20 SB the full total was £236. The various discounts took off £40, but then 12.5% service added another £30 to bring us back to £226.  But it was a good meal, so maybe on birthdays it’s worth doing.

To, at and from the Wirral

Just a few quick words about some places we came across during a trip up North for my niece’s 40^th birthday party.

Just off the M42/M5 on the way to Stourbridge, turn off for Clent. There you will find the Bell and Cross, at Holy Cross, county dining pub of the year for Worcestershire. It has a fair sized garden, but the weather was a bit iffy so we sat in one of the many little dining rooms, close enough to the open door to get a nice breeze.  B has the skewer of king prawns with chorizo – a nice skewers of 3 prawns and 3 pieces of spicy chorizo; the “Catalan salad” is nothing special, but the garlic dressing is good.  My choice of sticky shredded black bean chicken seems to be missing its pickled ginger (replaced by beansprouts and sliced carrot) and the accompanying “frazzled noodles” are like pieces of Styrofoam and simply make a mess on the table. All served on trendy slate of course.  With some wine and water, this makes it £42. It’s a handy stopping off point for an interesting lunch – not sure what a full evening meal would be like.

At Parkgate on the Wirral is The Ship.  A friendly pub by the riverside, it has a better than average pub menu. G has the lemon chicken stir fry, B has seafood red Thai curry (good) and I have beef rillettes in a “horseradish crust”.  The crust doesn’t really taste of horseradish, so I leave most of that, and the beef is a little dry, so I’m glad to share some of B’s curry sauce.  About £70 for the three of us with wine.

Lunch next day is at Sheldrakes, further up the coast.  As we arrive we can see there is a wedding party gathering, so we are shown upstairs. It’s a gloriously sunny day so we sit outside. The wedding party is gathered outside, and it turns out to be the actual ceremony, not just the reception.  B has the beef, pine nut and parmesan salad – excellent rare beef, and good accompaniments. G really enjoys his scallops and chorizo, while I have the confit duck tian with pineapple and coriander – also good.  For main G just has a duck tortilla wrap, while B and I share the summer paella – chicken, chorizo and mixed seafood. Plenty of protein and masses of rice, really enjoyable in the sunshine.  The service charge is a bizarrely reasonable 7% - never seen that before! So with 2 bottles of SB and a pint of lager the bill comes to £107 for the three of us.

On the way home, having stopped in Bromsgrove with friends overnight, we decide to stop for lunch at the Greyhound, Besselsleigh near Cumnor, outside Oxford.  It’s a very pretty spot, with lovely flower baskets out the front and an extensive garden out back.  We’re just grabbing a quick lunch en route – B has the salmon niçoise salad and I have a (warm) ham hock salad. Both are very good, and with some drinks we pay £45.  The place was heaving (it was a Sunday lunch), but the service at the bar had been excellent and the food arrived very promptly.

A trio of places around Brighton

 We’re heading for Chichester with M&G, but the traffic forecast is bad, so we head off to Petworth instead. We fetch up at the Angel Inn – nothing much to look at from the outside, but a charming maze of rooms and a lovely garden out the back where we decided to sit in the sunshine. It’s very pleasant in the sunshine, and the mock wasp nests do a fair job of keeping the blighters away. Rather firm steel chairs are much improved when we spot the box of cushions we can use.

G has a pint of Hophead, M a soft drink and B and share the house Sauvignon Blanc. We’re only after a light lunch, so B has the shrimp skewer (good), G has fish and chips (huge, with crisp batter, M a chicken and bacon sandwich, while I have starter size paella and a portion of chips. The chips are excellent, and the paella interesting with tasty chorizo.  £62 all in. Definitely one to visit if you’re in the area.

Back in Hove, we go to the Foragers in the evening. It’s an ordinary looking place in a suburban area, and we’ve been warned there’s a DJ playing there this evening. We’re seated in the back about as far away as we can get, and in practice it’s not an issue.  There’s a special offer on the St Veran at £26, so we go for that.

B has smoked salmon to start (very good) while I have chicken livers, which are rich and warming, M&G have a fish mousse and corned beef hash. For mains B has mussels, in a light wine sauce with barely any cream, the way she likes it. My pink roasted duck does what it says on the tin.  The others have roasted chicken and a very nice piece of hake.

We finish off sharing the cheese plate and G and I have a couple of glasses of Malbec. With the 3 bottles of wine that comes to £190, excluding service. A very fine meal for a backwater place.

The following day we brave the wind to walk along the seafront and then turn up to Hove Place in First Avenue. It is nice and sunny though so we take opportunity to sit in the really nice garden – lucky to get a table really. G has a “Long Blonde” (cue predictable jokes), while the rest of us share the Sugar Loaf, NZ Sauvignon Blanc at £22.

We’re still full from yesterday, so we’re only going for snacks – in principle. B has the macaroni cheese, which comes piping hot and nicely browned. B’s crab cakes are unusual in that although they do have a lot of potato in them, it comes in big identifiable chunks which she can easily separate out and leave. I have the pastrami sandwich, which is very chunky and comes with several gherkins. M insists that we share a pork and black pudding scotch egg. This is cricket ball size and when cut open reveals a lovely bright yellow egg which oozes out over the meat covering – excellent. M herself has a platter of lomo, air-dried lamb, cheese and pickles.

With a second bottle and a second pint, the bill comes to £132, maybe not cheap, but a splendid experience. One worth seeking out.

Celeb spotting at the Wolseley

After a visit to the RA, we met up with M&G and C to go the Wolseley.  It’s a big barn of a place with hard surfaces everywhere, so the noise hits you as walk in.  We’re shown to a table up on a mezzanine level at the back, which while it runs the risk of being isolated from the service, is a good sport for celeb spotting. Between us we identify AA Gill, Melvyn Bragg and Michael Parkinson – plus a buxom Brazilian lady who insisted on hugging Parky.

I have the scallops with fennel puree to start – pretty good - and B has the “small” chicken salad – in fact a huge bowl of salad leaves with plenty of tasty chicken. Two other ladies had pea soup, and G had a beetroot salad. All declared themselves happy with those.

We’re drinking the house white, a Bordeaux Semillon/Sauvignon at £19.95, one of just 4 options under £30.  Surprisingly, the bill says we got through 4 bottles of sparkling water and just 3 of white wine – must have been a mistake there I think!  In fact, despite my worries about service, the waiter was very good at topping up wine glasses when needed.

For mains, B had the small tiger prawns which weren’t impressive – very cotton wool. My pork belly was excellent, the crackling crisp but not teeth-threatening.  Schnitzels are their signature dish: G’s Wiener Holstein was huge, while the ladies’ small ones were plenty big enough.  We had some frites and a tomato salad to go with it al, but no desserts.

The bill came to £270 for the 5 of us, including 12.5% service and a £2 per head cover charge (haven’t seen that for some time), but then I think they must have forgotten one bottle of wine. Probably worth it  for the experience, but it’s not somewhere I’d rush back to.