December outings

After a wine tasting at Tate Modern, we drift round the corner to our new nearby favourite,  Mar I Terra.  I’ve reviewed it before, but again it did not disappoint.  This time we are there on Friday evening, and it is pretty busy, which gives it a great atmosphere. Staff are friendly and welcoming. We start with a garlic bread (to soak up our wine) and then go for garlic prawns, braised beef Riojana, pork belly, and chick peas with spinach and cumin. There’s plenty of garlic around, and a fair bit of chilli too. The beef comes with piquillo peppers, which also have a good kick. The pork belly has a good portion of crackling and is really very succulent.  The Verdejo at £21 seemed good, but maybe our palettes were a little jaded.  At £63 including service, very reasonable indeed.

The following night we are off to a comedy gig at Union St chapel, with H.  Again we re-visit a favourite, La Petite Auberge, I’ve also reviewed before.  As we are eating before the show, the placed is quite quiet, though there is one larger group in. Service is a bit erratic, with no consistent waiter, and they seem more interested in getting the chairs in than actually bringing any wine! For starters I have the crevettes in garlic, which are more tiger prawns than crevettes, but perfectly fine.  B has bacon and chicken liver terrine – which hasn’t stuck in the memory! – and H moules mariniere.  Mains are stuffed guinea fowl for me (a bit claggy), stuffed chicken breast for H (which she thought a bit dull) and B has the gambas as before.  A couple of bottles of  Pays D’Oc Viognier at £24.50 bring the bill up to £130 including service.  But not as great a success as last time.

To complete an indulgent weekend, we are having our “131” lunch, with T&K, H and J, back from her travels.  After further unsuccessful attempts to book Dishoom again – I think I’m giving up on them for good – we are booked into Salt Yard  in Goodge St.  We are in the downstairs room, with a large, but fortunately fairly restrained, group nearby.  The charming waitress is all smiles and helpful, so we rapidly start in on the Campo Flores Verdejo/SB and a Honoro Vera (£25 and £24 each).  A first round of dishes includes grilled flatbread, sweet and spicy guindillas (big green chillies),  smoked almonds, boquerones (juicy) , padron peppers and caperberries. More substantial dishes follow: crab arancini, chorizo picante with chickpeas, marjoram salami, roast salmon, courgettes flowers and burrata. Also pork rillons (pork belly cubes), polenta with mushrooms and leeks, and paprika chicken, followed by a Spanish cheese selection.  With two bottles each of the white and red, and service this all comes to £270 for 6 people – pretty good I’d say.

The next week we meet S&L at Tiles, after their visit to “Spooky” the spiritualist.  This is a really old favourite, from before we were married. It’s midweek, but still pretty busy so we are downstairs with a couple of Xmas party groups.  The Viognier from Languedoc is £23 a bottle, and very creamy.   Starters include a baked aubergine parcel, cauliflower soup, and tuna tartare (my choice – pretty good).  For mains L and I both have pork medallions, which she is unable to finish – rich tasty, with Lyonaisse potatoes.  S has a chicken breast stuffed with roasted peppers and goats cheese and wrapped in pancetta – again too much for her. And B has the fisherman’s platter: deep-fried squid, prawns, salmon and cod with courgettes chips also too much. So we had quite a doggy basket – the portion of chips was unnecessary, but hot and crisp as they should be. Despite being busy the services has been fine – efficient rather than friendly perhaps.  Three bottles of wine and service take the total to £170

The next Monday I have a work meeting near Smithfields in the afternoon, so I stop off at St Bart’s Brewery for lunch first.  The small plates previously advertised on the website are not available in December, and a number of tables are booked for parties, so I end up in a low “comfy” chair.  Although predictably quiet when I get there at noon, plenty of people are coming in on spec, so it gets quite busy by 12.30.  I order the brisket brioche, which comes with a portion of red cabbage slaw and chipotle gravy with a surprising kick. A tin of good skin-on fries goes well. A couple of glasses of Vermentino help things along. £22 in total.

Next day we are meeting M&P in Sutton for lunch. It’s an ASLEF strike day on Southern, so it has to be a cab, which in the end means we get there early and stop off in the Old Bank for a drink first.  We catch up with our friends as we reach the restaurant – a classic-style Italian called Casa Nostra, one of their old favourites.  As well as an extensive standard menu, there is a good list of blackboard specials, which apparently contain regular dishes.  M&P don’t drink, so I order a bottle of Frascati, and B says she’ll have one too – the cheeky waiter brings both together! M&P both have the crab and avocado salad starter, which looks good, but perhaps has too much dressing on it. B has the garlic king prawns (obvs), which do seem very good, and I have squid ripieni (ie with black pudding and bacon on a bed of spinach), which is excellent – rich, flavoursome with the squid al dente. Filling though.  For main P has the turbot steaks off the specials board, M has sea bass fillets which she asks for with a passata sauce, and B has skate with lemon butter and capers off the specials too. My veal saltimbocca (with sage and parma ham) is excellent, in a good white wine sauce.  All the mains come with a selection of vegetables (aprt from B who opted for salad) which include some good sauté potatoes. Paying for the wine and splitting the food means we end up with £129 for the two of us.  It’s only Sutton and with few pretensions, but that’s still good value for what we had.

Thursday sees us at the M&G organised ex-BT Xmas gathering at the Morgan Arms  in Bow.  There are 18 of us, so we are at three tables, with strict instructions from M for the men to move around between courses.  Surprisingly that works quite well.  We have had to pre-order our food (fair enough), but the placecards have got mine and B’s confused.  She has game terrine to start, while I have confit duck leg (with red cabbage and juniper) which is close to being a full main course. For main, B has sea bass, while I have the venison steak, with sprouts and good roast potatoes. The venison is OK, but a little chewy, and again a large portion, so I fail to finish it.  For dessert I have the chocolate mousse (very runny, but tasty) and B has the trifle, which comes in a smallish glass.  I don’t know how much wine we consumed, but our share of the total came to a very reasonable £130.

As there’s another ASLEF strike on. I can’t get to a meeting on Friday, so we indulge again in a lunch in Purley at Mekan.   There’s a big table laid up for a party, but we manage to get one by the window, a little way away. The group doesn’t arrive till we’re about to leave anyway.  As usual, we have lamb’s liver and spicy sausage to start. And B has her usual Mediterranean prawns in garlic and white wine to follow. After some indecision, I opt for the lamb iskender barbequed lamb with yoghurt and pitta bread. They are out of our usual NZ SB, so instead we have a couple of bottles of Gavi at £23.  The waiter is very stern and unsmiling, but the waitress much more pleasant.  £80 all in.

We’ve no other meals planned before Xmas, though I expect we’ll fit in the tapas bar and a curry some time during the week.  So MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL MY READERS (if there are any!).