Italian in Coulsdon

After suggesting it a few times, I finally persuade B that we should re-visit our favourite, friendly Italian restaurant, Pulcinella,down in Coulsdon. We get the bus and walk along the street, only to suddenly realise that it is no longer there.  There is a suchi/robata grill place in its stead, but we didn't have our mouths set right for that, so we instead go to the other Italian La Scarpetta.


We have been here before, and it's been fine, but it didn't have the intimacy of Pulcinella, with its specials board. The waiter is friendly enough, and though the place is quiet when we arrive, a couple of other of tables-worth of people to come in.


We have the house white, Trebbiano, at a modest £18 and share a chicken livers starter. This comes on a crostini (o?), with a rich sauce with a fair chilli kick to it. B has scallops in bacon on pesto angel hair pasts. This amounts to the three scallops/bacon pieces and a lot of quite sticky pasta. Tasty but a bit salty was the verdict.


My choice was spaghetti scoglio - mussels, clams and prawns, again in a slightly chilli sauce. Pretty good too, with lots of seafood


The menu had an amazing allergen list, including celery and lupin!  Who puts lupin in food?
With a second bottle of wine, this comes to £74 without service. The waiter has tried hard to be friendly, but suggesting Pulcinella closed three years ago was silly.


We'll maybe try the sushi place next time.

Another very good Chinese

Another wine-tasting, and another Chinese with T&K, though this time we are in Westminster.  We often visit Dim T in Wilton Road after this tasting, but this year I’ve found a Chinese restaurant off Horseferry Road – Má La Sichuan.  It’s not as stylish as Yming last week, but smart enough with dark wood tables, oriental design screens and clumps of bamboo.                                    

As last week, we start off with prawn crackers and bottle of red (Primitivo, £26) and of white (SA Chenin Blanc, £26), but this time we only have one of each.  The menu here is pretty extensive too, with some unusual dishes, though without the name-dropping. There are several two- or three-chilli dishes, with the added boast “This dish can be made extra or super spicy.”!  Not for the faint-hearted.  

There are two soft shell crab options for T&B to choose between – they go for the three-chilli, red chilli crispy version, highlighted as a “special”. It certainly is hot, but with plenty of crab flavour too. We also have three dumpling dishes: “specials” – ‘Chao Shou’ which are chicken dumplings with spicy sesame peanut sauce (2 chillies) which is very interesting; “Northern Chinese Crescent Dumplings”, a more standard pork and chives dumpling – and a conventional steamed scallops dumpling, which for some reason takes longer to arrive.  

We steer clear of some of the more challenging main courses like fresh eel with lemongrass,  sliced pig intestines, duck tongue and spicy pig’s ear.  Instead we have the Gongbao king prawns, with sweet sour sauce and cashew nuts – good sized, firm prawns; aromatic lamb with cumin – rich and dense; fragrant black pepper rib-eye beef, which comes stir fried with edamame and asparagus; and, fragrant chilli chicken, a two-chilli special.  These are supported by some Singapore noodles and steamed rice.  

Service has been good – unobtrusive and fairly prompt. With 12.5% service the total comes to £162. Oddly, if we had had 4 bottles of wine, the bill would have been almost exactly the same as Yming last week. 

Choosing between the two?  Yming was more stylish, and more convenient generally; its specials (we had one as starter and one as main) fewer but maybe more distinctive. Mal Sichuan was probably more authentic Sichuan, certainly with hotter dishes, with some adventure to be had if you’re brave enough!  We’d happily return to either.

Excellent Chinese in Soho

We are going to a wine tasting in Tobacco Dock in Wapping with friends T&K, and as tradition demands we are looking for some Asian food afterwards, mid-afternoon. Locally there doesn’t seem to be anywhere open, so some Googling is required.  We’ve never had a great deal of luck in Chinatown itself, so I look a bit further afield and eventually find Yming on the corner of Greek Street and Romilly Street.  

I booked us in for 3.30pm, but they say they need the table back by 5pm. So we decide to leave the tasting earlier, about 2.30pm, and grab a taxi. What we hadn’t allowed for was the Lord Mayor’s Show – many roads were closed, and those that weren’t were very busy. So it is gone 3.15pm by the time we get there anyway.  

There are only two other tables occupied when we arrive, which seemed a bit surprising. So we get a very nice table in the corner by a window - as it's on a corner there are windows on two sides, so it is very light. The atmosphere is very relaxing. The décor is a sort of pale blue/green, with cloths and napkins  - and waiters shirts - to match; even the chopsticks are the same colour. Much nicer than the usual garish red and gold clichés nearby in Gerard Street.  

The menu is huge, though they don’t do dim sum. As well as the usual range of starters and various main course permutations, there is a big list of wrap and of soups. There is also a “special” menu, with dishes recommended by notables such as Matthew Fort and Jay Rayner, and even a dish called Jonathan Miller’s sea bass. The wine list goes up in price quite quickly so we stick to the house Chilean Sauvignon Blanc, and Merlot at £21.  

The waiter comes over before we’ve really had a chance to get to grips with the menu, so as well as the wine we order some prawn crackers to keep us going while we decide.  Though we do take our time, the crackers don’t arrive until after we’ve ordered – though fortunately the wine was prompt! 

For starters we have “Phoenix Tail - big prawns wrapped in bacon” off the special menu, soft shell crab (a must for both B and T), vegetarian spring rolls and steamed meat dumplings. The Phoenix Tail was very good, big as advertised, full of flavour with a good portion of bacon.  The crab was quite good – enough meat rather than all batter as some are – but not a very large portion. The spring rolls (4), were also rather modest size, but the dipping sauce they came with was very interesting.  We’ve eaten all these before the dumplings arrive which was a bit irritating.  But when they come, there are again four in the steamer, very tasty and hot.  

It’s not a long wait for the mains. K chooses the Tibetan garlic lamb. This comes with  peanuts and a good hit of chilli – very succulent too. B goes for the simple steamed prawns with garlic, which are again large and don’t disappoint on the garlic front.  T’s choice is shredded duck, a slightly smaller portion, but again with plenty of chilli. I’m the only one to choose from the special menu, “Double braised pork in Hot Pot” – the one recommended by Fort, Rayner and Jonathan Meades, billed as “soft and tender”.  It certainly is that, a dark deep flavour. There are 7 or 8 large slices of belly pork, that yield to chopsticks easily and melt in the mouth. These guys know what they are talking about.  

We also have boiled rice and Shanghai noodles – quite thick noodles with shredded pork and vegetables, in a tasty, slightly hot sauce.

The first waiter was slightly distant in classic Chinatown style (though not as famously rude as some), but others were more friendly with the more mature guy sorting the bill almost genial. Maybe that’s because with 4 bottles of wine the total was £215 (incl 12.5% service) for the four of us.  

We considered whether it might be a good venue for Christmas and Easter get-togethers. There is a private room downstairs in a rather vile pink and rather close to the toilets – so probably not.  

We are finished eating by 5pm, and the restaurant is now full, with some people having been turned away, but they don’t bother us as we finish off our wine. We were impressed and will pretty certainly go back, but it’s definitely somewhere to book rather than just rock up.

5 stars in Surbiton

We’re off to Surbiton looking at houses. After wandering around for a while we fetch up at the Queen’s Promenade by the river, and then pop into Hart’s Boatyard for a drink. The menu here looks quite interesting, but we are booked into The French Table, so we just have a glass of wine.

Our table is booked for 1.30pm, because they couldn’t offer us anything earlier, and when we arrive the place is packed. Maybe it’s because it is a Saturday, though we couldn’t book a table at all on Friday. They must be doing something right.

We look at the menus - £23.50 for two courses, £28.50 for 3.  We normally discount the tasting menu, but as it is just £32 for 5 courses and it looks very interesting we decide to plump for it. We also order a bottle of Sicilian Grillo at £23, rather than go for the paired wines, which would have been £23 each.

The wine comes at once, closely followed by an amuse bouche of deep-fried eel on spiced pumpkin. Quite fishy, but very good.  The first of the 5 courses arrives soon after – scallops in a shell, topped with chorizo crust, with cauliflower and seaweed chutney. This is amazing. The crust is crumbly with a kick, the scallops (2) just right and the seaweed a novel taste. Maybe you could argue that the crust overpowered the scallops, but that would be being picky.

 The second course is a change from that advertised – we had been warned in advance.  Described as a “ballotine” of foie gras, it was a round slice of paté wrapped in crushed mushrooms, and supported by roast fig and piccalilli, with a streak of port sauce. This replaced a rabbit terrine with foie gras and ham hock, which may have had more interesting textures, but was more than acceptable.

 We’re relaxing into the atmosphere now, confident that the coming dishes will also be tasty. There’s a good satisfied buzz around the busy room and, despite the table being quite close together, no overly loud guests.  There is some background music, but playing so softly as to be hard to identify.

 Next up is hake on coco beans (nope, me neither) with crispy fried samphire and a lobster sauce. The sauce smells gorgeous, the hake is nicely judged with a slightly crispy top and the samphire really fun. It’s not a big portion, as you might expect in a tasting menu, but very good indeed.

 We order another bottle, and the friendly waitress stops for a little chat, asking whether we’d been before. Apparently they have been going for 18 years, and you can tell why. The owner Eric Guignard still runs the kitchen and has resisted opening up other branches.

 Our conversation is cut short when the beef course arrives.  Three pieces of medium rare beef come with some creamy, cheese and garlic  mash (pomme aligot), girolles and a madeira sauce. The beef is simply excellent, tender and so full of flavour.

 Desserts arrive at the table to one side of us, one of them accompanied with a candle, and  “Happy Birthday, Dean” piped in chocolate around the rim of the plate.  Later we see similar plates arrive at other tables – it’s certainly a good place for a celebration – and the table on our other side pays partially with a £50 gift voucher, a lovely gift I would imagine.

 Our final course is chocolate soufflé with vanilla parfait (you could order an extra course of cheese for £12, but we don’t do that).  Normally I’m not that bothered with chocolate desserts, but this is stunning. The soufflé has a lovely crust and a melting interior; the parfait is covered in nutty chocolate. Nothing to fault at all – parfait indeed.

 Although outside the restaurant had looked very attractive, surrounded in greenery, inside it is much more restrained. The décor is a pale grey, with a number of fairly unremarkable pictures, and basically it is simply a long rectangular room. The back of the restaurant is made lighter by skylights, and the bar doesn’t intrude. So you don’t go for the decoration – but with food this good, you don’t need any distraction.

 With a bottle of sparkling water (!) and service, the bill is £128. It has been one of the top meals of our year, up with Chez Bruce, our favourite.  It regularly features in OpenTable’s list of top 10 London restaurants, and in their “best service” listings.  We’d highly recommend it, and it certainly helped B become happier with the idea of moving to Surbiton!

Classy tapas off Piccadilly

After a challenging session at the Anthony Gormley exhibition at the RA, we retire to the Chequers Tavern  for a much-need drink. It’s a remarkably quiet haven off Piccadilly, though with the good weather there were a lot of people drinking outside. Here we debate where to go for lunch, as the original interest in Japanese has waned.

 After a bit of Googling we settle on El Pirata, a classic tapas bar, round the back of the Athenaeum.  As we approach, we can see people sitting outside in the sunshine, but the one spare table is reserved. It’s 2pm and inside is packed. You’d have to say it was a “narrow demographic” - even compared with the RA. We are ushered to the sit at the bar (“counter”) which doesn’t really appeal, but it’s the only option. Others, having booked, or regulars known to the management do get tables.

 We order some wine – Paso a Paso, Sauvignon/Verdejo (at £25 near the cheapest on the list) – and consider the menu. There’s a wide range of options, including a special offer 2-dish lunch at £11.50, specials at around £15, paellas, and a tapas selection at £25. Or you could just choose a few dishes, which is what we did.

 The bread and aioli arrives first. Lovely soft bread, that was so tempting to keep dipping into the punchy garlic dip. Next comes the pan-fried medallions of steak in a tasty sauce.  Very tender, though the sauce wasn’t as garlic or peppery as might have been expected. With that is the chick peas with slow cooked aubergine, courgettes & peppers – a little odd, sharp and sweet at the same time.

 Then, both sizzling hot, come the gambas pil-pil and the chicken livers. Both excellent.  We had wondered whether these few dishes would be enough, but we are quite satisfied with them. Plenty of sauces to dip your bread into.

 The place is very buzzy and full, and doesn’t even start to empty out until well after 3pm. The décor is Picasso and Miro prints, with the classic display of spirits behind the bar.  Our neighbour at the bar has ordered dishes from the set menu, but his companion has failed to arrive, despite lots of calls. B decides that she must be very glamorous, as she is quite happy to keep her man waiting. He eats most of the food, but does manage to leave some for her. Eventually, a well-dressed slim Indian lady arrives – with suitcase – picks at the cold sardines and chicken croquettes, before pushing off in a taxi after no more than 30 minutes.

We order another bottle of wine while we survey the comings and goings.  Many of the dishes we’ve seen served look very good – the paella, Iberico ham, sardines, tomato bread; and there were plenty of other things on the menu we would have happily ordered.  

The final reckoning was a pretty reasonable £86 including service, given that £50 was wine.  Service at the bar had been prompt fairly friendly without being over-attentive.  It’s not in the most convenient of locations but in Michelin terms “worth a detour”. We’ll no doubt revisit, but make sure to reserve a table next time.

 

March round-up

Busy month!

Veeno, an Italian wine bar in George Street, Croydon has been open about a year. We’ve been a few times, mainly for drinks, though a couple of times for lunch with P&M. On this visit B has the tuna salad (her regular choice here) and I had bresaola panino, which wasn’t toasted enough. With two bottles of Grillo – from a constantly changing supplier – that came to (£61).

Visiting the Don McCullin exhibition at Tate Britain, we knew we would need cheering up afterwards, so I do some local research. We settle on Goya, a tapas bar on Lupus Street, as it looks like it should be relaxing.  There are a couple of other people in there, some propping up the bar all afternoon it seems.  We get the table by the window, so have plenty of people-watching opportunities with the school across the road.  There is a downstairs too, which is more of a restaurant but not open at this time of day.
We choose the El Coto Blanco Rioja (£18.95), then turn to the tapas menu. It’s a fairly long list, but nothing much out of the ordinary. The liver and onion comes with chips; the garlic prawns also have a good chilli hit. Tuna croquettes are a bit different, and the bean casserole comes with ham. I get talked into ordering the garlic bread, as something to have while we wait for the other dishes, but actually it doesn’t arrive until the others do.  It is very squidgy though, with a good mozzarella topping.
With a second bottle of wine this comes to a reasonable £78 (incl just 10% service).  But it’s just an “OK” sort of place, not really worth seeking out unless you are nearby.  It leads us to a debate about “favourite tapas places” – Mar i Terra, Lobos and, sadly no longer open, Bilbao Berria.


Later in the week after the long journey home from a visit to Theydon Bois, since we are catching an East Grinstead train, we decide to call in at the Sanderstead Tandoori.  We have garlic prawns (big butterfly prawns), chicken tikka special (very spicy), tarka dhal, and pilau rice with just one bottle of wine for £48, with a 10% loyalty card discount. Large very tasty portions, so we only manage half and ask to take the rest away.  And very tasty the dishes still are a couple of days later.


In a busy week, we are off to Leyton of all places to meet with S and a big group of her circle to celebrate A’s 30^th.  The Lion and Key at the top of the High Road describes itself as a hotel, though you’d think of it as a pub with rooms. It has been quite modernised, but is very quiet this Saturday lunchtime – perhaps because Orient are playing away.  B and I share the calamari and prawns as starters, then I have a lamb shish and she a chicken skewer. Portions are very large – the kleftiko some people ordered was huge. With a good amount of wine this was £112 for the two of us.




The next week is jazz. Tuesday, Nigel Kennedy at Ronnie Scott’s was excellent, but the food was rather average: chicken breast stuffed with mushrooms with gnocchi, burger with cheese and bacon. Two bottles takes it to £110.  

Then Thursday to Northbank for a tasting menu with a jazz trio – rather elderly it has to be said, but providing a pleasant background.  The 7-course tasting with wine pairings is nominally £65 a head, but we supplement it with a few extra glasses.  We have nduja focaccia, cod’s roe on caviar crackers as an opener, followed by watercress soup. The poached dover sole and cauliflower is pretty small, and the lamb loin with hogget breast ragu not really what you would call a main course – tasty though. Afters run to goats cheese and grapes, rhubarb with sorbet and finally pistachio doughnut. By the time they add the extra wine and service it comes to just over £200.



To wrap the month up, we wander down to Coulsdon to our favourite local Italian, Pulcinella’s. As usual it’s quiet lunchtime, with several specials on the boards. They don’t have our regular Frascati, so we go for the more expensive Italian Sauvignon Blanc – not too fruity. We share garlic bread with mozzarella and goat’s cheese in parma ham to start. B has scallops with black pudding (on the board as a starter, but she has a double portion as main) – excellent smooth black pudding and perfectly cooked scallops.  I choose the seafood pasta which is packed with prawns, mussels, clams and squid – more ordinary but good. £110 with two bottles and service (plus complimentary limoncello).  

February round-up

India Dining

It’s Valentine’s Day so of course we take our neighbour out for dinner.  We get a taxi over to Warlingham (about 20 mins), though parking is difficult and we have to jump out rapidly.  Naturally the place is festooned with red balloons, but we are offered a table where we can easily move them aside.


We’d heard of it some time ago as a place run by a chef who used to work at the Cinnamon Club. K&I next door had been before and liked it too, so we were definitely looking forward to it.
It’s quite busy, so it is hard to track down a specific server, but we get our wine (the house Merlot at £17.95) quickly enough. There are some more interesting/expensive wines on the list, but it’s not unreasonable.


There is a special Valentine’s Day 4-course menu on offer, but we decide to go a la carte, which they are OK with. We get some poppadums (with nice chutneys), then order. K passes on a starter, so we share the chilli squid (deep-fried, with a good hit of chilli) and the yellow fin tuna between the three of us. The tuna comes as slices of seared tuna, along with a few pieces of tuna tartar – the seared tuna is good, but I’m less enamoured with the tartar.
For main course, K goes with the mixed tandoori grill – chicken, lamb, prawn – with a stuffed paratha. She says that is very good. B orders the Goan prawns (or “Gowan” as the menu has it), which are excellent: good prawn flavour, soft but not cotton-wool, and a seriously spicy sauce. I choose “Nihari raan” – lamb shank in yoghurt and spice sauce. This is fine, the sauce is delicious and the meat comes away from the bone easily, but somehow the combination doesn’t really work.  We also order rice, dhal and a garlic spinach dish.


We indulge in a couple of desserts. K chooses the gulab jamun, the sticky milk balls dish, and B the pistachio kulfi. Both good.


Service has been very good despite the busy evening. At one point a senior waiter took mock offence when after asking “didn’t I take your order?”, I reply “no, a young man did!”.
The bill presented was £136 – 10% service, 2 bottles of wine and a couple of cokes. It sounded OK, so I didn’t check it until later. They had forgotten to charge us for the poppadums and starters, but had charged us for an extra side dish and coke – on balance we were ahead! 
Worth the visit if there are enough of you to justify the taxi fare.
 

Chez Lindsay

I’ve reviewed this charming French bistro before, and again we are there with S&S. It may be that is not as much on offer as you’d expect, but we end up ordering just two different starters and two different mains between us. S and B love the whole crab starter, which of course takes an age to eat. S and I go for the smoked duck salad – good, not special.


Unusually we have all gone for galettes as mains – B for the gambas, and the rest of us for the fruits de mer.  We also have a crème brulee and a crepes suzette for dessert.
£244 for the food plus four bottles of Viognier at £25 and some water.  Happy to recommend that.

Red Farm

We’d been looking for a good Chinese centrally so when we hear of this place by Covent Garden we have to give it a try. It’s a tight small space with a long central table and a few others around the side. We get seated at a two-some table in what feels like a cramped place near the bar – nowhere to put coats other than the floor. The place is fairly busy with lively young people so, once we get used to the table, the atmosphere is OK.


It’s tricky to work out what to order from the menu – what is starter or main. Some dishes seem seriously pricey and dim sum are £10 a shot. In the end we go for a selection of starters/dim sum. We choose just 4 to start with.


The “pac man” prawn dumplings are unique – there are four different flavour dumplings plus a “pac man” shaped shrimp/potato fritter.  The individual dumplings are excellent, but pac-man himself a little dull.  The other dim sum is beef dumplings – spicy and slippery. We also have “Dingley Dell” pork belly – soft and full of flavour; and lamb skewers with chilli and cumin.
To be fair the dishes have been a good size and very tasty. We order another portion of the “pac man” a chicken dumplings, with mushroom and a duck gyoza.


Service was very slow to begin with. The head waiter apologised for the delay due to a technical problem – just before we got irritated.  In recompense he provided a tray of three vegetables, which were very tasty and didn’t charge us for the gyoza.


Wine wasn’t cheap either - £29 for a standard Chenin Blanc. The total of £136 (incl 12.5% ) was more than you would expect for an average Chinese dim sum – but then it was definitely well above average.  OK for small groups – not really a party destination.

Busaba, KIngston

We’ve been to this Thai restaurant on the river in Kingston before – in the summer when you could sit outside. Despite this remarkable February weather, this time we are inside in a very busy space.  We are offered one table close to a group of little kids, so decide instead to sit between two other tables, both of which were finishing up anyway.


Although the restaurant is busy, the service is good enough to get a wine order (Chenin Blanc at £22) in quickly, along with some Thai prawn crackers – so much better than the Chinese ones.
We share a Thai calamari to start – their “signature” dish with ginger and green peppercorns. It is remarkable, nothing like I’ve had before. The calamari is cooked just short of rubbery (no batter), and the sauce a mouthful of flavour. The peppercorns are on little stalks, infusing the whole thing. Top marks.


There are several main courses that sound very interesting, but in the end we go with chilli prawns and tamarind duck (which comes with rice) plus a “sweet and sour” cucumber salad.  The prawns have a serious kick and good flavour. The duck (which requires proper sharp knives to deal with) is also an impressive dish.  The only low note is the salad, which has far more lettuce and leaves and not enough cucumber for our taste.


With the usual 12.5% service (pretty much deserved) and a second bottle of wine, the bill comes to £97 – I’m pleased with that, it’s very good value.

Good food, poor service

Tamarind has a Michelin star, which presumably means they do everything well. So I wonder what the owners think of their off-shoot Tamarind Kitchen.  Sitting on Wardour Street on the site of the much-missed Imli, Tamarind Kitchen is attractively decorated and presumably has a menu designed by the Tamarind chefs.  But in a demonstration that you need to get everything right, the poor service means the place leaves a lot to be desired.

It’s not as if it is busy.  The four of us occupy a nice table in the window, and there are just two other people in.  The staff are friendly, but having to apologise for extremely slow service over and again, and delivering lukewarm food doesn’t make for the greatest  experience.

Our table is laid for 6, but for some reason the waitress only clears one place setting. And though we say we don’t want water, the water glasses only get cleared when we pile them all together on the side.

The menu is divided into Starters, Grills and Mains, but the grills are described to us as not being a meal in themselves, despite being priced as if they were.  There’s soft shell crab as a starter, so B and T both have to order that. K goes for the Pav Bhaji and I have the lamb mince version Keema Pav – some time later.  Maybe the oven isn’t working properly and they can’t produce more than one dish at a time: the Pav Bhaji arrives and is almost completely finished before the soft shell crab is served, with my dish bringing up the rear.

To be fair, the Pav dishes are both full of flavour, with K’s having quite a kick. B is less impressed with the crab, which is predominantly batter.

It’s a similar experience with the main courses. They did manage to get three of the dishes and the rice and dhal to arrive together, but T’s mixed platter of chicken tikka, lamb kebab and prawns followed some way behind.  My bhuna gosht was rich and very tasty, but not warm enough. B’s prawn curry was good and K’s chicken rezala (a curry with yoghurt and cashews) excellent. T’s platter was rather average and was as suggested not that large.

The side dish of 24 hour cooked black dhal was again tasty but not hot enough; the spinach was fine. We also had a steamed rice and a couple of naan breads.

We chose a SA Chenin Blanc (at £34 one of the cheapest wines on a list that shoots up quickly), and the first bottle arrives promptly enough. But when we order a second, the waitress drains the first one and seems to decide that that’s enough for now, and then to forget all about it.  She’s a bit better with the third bottle.

So with service charge that all comes to £270.  If the service and temperature of all the dishes had been OK, then that would have been fair, but it feels a bit much for what we experienced. I suppose we could have taken off the “discretionary” service charge, but one rarely does.

We’ve had a similar experience, though with ruder staff, at Cinnamon Bazaar once, but on a second visit it was fine. Perhaps the same may be true here.  In an evening when it is busier maybe the A-team are on duty and things go smoothly – but I’m not sure I’m going to rush back to find out.

Soho Japanese

We’re meeting up with M&G and they wanted to go to a Japanese restaurant, as they will be off to Japan soon.  We’re pleased with this idea as many people reject Japanese places as being all about raw fish, when usually there is plenty of other choice too, so we don’t often find people to try them with.

M finds a place in Old Compton St called Shack-Fuyu, which turns out to be part of the Bone Daddies group. We’d been before to a Bone Daddies ramen bar in Peter St after B had seen the head chef on TV. That had been good (we had salmon tartare, soft-shell crab; Thai green chicken curry ramen)  but a bit café-like and rushed.  Shack-Fuyu is more stylish, with booths for 6 as well as tables for two.

They have an extensive range of saké, including sparkling ones which I’d never heard of before, but we stick with the wine – Le Versant viognier from France at £28.  When G arrives he chooses an Asahi beer.  A very friendly waitress, Teresa,  (Italian, Spanish? Certainly not Japanese) introduces herself to us as our dedicated waitress – which since she’s the only one there is not surprising.  But it does make it easier to question her about the menu.

It’s a “concept” again. It’s not entirely clear which dishes are for sharing and which not. The beef hot stone rice comes recommended.   So we choose that along with others chosen by price – 4 cheaper ones, 3 more expensive plus a burnt cauliflower (that’s how it’s billed) as a token vegetable.  We ask to have the cheaper ones first, but in the end they come as and when.

First to arrive is the raw tuna tacos. There are just two, but they divide up easily enough. The prawn tempura are brilliant – such a light batter and a spicy mayo on the side – and the waygu beef tataki with a ginger soy dressing amazing,  Crispy squid arrive in a huge bowl – good, though they need the mayo from the prawns to perk them up a bit.

Next up is the Iberico pork “pluma” with spring onions (loads, finely chopped) which is also good, the burnt cauliflower, with jalapenos and in a sesame sauce, which was probably the only disappointing dish, and duck gyoza. The five gyoza are presented in a a unique way – they claim nowhere else in London does this – linked together by a light crispy topping.  Finally the beef hot stone rice – good and filling but not as special as some of the other dishes.

I’m still a little peckish so G and I tuck into a pork cheek skewer and seabass ceviche as well.  Both of these excel too.

We’ve had three bottles of wine and G had a second pint. With service that takes the bill to £212, excellent value for all the tasty dishes. 

As we come out we see there is a big queue for the Japanese restaurant next door. Young people obviously! Maybe that’s cheaper, but I think it would struggle to beat Shack-Fuyu for flavour.

 

 

 

 

Two-for-one offer at Cinnamon Kitchen

We’ve had a mixed experience at Cinnamon Kitchen in Devonshire Square, but as we generally do like the food – and there is a “Happy Days” 2-for-1 offer on the a la carte menu  – we decide to give it another go with S&L. 

 As usual the girls like a cocktail beforehand. B has found a place called Absurd Bird on the Commercial Road, so we meet up there. L is delayed again – this time because of a person on the tracks of the Tube at Aldgate East – S had seen some of the commotion. Anyway there is a 2 for £12 offer on here, so we get through a range of drinks – the “chicken rum” being my favourite.

 When we get to the restaurant, it’s very busy indeed, and we are seated at a table for 6, which makes conversation a little trickier. The booking process online hadn’t actually confirmed we were getting the offer, so B had rung up about it – so the first thing I do is to get the waiter to confirm we are on the offer.  I order a bottle of Trebbiano (£25) and an Australian Shiraz (£28).

 For starters, L orders the avocado hummus, which comes with Padron peppers. This is a little dull, but acts as a good partner for B’s chicken tikka, which is also a little ordinary. The spicy shrimps with passion fruit salsa that S orders are excellent, as are the pork ribs with chilli and honey glaze that I choose.

 S’s choice of lamb biryani is also very delicious – fragrant, spicy, its dryness complemented by the rice. B’s Tanjore style king prawn curry is also excellent, coming in a lovely think sauce.  The duck breast and char-grilled lamb rump that L and I order are a bit more ordinary, less spicy, but very good nonetheless.  We supplement the mains with garlic naan and B’s favourite black lentil dhal.

 All the portions are large, and apart from the prawns, we don’t finish them. B asks for the biryani and dhal to go.  Despite this, S&L order desserts: malai kulfi comes with honeycomb crumble, which is interesting, and spiced pistachio cake with peanut ice cream, which is gorgeous.  

 We’ve ordered a second bottle of both the wines  - they aren’t included in the offer sadly! – but don’t finish the red, so take that away too.  They don’t add service – which despite the full restaurant was efficient and timely without being over-friendly - and so the total presented is just over £200 – we’ve saved £64. That is incredible value for what we’ve had – even full price would be worth it.  The offer ends at the end of the month, so rush along soon.

 

 

Bryn Williams at Somerset House

It’s B’s birthday, so we’ve been to the Charlie Brown exhibition at Somerset House, and are then on to Bryn Williams – my father’s name.   I hadn’t realised by the eponymous chef also cooks at Odette’s in Primrose Hill, somewhere I’d recently been told was excellent.

We arrive a little early but are shown through the attractive bar and a couple of large, empty rooms to our table in the last room along. We have a booth by the window, which on this sunny day, overlooking the river and Waterloo Bridge, is a very attractive spot.  There is one table of 8 and about 8 other punters in there.

 There is a “Detox” set menu, but naturally we pass over this quickly.  The wine list unsurprisingly goes up fairly quickly (SB £34, Malbec £36), so we settle for the house Trebbiano at £23.

 The a la carte menu seems very veggie-oriented, but looking a bit closer there are other options too. For starters, B orders “heritage” beetroot with cured organic salmon and smoked rosemary mayonnaise, while I go for a starter sized tuna niçoise.  Our choices for mains are grilled hispi cabbage – with piglet belly – and boulangere potatoes – with slow cooked lamb.

 

Once we’ve ordered, we also get some soda bread, which comes encrusted with wheatgerm (I think) and butter with sea salt.  This is just one roll, but it is lovely; however, we’ve not eaten half of it before our starters arrive.

 B’s beetroot is three slices in different colours – yellow, red and black. The cured salmon is very pink, looking like beetroot has already bled into it.   The mayonnaise works very well with the salmon, and the beetroot is crisp, al dente.

 My salad, with yellowfin tuna, is also very flavourful and fresh. The tuna is cooked nicely pink, the egg and anchovy sharp, the tapanade a good complement and the beans also al dente. There is no unifying dressing or sauce, so the flavour of each the item shines through clearly.

 

Main courses also arrive quickly and are similarly sparse.  Cabbage, pork belly, apple sauce. The cabbage nicely singed and with some flavour; the pork (piglet – really?) belly perhaps a little dry on top, but good otherwise – no crackling though; cider apple sauce is a valuable, peppery addition to the pork.

 The slow-cooked lamb is what many places would call “pulled” – shredded pieces of meat rather than a solid steak. It is very full-on lamb flavour, perhaps a little fatty – it needs wine to wash it down. The sauce is not a big plus, but the caponata does give some good contrast. The potatoes (with onion) in their separate pot are very good indeed.

We opt out of desserts – nothing specifically appeals – to finish our second bottle. And the waitress suggests we might like to take the rest of the bread away. Both waitresses have been very attentive and friendly. The total is a pretty modest £120 including service. Lots of flavour for that money.

 

 

 

Re-opened old favourite

Our local tapas bar, Las Fuentes, has been closed for a while as the building it’s in is being re-developed.  It re-opened just before Christmas, though apparently it will need to close again while further work is done.

Previously it had been a very charming, very Spanish-looking restaurant with lots of blue tiles and friendly staff. Many of the same staff are back and are still as welcoming, but the atmosphere has changed as the décor is now much more ordinary.  The tiles are gone, and we just have a collection of simple wood tables, sitting underneath a ceiling of “industrial chic” air-conditioning tubing.

 We’re there with our neighbour K who for some reason is treating us. She wasn’t a regular of the place previously – unlike us, and another neighbour J who arrives with her son later. So the change in décor doesn’t worry her, though she’s not keen on the tubing.

 The menu is similar in content to before, though now organised by main ingredient (fish, lamb, beef etc) rather than tapas and mains. So you have to judge by the price what to order. They have always served relatively large portions for a tapas bar, and that seems to still be the case.

 We order the house white Rioja at £19, and the same wine as before arrives. K has a coke.  K wants us to suggest what we have, so we fall back on our usual selections – wild boar skewer (ordered with chips rather than polenta for K), kidneys, gambas pil pil and spicy mushrooms – plus a lamb cutlet each for K and me as that is one of her favourites.

 The wild boar, on its usual impressive vertically-hanging skewer, and the lamb cutlets arrive first.  The lamb doesn’t come away from the bone as well as you might like, and K declares it not as good as her favourite, Mekan.  We think the wild boar is very tender, but K seems to struggle, with some gristle and then losing interest.  The kidneys, despite arriving on a dish that is “too hot to touch”, are in fact lukewarm – still tasty but not the reliably warming dish I choose on cold days.  The prawns and the mushrooms are both excellent though – good hits of spice in both of them.

 K chooses ice cream for dessert, so I have a crème brulée to keep her company. It’s quite a good burnt topping, but the main body is far too chilled.

 K is paying so I don’t get a close look at the bill, but I think including service it is a little over £100 (2 bottles of wine).  It’s close enough back to its old ways for us to keep it as a regular, but I don’t think K was that impressed.