As things return towards normal, we started getting out and
about and meeting up with friends.
Here’s a few places we’ve been recently.
Naturally Chinese
This local Chinese has been on our “to-do” list for some
time, but it didn’t re-open last summer, doing a refurbishment instead. We
planned to go after the farmer’s market, but as it was raining we gave that a
miss and just turned up around 12.30.
The place was empty apart from the team eating their lunch, but
nonetheless we were asked whether we had booked. We were given a small table
for 2, and were a little irritated that later arrivals were shown to nicer,
larger tables.
They advertised dim sum – one of the attractions – but it
was quite a limited selection, so we ordered the dim sum platter. This amounted
to two pieces each of three different dumplings, prawns, scallops and veg. All
fresh tasting and interesting. For main course we went with sizzling lamb and scallops
and prawns, supported by Singapore noodles. Good sized portions, all tasty.
Although several more people arrived, there was little
atmosphere, and the décor avoided clichéd Chinese decoration. The bill came to £107
with two bottles of house white. Worth
another visit but perhaps not as exciting as we had hoped.
Mezzet
Some of my Home Office ex-colleagues organised a break-away
lunch at Mezzet in East Molesley (Hampton Court). Ten of us made it along,
exploring the attractive little street on the way. The list of cold and hot
mezze is quite long so several people chose the selection of mixed mezzes to
save time. But B and I decided we would pick and choose. M had recommended the
spicy nuts, so chose those. They were quite unlike what you might expect, being
finely chopped with a big hit of chilli. We also chose the fig hummus (just
hummus with fig in it), chicken livers and lamb sausages. Portions were really
quite large so we struggled to finish them and ended up sharing with the
others. We had also ordered a prawn provencale, but that wasn’t delivered,
which was perhaps just as well.
The waiter had talked us into a main course too, so we chose
to share a mixed grill – chicken, kofta, lamb fillet. This was a more sensible sized portion. We’d
found a reasonably priced white wine, but some people went for Lebanese red,
which was a little more pricey. At £132 for the two of us it was good value.
Oxo Tower
It’s S’s birthday, so with two other couples we’ve arranged
to go to the Brasserie at the Oxo Tower on Bank Holiday Saturday evening. We arrive ahead of time to find S, H&J
queuing to go into the bar, which seems very busy. It transpires there are only
seats at the bar available, so we decide to go straight on in to the brasserie.
This too is very busy, with our table being pretty much in
the middle of the room. The décor is all hard surface so the acoustics are very
harsh, and it is very loud. That’s not helped by our table being alongside the
two guitarists, though they do take a break soon after we arrive. Lots of large groups taking perhaps their
first opportunity of meeting up and having a good, noisy time – not a good
“setting” if you were still Covid-concerned.
S orders some wine – Sancerre and a French Cabernet
Sauvignon. I didn’t see the wine list, but looking online I’m guessing these
were around £50 a bottle – the lower reaches of a frightening list. We’re
waiting on the other couple who have been delayed, but get some nice bread in
the meantime.
It’s an intriguing menu, so choosing is a bit tricky. In the
end I make the unusual choice of braised beef and oxtail with a Portobello
mushroom and Welsh rarebit. It’s hearty flavour but not large; the rarebit
gives it a lift. B has the “Josper-roasted” duck breast with rillette and
salad. She thinks this is good too, more
delicate and the rillette adding extra flavour. Other choices included grilled
goat’s cheese or tiger prawns.
My main course is roast chicken with fregola and ndjua
sauce. Nicely cooked chicken but it did need the spicy sauce to lift it. B was
very pleased with her seabass with courgette mash. The other three men all went
for red meat: veal T-bone, lamb rump and rib-eye steak. We didn’t make it to
desserts.
With starters at around £14/£15 and mains around £25 the
bill came to just under £100 a head. The food probably justified that price,
but I felt the experience was a little spoiled by the noise, as it was hard to
keep up a conversation, and we were hardly able to speak to the other end of
the table at all.
The French Table
We’ve been showing off TFT to many of our friends but it has
been hard to get a table since it re-opened. So when I found a table free I
just booked it for 6 people without knowing who would be able to come. We
invited M&G, who suggested M&P, who used to live in Surbiton and who
knew the restaurant well.
After some fizz at home, we wandered along and
unsurprisingly found it full. Nonetheless we were welcomed warmly. It
transpired that M&P knew Madame very well, having held a birthday party
there as one their earliest customers 20 years’ ago. We settled on the 5-course tasting menu quite
quickly (everyone at the table has to have it) and ordered our usual Viognier
at £28. A light Burgundy was suggested
as a red, but in the end we went with the Nero D’Avola (£24).
We were all chatting when the amuse bouche came along so we
missed some of the description – it was basically a pea soup with hazelnuts.
First course was charred mackerel with curried cauliflower and a sliver of
crispy, toasted sourdough. As usual, this was followed by a terrine –
this time rabbit, ham and black pudding, with pistachio. The fish course was cod,
with some mussels and smoked bacon – made a change from the usual hake. Next up
was a trio of pork – fillet, back, and belly – which was quite filling with a
rich Madeira sauce. The meal was rounded
off with a chocolate mouelleux with blackberries.
All good quality as usual. We decided it scored about an 80%
Chez Bruce, the benchmark of French restaurants. With 5 bottles of wine overall, some water
and coffees this came to £75 a head.
Sichuan Grand
For S’s birthday we are joining a gang over in Stratford,
starting with drinks at a cocktail bar at Moxy’s. The restaurant wasn’t very
full, some tables of Chinese people, but we were squeezed in to quite a small
table, 3 either side and 2 at each end.
The menu is challenging to say the least. I’ve seen curried
whelks and crispy chicken feet on Chinese menus before, but sautéed cow’s aorta
was a new one on me! We eventually agreed to have two portions of each of 5
starters: prawn dumpling, pork dumpling, vegetarian spring rolls, crispy squid
(excellent when very hot), and pork belly salad (which we were warned would be
cold). Everyone chose their own main
course and rice or noodles. We stuck with a fairly traditional fragrant hot
king prawns, which were very tasty and a good sized portion; and an
unusual-sounding cumin lamb, which wasn’t as interesting as it sounded, supported by plenty of Singapore
noodles. Others had ordered spare ribs, but not been impressed, though
when we took home the doggy bag, they were OK we thought.
We had a few bottles of house white wine. Service was
friendly and helpful, and tolerant of our early indecision. Divvying up the
bill made it £45 a head, pretty good.
Mondello
More birthday celebrations, this time M over in Shenfield.
Mondello is a pleasant unfussy place near the station. M had booked earlier in
the day, but the place wasn’t full on a Wednesday night. I ordered scallops to start – three plump ones
on a spinach and pancetta sauce. B had mussels, and M seafood linguine. My main
course was veal escalope napolitana (black olives, capers) with saute potatoes
– quite a strong flavour. B had king prawns with chilli and lemon – 8 big
prawns butterflied in their shells, which she couldn’t finish. M had huge slab
of steak, rib-eye I think as it had a chunk of bone. With a couple of bottles of Verdicchio the
total bill was £140. A good local
Italian.
Don Luis, Esher (no website yet)
We decide to take a break and get a bus to Esher, to head to
this tapas bar we’d seen once before. It’s
a nice sunny day so the two outside tables are occupied by ladies who lunch,
the bi-fold doors are open and get a table just inside. Looking at the wine
list, it seems to escalate quickly so I just order the house white – in fact I
think we got the next one up (a Verdejo), at much the same price (£28).
The challenge with tapas bars is how many dishes to order.
We decide on 4 plus a salad. The garlic and chilli prawns were an automatic
choice – there were 8 of them in a sizzling dish of oil and burnt garlic, hot
and tasty in both senses. We also went for chipirones – battered baby squid
with aioli. These were less successful, being mainly batter and not enough aioli.
On the meat side we had the pinchos, lamb skewers. These were excellent – two skewers
of three pieces of succulent lamb fillet, with a remoulade sauce making it all
look attractive. Also the ham croquettes, which though crispy, didn’t really
have enough ham in them. The salad choice was “Heritage” tomatoes and onions.
This was a selection of dark red, yellow, cherry and ordinary tomatoes in a
dressing with cumin seeds – these gave the dish a very interesting tang.
With two bottles and 12.5% service we got away with under
£110. The chatty manager said they were usually very busy on Thursday to Sunday
evenings, though after the LWL left we were the only ones in there for most of
the time. There were lots of other
dishes to try, so I expect we will give it a return visit some time.
