Kingston Thai and Sardinian fish place at Victoria

 After a shopping spree in John Lewis, we head to the river in Kingston for a late lunch. We decide on Busaba, a Thai place. We have been there before, but not recently.  There are workmen outside, and only a couple of other people in the place, so we get a seat at the window. 

From a short wine list we choose Cullinan View, a chenin from SA, at £27. The menu is quite interesting, but B spots that the single bowls are a lunchtime offer at £11 each so we decide to go for one of those each. B chooses chilli prawns with rice, coriander and Thai basil. I have Chicken Pad Thai. We also order edamame beans with chilli flakes and a som tam - green papaya, dried shrimp, cherry tomato, peanut and chilli.

B is really taken with her prawn dish. There are 6 good sized prawns, and the rice is good and spicy and flavourful. My Pad Thai is good too, less punchy, mainly soy sauce flavoured so a little salty, but plenty of chicken too. The salad could blow your head off - the waitress had warned us. 

With a couple more glasses of wine, the bill manages to get up to £87, despite service at only 10%. Service has been efficient and friendly, but it was quiet mid-afternoon. Very pleasant lunch.

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We have arranged to meet up with T&K, though decided to delay it a week because of rail strikes (even though they were in the end suspended). I'd been indecisive about where to go, offering them a choice of 9 places! Out of these, they went for Olivomare, a Sardinian fish restaurant just a stone's throw from Victoria station, which was one we had never visited. This is part of a small group of restaurants around Belgravia, headed by Olivo, that we went to many moons ago. It's interesting to note how coming out this side of the station puts you in a different world from the Vauxhall Bridge Road side. 

We meet first on the pub next door, The Plumber's Arms. Apparently, this is renowned for being the place Lord Lucan's wife ran into screaming and covered in blood, accusing him of trying to murder her and having killed the nanny.  A coincidence, as it had just been claimed that an AI facial recognition system had identified him in Australia.

The restaurant itself is bright and light, and pretty busy. We are offered a choice of tables, one isolated at the back, the other in the middle with others, so we chose that. There is a good buzz to the place, and the clientele fit a rather narrow well-heeled demographic - Prada handbags.

The wine list is pretty varied and quite expensive - house white is £30.50. There is a section on Sardinian wines, so I ask the waitress's help with choosing one of those. She suggests Karmis Vernaccia, at a reasonable £33.50, which is indeed very good. 

The menu is also impressive, with many dishes I would like to try. In the meantime, bread arrives - including the traditional Sardinian thin crispy "musica da carta" or "piano bread". Finally, we make our selections.

K starts with a crab salad - a bright light dish of white crabmeat with radicchio and celery. T's Sardinian baby octopus stew (moscardini) looks hot and steamy and very dense, that comes served with toast. B has steamed mussels with garlic and parsley - very good-sized mussels, "not messed about with", in just a little wine. My carpaccio of tuna, swordfish and small prawns is good, though rather all dominated by the lemon. 

For main course, K pushes the boat out with a lobster, chargrilled. It looks lovely, a very bright red, split open and well-presented - complete with crackers and utensils for the claws, and served with a green salad. T has fritto misto, a dish I rarely choose because it can be so disappointing. His looks excellent, lightly battered, good chunks of fish and prawns.  B chose the chargrilled monkfish fillet with courgettes - an elegantly dressed but smallish looking portion. Very good though.  I order orata - sea bream, because I remember having it in Sicily. They bring it whole to show me and ask whether I'd like it filleted or not - I do bottle out and ask them to do that. It looks like quite a small portion, but it takes me a while to work my way through as it is full of flavour.  

We also order some deep-fried courgettes - lovely little bites - and a tomato and basil salad - brilliant red cherry tomatoes, dressed with a little oil.

We decide against desserts, though I was tempted by the Sardinian cheese fritter drizzled with honey. Service has been very good, delivering what was needed without intruding.

Three bottles of wine, some water and a rather cheeky 15% service charge take the bill to just over £350. It's been a very good meal, up there with Michelin stars if you are a fish lover. But it's probably special occasions only.  

 

Two nights in Bristol

 I have to be in Bristol for some work on a Friday afternoon, so we decide to make a weekend of it. I have pre-booked for 3 of our 4 meal-times, in an area just 5-10 minutes from our hotel. 

So come Friday evening we make our way down by the harbourside to The Olive Shed. They make a great deal about their al fresco eating, but of course on a damp evening that's not for us. Downstairs there are just a few seats at the counter; we're shown upstairs to a cosy room with views over the harbour - though we don't get one of those tables, being given a large one near the stairs. It's not a big place - perhaps 40 covers - gently lit, and pretty full. Clearly a popular place, as there is also quite a turnover of tables.

The focus is on tapas, a relatively short list, though there are a couple of large plates - market fish, steak - on the menu too. We're told they have sold out of the fish.  There is a French SB at £26.50, which comes delivered fairly promptly. They seem to be obsessed with water though, as we get offered immediately, and twice more.

There's soft shell crab on the menu, so obviously that's B's first choice. Gambas pil pil is a no brainer too. Iberico bavette is on the specials board - the waiter declares it to be his favourite, so that's on the list; "croquette" (singular) is just £3, but we're assured there are two pieces - ham croquette today. Finally, we choose a sliced venison chorizo to round things off.

As often happens with tapas most of the dishes arrive at the same time, which means you tend to eat them rapidly while they are still hot. In fact, we could have been through in an hour.

The crab is a good enough size to be able to taste the meat rather than just batter. The prawns come in their shells and the meat doesn't come away very easily. They don't have a lot of flavour and the pil pil doesn't help much. The bavette comes sliced in a very nice jus and is indeed a good choice, tender and tasty. The croquettes are a reasonable size and very hot and gooey, also a good choice, and the venison chorizo quite good too.

We order a second bottle, have a bit of a pause, and then order more crab and croquettes. 

The staff have been busy scuttling up and down stairs all evening, but remain cheerful and friendly, despite the obsession with water. With service the total comes to £140, a fair price I'd say.

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After a visit to the SS Great Britain the following morning, we explore around the main harbour basin to find somewhere for lunch. Most of the places seem geared up for big groups and don't appeal much, but right at the end is moored a boat with what looks like an attractive dining room - Under the Stars. They say they are fully booked downstairs, but we can eat outdoors up top. The weather is quite bright, so we go for that. The menu is again tapas - or pizza. We have a bottle of Marlborough SB (£20), and then order food: hummus and bread, spiced lamb kofte and spider crab croquettes. B thought we'd agreed to have gambas as well, but I thought we'd said we wouldn't as we'd have prawns in the evening. So it ends up a modest lunch. The hummus was a little dry for B's taste, The kofte were really good, spicy with pine nuts and pickled red onion slices. The croquettes were pretty good too. Total £47.

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For the evening I have booked Salt and Malt, a fish restaurant in the collection of container sheds that is Wapping Wharf. There is a queue out of the door as we arrive, but it transpires this is for take-away fish and chips. The seating area is busy too, divided into smaller areas by strange screens. We get given what is a pretty rubbish table, where we can't see the rest of the restaurant. We can see the kitchen and chef though, and that becomes quite interesting. The menu has a good selection of starters, but fairly conventional fish and chips for mains. 

The wine list is short, so we opt for the cheapest, a Pecorino from Italy (£26). We have three starters. The scallop (just the one, but large) is attractively served on a shell, with a parsnip gratin - nicely cooked. Prawns pil pil are much better than the previous night, lots of kick to the sauce and fresh prawns. The Thai fishcakes with teriyaki sauce come more like croquettes, balls rather than cakes. But they are good and fishy too, decorated with a little chilli and garlic.  And from our table we had been able to watch the somewhat grumpy chef cook all these. The waiting staff were very pleasant though. 

For main, B had the haddock and chips, with crushed peas. It's a good sized portion, but as extreme as some cod and chips you get in pubs. It's a professional example of the dish - hot, good batter, firm fish. I have whole-tailed battered scampi, which also comes with crushed peas - they are rather good.  We order two glasses of wine, but they don't do the Pecorino by the glass, so we have Touraine Sauvignon at £8 each. B can't finish her fish so asks to take some away, which they are geared up to anyway. 

Total was £98, only 10% service. The poor table put a downer on things, though it was quite interesting watching our starters being cooked; the starters were good, but the mains not much more than average. Maybe a "tapas" selection of starters would have been a better choice. 

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Sunday lunchtime we are booked into another tapas place, again in Wapping Wharf, though upstairs - Gambas. This is apparently related to the Michelin star tapas, Paco Tapas. After last night's experience we approach with a due sense of dread. In fact, it is a very pleasant place, and we get a good central table, with a reasonable view down to the harbour. 

There are also outside tables. There's a nice warm buzz to the place, blackboards listing sherries, and a goodly number of staff. Again a short menu. 

We order the house wine, a Verdejo at £26. It's perfectly fine.  The dishes here arrive a little more spaced apart. First we get the bread and aioli, a luscious dip with serious garlic supporting half a loaf of tasty bread, and alongside it the cured trout ("fish of the day"), which is in a delicious green sauce. 

Shortly after come the calamares - hot, crispy; padron peppers - B gets a hot one first up; and the sausage croquettes (sobrasada). 

Finally the inevitable gambas pil pil - an easy to eat version with just the heads left on for decoration. We'd ordered an extra prawn to make it two each. And the Presa Iberica (pork shoulder), succulent slices in a tasty sauce, more mouth-melting than Friday's. 

All very pleasant, so I indulge in salted chocolate truffles as a dessert. £4 for 4, but they are excellent. 

With a second bottle of wine, this comes to £126, a better option than the Olive Shed. 

A busy week

 Quite a lot going on recently. Here are some quick summaries.

Foodie friends T&K are visiting so we are off to The French Table where we choose the tasting menu. As it's the evening the prices are little higher, or maybe they have just gone up. Three of us start with kir, and T has G&T. Then we move on to our usual Viognier, now £30. 

We are then served our amuse bouche, a cucumber gazpacho with truffle oil and peppers. Excellent. First course is smoked mackerel mousse with pepper salad - not as fishy as I had feared. Next up was a strange little course of terrine of confit potato with cheese - that didn't really work, though with more cheese it might have done. 

The fish course is roasted cod with curried cauliflower and smoked almonds - a good size portion of solid cod. The highlight is the roast rose veal with truffle risotto, girolles, oyster mushrooms and parmesan crisp. Beautifully cooked, very tender. Before dessert we are served a freshening sorbet and compote, and finally we have the chocolate moelluex with blackberries and walnut ice cream. They were somehow under the impression it was our anniversary, so B and I had plates with "Happy Anniversary" written around the rim. 

With two bottles of wine and sundries this came to £400, rather more than usual, but still good. 

T&K stayed overnight and as they like a brunch we took them to Hideaway at the bottom of the road. It's a bit damp so we have to sit inside. It's surprisingly busy for a weekday, and naturally we increase the average age considerably.  The menu is a bit odd - "Bennie's" are eggs Benedict. The three others have the chorizo Bennie - two buns, smashed avocado, slice of chorizo, poached eggs topped with Aleppo chilli.  I have the Shakshuka - peppers and onions with baked eggs and feta and a mountain of sourdough on the side. It is served in an iron skillet and is far too hot to eat for ages. I decant some onto the bread to cool down. When it does it is very good but perhaps needed more seasoning or spice. With coffees for T&K and two mimosas each for B and me the total comes to £89, but of course you could get away with a lot less.

Saturday was Surbiton Festival day -a (very short) parade, brass band and lots of stalls. This means we up the top end of town near the station, so decide to try out the Japanese restaurant just there for the first time - Boat.   It calls itself a Ramen and Sushi restaurant, but it's the "kitchen dishes" (starters) that appeal most. We have our favourite edamame beans, salted and the seaweed. This is remarkable, soft and gooey, nothing like the Chinese crispy seaweed you get. We also have the chicken karaage - deep fried chicken with mayo dip, very good; pork belly - rather ordinary; prawn gyoza - unusually not fried, and could have done with more prawn and less veg; and a tuna sashimi (fresh, with wasabi and pickle).  Secretary Bird SB from South Africa is £22 a bottle; we also have two glasses. Total without service is £70. Overall a positive, though we'd try some different things next time.

G comes to stay, her first visit. So we are back at TFT again. We are welcomed back very warmly.  G is not keen on fish, so we don't do the tasting menu - it is the same as Thursday anyway, so we're happy with that. Instead we choose from the £58 3 course menu. 

For starter, G has the pork pate en croute. This is a big slab of pate in a thin crust - very acceptable if perhaps not ground-breaking. B has the quail "coq au vin", which though it has some bones is also very tasty. My ravioli of trout, prawn and smoked salmon comes in a foamy shellfish sauce. Excellent.

For main, G has the rose veal that we had in the tasting menu the previous week. Again it is really good, melt in the mouth with rich mushroom flavours. B has the stonebass - a solid piece of white fish with coco beans (?) - good. In the dish I chose the fillet of beef had been replaced by beef brisket. The sauce was good, but brisket was a little ordinary, a bit stringy.

G has the chocolate dessert we had last week; B has a mango delice and mango sorbet - very fresh and cleansing; I have a pistachio and raspberry eclair - the topping sitting on a crunchy biscuit rather than choux pastry. 

With two bottles of Viognier, some prosecco and a sherry this all comes to £100 a head again. 

Japanese in Wardour Street

 We're meeting up with a gang of old friends, so need somewhere interesting that can fit in 10 of us and two kids. B had spotted a Japanese place in Wardour Street  - Yatay - that had featured in the Guardian "Blind Dates" column, so that is where we end up choosing. 

With that number they ask that you book one of their set menus, at £45, £65 or £95. Unsurprisingly, we opt for £45. So after a quick drink in O'Neill's across the road, we fetch up at 1pm. It's not very busy downstairs, but we get shown upstairs where we have the place to ourselves. Downstairs had high tables and stools but upstairs is better for us old folk, with normal tables. Plenty of room for the pushchair too.  It's a dark, sultry looking place, with quite loud music - natural blind date sort of place - but also some interesting abstract art.

The charming maitresse d' welcomes us and explains the menu. Basically it comes down to five courses. First up is "Bites".  Edamame beans are common enough - a large portion. "Dirty fries" is an unusual mix of gyoza skins fried with jalapeno mayo - very good, spicy and crunchy. Plus a selection of pickles that went far beyond what you might expect.

Then there are "Small Plates". These are an interesting -and again spicy - seaweed salad, a raw salmon tataki - less interesting- and chicken karaage. This last is super, spicy chicken nuggets fried in garlic and ginger supported by a stunning yellow/pink tofu dip.

Next come Robata, in two waves. First there is a trout skewer, beautifully done, crisp on the outside, melting inside. This is matched with a pork skewer - large pieces of tasty pork - and a surprisingly good beetroot and garlic skewer. 

Plates are cleared away and larger ones replace them for the last main dishes. These are "hen" supreme (a large dish of chicken in a sticky sauce), charred sweet potato and a mouth-tingling spinach in sesame and chilli. Plus portions of steamed rice. By this time most of us are struggling, and we end up getting quite a lot to take away in cleverly wrapped foil parcels. 

Finally there is a house dessert, a fairly dull sponge cake with a tooth-achingly sweet sauce. 

The wine list is short but not cheap, so we end up with the house white, a Spanish Verdejo at £30, plus a few beers and soft drinks. Service has been very attentive, a bit swift if anything, and we get used to the volume of the music. Dishes have been served so that each pair of us has the full range, so it would be quite easy to replicate in a smaller group.  Total £740 with service between 10, including a few bits for the children. Very good indeed.

  

Southbourne fish restaurant

 We are down in Southbourne on the coast visiting our friends P&M. The focus of the visit is dinner at Sobo Fish, a favourite of theirs. The restaurant is at the edge of the main shopping area of Southbourne, on the main road into Bournemouth and so easily accessible by bus.

It's a hot evening when we visit. Our table is in the centre of the main room - not by the blackboard menu, where we are warned we might be photographed! - so not particularly airy, but overall it's not too hot. There are little hutches outside at the back, but we aren't offered one of those. 

There is a wine menu - we choose a Sauvignon/Gros Mansegn at £28, described as "semi-dry" - but otherwise you have to refer to the blackboards. The mains are on our side of the room, so P takes a photo of the starters/"table nibbles" menu on the other side.  B opts out of starters as she thinks here preferred main course could be very large, and I have crab cake with aioli from the "nibbles" list. This is just the one crabcake, but it is full of flavour. M has the tempura prawns while P does go for the full "starters" option of mussels in a Thai curry sauce - amusing as before going he'd said he fancied curried mussels. M's prawns looked as you'd expect, but P's mussels were certainly a good tasty dish.

The mains menu is priced at £15 including a side, but with supplements ranging from £2 to £10. In fact, all but one option includes a supplement, so they might as well have priced the items separately.  There is a very extensive choice of options. 

For mains, I have a skate wing. This is a good sized - that is, not too huge - portion, served with prawns, small clams and capers.  Nicely cooked with a crisp exterior and soft inside. I have the skinny fries with that. B's choice is the hot shellfish bowl - prawns, clams, mussels, razor clams, langoustine, in a light broth (£10 supplement). It's certainly a full-on dish, but the lightness of the broth means it is a manageable amount. Her "side" was a Caesar salad. 

P has the "flat fish of the day" - plaice - in Moroccan spices, which looks excellent. M has the duo of sea bream fillets. Between them they share new potatoes and roasted fennel. 

We have room so between us order a lemon roulade and a creme brulee. The roulade is remarkably light, as indeed is the brulee, which has a thin layer on top. 

Service from an all female crew, supervised by "Jackie", was a little mixed, in that there seemed to be a couple in training who were yet to get up to speed. The more experienced staff were very friendly and welcoming. 

The total is £190, before service, which is very good value for a well executed, fresh fish menu. And it's only the following day I learn that "SoBo" is chic slang for Southbourne! 

A Hampshire weekend

 

The train strike means a change of plans for our short flit to Hampshire; we are driving down instead.  We decide to break the journey to Lymington for a lunchtime snack. I’ve researched Alresford off the A31 near Winchester as that is about half-way. Finding somewhere to park is a bit of a pain, but we end up at the Watercress Line railway station car park.

There’s a choice between The Swan and The Bell. The Swan looks a little pricey, and The Bell does scallops, so that’s where we go.  It’s very dark inside, with only large tables remaining – they were quite happy to sit us at one of those. The other diners fit a very narrow demographic, making us the youngest in there I suspect.

As we are going out to dinner later, we just have two starters to share and a bottle of SB at £18. We are waiting quite a while – half an hour – and I’m just ready to ask the waitress where our food is when she arrives with it.  There are four scallops, with roe, but they’re a little tough, probably just been de-frosted. Our other dish is billed as lamb kebab, but it’s more of a kofta. It is nicely spiced though, so pretty good. Total bill, including optional service comes to £43.

Dinner is at Chewton Glen with J&E, a Relais & Chateau hotel and spa. The taxi drops us at the entrance, with its immaculate displays of flowers – petunias, I’m informed. We’re a little early, and as it’s a lovely evening, we decide to go for a drink on the terrace before dinner – 2 large Sauvignon Blanc and two tonics. It’s a very pretty area with a view over the croquet lawn.

Eventually we go on in to the restaurant. It’s a bright airy room with lots of windows, many of which are open in the early evening warmth. Our table is by the wall though, which is fine. The first task is to find something affordable on the wine list. At first sight this is going to be a challenge as there are several in three figures. Eventually however I do find a few at around £30-£35, and select a Sicilian Grillo at £30, and a glass of Malbec at £15 for E.

The menu is quite extensive and interesting, without being over-creative. There’s a good selection of breads. For starter I choose the Devon dressed crab, with radish and celeriac. This comes as two good sized quenelles, and is very full of flavour, with both white and brown meat. B has the salmon sashimi with edamame beans and ginger, which is good. J seems happy with her smoked salmon – another good largish portion – and E’s duck liver “pressing” disappears quickly.

My main course is lamb cutlets, three with Portobello mushroom and triple-cooked chips. Mint sauce arrives as well, rather dry actually. But the cutlets don’t really need it as they are succulent and juicy. B has the sweet and sour Asian salad with added Asian beef. This is rich and sweet, as well having something of a kick from the wasabi peanuts, sesame and chilli.

J orders the roast pork from the trolley. This is something of a theatrical performance, with the big silver hood folded back and a huge knife to carve good slices off the huge joint. She says the meat is very good, but is less impressed by the crackling which, apart from the first bite, is rather soggy. She summons the waitress to complain, who seems at a loss as to what to do. She offers to ask the chef to try heating it up, but that wasn’t likely to work, so it’s just left.

 E has the wild sea bass, filleted with asparagus, and the two of them share a portion of green vegetable and new potatoes.

 J declines dessert, just having coffee and petit fours – some good macaroons. I have a honeycomb parfait, which is very creamy and chunky. Both B and E order salted caramel ice cream, and both opt for just one scoop – we’re not sure what the form is really, whether they expected them to have two different flavours. Both finish it off, but agree that it was more sweet caramel than salted.

 The restaurant has filled up, with several people going through to a private room. Oysters are popular, including at the table next us where a sugar daddy and his friend enjoy them with a bottle of Laurent-Perrier rosé.

 I had looked at the menu online beforehand, so when the bill comes I don’t actually have a heart attack. It is pretty eye-watering though, close to being the most I’ve ever paid. It’s not helped by the fact that the two glasses of SB on the terrace were £24 each!  At this level it’s hard to say whether that is “value for money”.  It’s been good, and service has been fine, but it’s not Michelin star quality.

 The next day we are off to Winchester to join V for her 70^th birthday celebration, along with a dozen or so others. We’re staying overnight at the Hotel du Vin, a change of plan from getting the train home that evening. Crawling along in traffic, I manage to spot the sign for their car park and try to work out the parking system. Eventually we do get in to find our allocated, named, parking space – at £10 extra.

 We then wander down to the rendezvous for lunch – The Wykeham Arms. We’re the first to arrive, order our wine (£29.50 for a NZ SB seems a bit steep in a pub) and sit at the re-purposed classic style desks in the bar. The others are at “Whethies” it seems!  When they arrive we go through to another room with one large table. It’s a Fuller’s pub, which means that on a Sunday the menu is dominated by roasts. We’d been asked to order our food in advance, and we pay for drinks separately – the very able and welcoming manager, despite looking only about 14, is confident she can manage that with us ordering at the table, but I go back to the bar for ours.

 We’re surprised to find that apart from V we are the only ones to order a starter – a shared plate of charcuterie. This impressive board includes four different meats, including bresaola and chorizo, plus olives, cornichons, bread and salad.

 B had been irritated by the limited choice for mains, and opted for a rather unusual pea and mint ravioli. She enjoys this, though it is very modest. I have the roast beef which like all the roast comes with huge a Yorkshire pudding, whopping roast potatoes, and tons of veg. On top of which there is cauliflower cheese and cabbage. The beef is fine, though not very rare, and supported by excellent proper English mustard and feisty horseradish.

 We don’t have dessert, but it seems that is more popular with the others, the BBQ pineapple being a particular favourite.  Our bill is £60 plus the wine, so that worked out rather more expensive than I would have expected for a pub lunch.

 In the evening we decide we to go Chinese. I’ve come up with a place called Shanghai Papa, but I haven’t worked out exactly where it is, so we end up walking quite a way to get to it. Winchester on a Sunday evening is not a buzzing metropolis, but it is fun to spot the colourful hare statues around the place.

 The restaurant is pretty basic, mainly doing take-aways this evening. There is one table of three Chinese girls, but otherwise it’s empty, and they leave quite soon anyway.  We have the Shiraz at £19, a bargain and then turn to the starters. Soft-shell crab (obviously) and pan-fried pork dumplings, both good.

 Then on to mains – salted pork loin, kung po prawns and Singapore rice. The pork was thin battered pieces that didn’t taste of a great deal, but were OK. The prawns gloopy and spicy and the rice was full of chicken and small prawns. The portions were massive. We took the remains away – the rice will make two portions.

 With another two glasses of house red, the total comes to just £66 for a huge tasty feast. That certainly is “value for money”, though the ambience is hardly Chewton Glen!

Rick Stein Barnes

 A guest posting from a loyal Chompers follower.

KB invited me to a birthday bash at Rick Steins at Barnes last week.  He wanted something French so chose RS! 

We arrive in good time so decide to have a pre-prandial G&T at the White Hart a Youngs pub overlooking the Thames.  It was a lovely sunny day and the Bombay Sapphire and Fever Tree ...a good start to the proceedings...so good in fact we have another at RS, a short walk from the pub.

The restaurant is in a courtyard off Mortlake High Street.  I’m don’t know its previous use but the area has recently been renovated  and has a very upmarket feel in keeping with the area.

On arrival the reception desk took a few minutes to find our booking...language problem I think.  We were eventually shown to our table in the conservatory overlooking the river.  So far so good.  The restaurant is almost empty but it is a Monday.  We have 2 hours but clearly this will be ignored.

We order 2 G&Ts, KB again choosing BS, I have the Rick Stein variety.  Very good.

We get stuck in to the menu.  There’s a 2 courses option but given Rick’s reputation for quality we go a la carte.  On recommendation I opt for sea  bass with beurre blanc at £24 whilst KB goes for the pricier troncon of turbot with hollandaise sauce at £45.  We share green beans and new potatoes.  We nibble goujons of plaice as a taster.  Both of us choose the fish and shellfish soup with rouille parmesan and croutons as starter which I’ve sampled before at the branch in Sandbanks and thought to be excellent.  

KB summons the sommelier...it’s his birthday after all so he wants the expensive stuff ..and despite sauvignon being recommended and another wine he opts for an Italian Saove at £51.  I wonder about that choice...and by her looks so did the sommelier. But it’s his call.

Wine and goujons arrive promptly.  Wine is smooth, pleasant not over chilled but lacks character.  Goujons are nicely done.  The soup arrives with accompaniments which I add in full, creating what for me is a tasty thickish mix. Much better all mixed...

After a little while I note the adjacent table arrived after us but get their mains first. The 2 course set lunch I reckon. Then our seabass, turbot and sides arrive. 3 fillets of seabass on spinach bed but the beurre sauce is bland and watery looking.   KBs £45 turbot looks underwhelming and absurdly overpriced. Sides are perfectly cooked and generous.

We decline sweets.  I have a double espresso (more single than double).

The total bill including 12% service charge comes to around £180 of which about £70 is drinks.

How to sum up my 2^nd Rick Stein experience?  Delightful views of Thames,  attentive service, smart presentation.  Generally good food.  But I wonder...this is London after all, and it's a great position by the river. However I’ve recently eaten several times now at Sobofish Bournemouth, a fish  bistro half the price and in my view twice as good ...but no views of the Thames!!  In conclusion I like Rick Stein’s but if you like what’s on the menu, the 2 course option is much better value for money.

Some recent visits

 ESHER TAPAS BAR

We get the bus into Esher to visit Don Luis, a fairly new tapas bar. We have been there once before, but that was very early days. When we arrive at 2pm there is only one other table occupied. so we get a nice table by the window.

Wines are not cheap, so we go for the house white, Espeto Blanco, at £24.  As well as tapas, they do paella and steaks. We choose the paella mixta, but since this will take a while, precede it with a few tapas - sourdough with a really sharp ali-oli, squid tentacles, hot and crispy and a quite light chorizo tortilla. All very acceptable. The paella when it comes is a huge portion, mainly featuring chicken and mussels, though there are a couple of large prawns and a surprising amount of squid.  We fail to get through it, but they happily bring a pot for us to transfer the remains. 

Very chatty waiter - they're not busy. With second bottle this comes to £124 (including 12.5%). Worth a visit.

WARWICK

We have decided to break our journey to Wirral with the night in Warwick. We're staying at the Warwick Arms which is nice enough but nothing special.  It is central though, so it's easy for us to walk into the market square for a late lunch. We sit outside in the sun at the Tilted Wig. The menu looks interesting and we choose between the fish board or prawns, squid and ham croquettes, finally going for the latter.

I go in to order to find they don't have any more ham croquettes, so revert to the fish platter at £17. The Chilean SB is £17 too. We notice dishes coming out to other tables are quite large, and indeed our platter doesn't disappoint. There's chilli and garlic prawns, a pile of squid, a big dish full of whitebait, and several slices of smoked salmon.  These are accompanied by an interesting salad and several slices of attractive herby bread (which we don't touch as we're going out to dinner).  Very good value indeed.

I have booked us into 7 Square for dinner. We wander by to check on location and see it's attached to a wine bar - looks quite nice. We are shown in to a rather dull looking back room, with cheap looking tables. There's some interesting trompe d'oeil wall painting, merging into actual pictures. 

Looking at the menu, I wonder why on earth I'd booked here. It's a very limited choice of heavy-sauced French dishes. We choose a Muscat Viognier at £24, which is fine. B decides against a starter, and I have the goat's cheese bruschetta.  This is very good, with peppers, and excellent bread.

For main B has duck a l'orange. There are several slices of pink duck, but the sauce is too much. I order my rump steak medium-rare. It's a big thick chunk of steak, too tough to get through. So I ask for it to be cooked more, which does make it more tolerable, but again it is drenched in sauce - peppercorn.  Overall a disappointing experience for £100. 

BURNT TRUFFLE

We've been to the Burnt Truffle in Heswall before. It's a place for special occasions, so for this first meeting up with G&S since 2019 is a good place to go. 

It's quite a short menu, so it turns out that the girls order the same things, and G and I also have the same. 

Starters were a gorgeous terrine.

And a slightly more ordinary sea trout.

Mains were cod loin - excellent - and an equally good large portion of roast pork

Service is friendly and slick without being intrusive.  Total bill (several bottles of Viognier at £27) comes to a substantial £300 for 4, including tips, but it does feel like it was well worth it. 

PARKGATE

Lunch at The Ship in Parkgate is a last-minute decision. We'd gone in for a drink and to look at its refurbishment - including a lovely upstairs terrace.

Bur unfortunately it is a bit too chilly to sit up there. Instead we have a nice table in the window downstairs.  After last night's dinner we only want snacks so choose from the starters menu - potted salmon with sauce gribiche, and five spiced wild mushroom and water chestnut pancakes. Both VG. G&S have wild boar sausage roll and haddock arancini. 

Richmond tapas bar

 We're meeting S&S in Richmond again, but this time instead of our usual favourite Chez Lindsay, we going to Tapas Brindisa overlooking the river. We'd been there before in a previous incarnation as Jackson and Rye, but just for drinks. Brindisa is of course a small chain of places that spun off out of it's Borough Market branch and food shop. 

It's a lovely day, and we get a great table in the corner by the window, with fine views of the Thames. It's quite full, and a bit noisy, but overall this feels good. The wine list accelerates rapidly, so we settle for the house Macabeo at £25. 

The menu is wide-ranging, and as always at tapas places the challenge is to guess how many dishes to order. We eventually narrow it down to 7 dishes plus bread. Whether deliberately or not not, they end up serving us them in two courses, which is great as otherwise dishes can go cold, or you stuff yourself trying to eat them before they do.

The first round of dishes consists of the croquettes of the day (prawns), Iberico ham croquettes and gambas al ajillo, along with the bread and oil and vinegar. Both croquettes are very soft and gooey, but also full of flavour, and identifiable protein. The gambas comes sizzling, with loads of garlic slices - the sauce is ideal for mopping up with the bread.  

Next up comes the "pollo picante" - chicken thighs with a spicy sauce and hazelnuts, also good for dipping. Accompanied by the chorizo on toast with peppers and rocket, and two potato dishes. The patatas bravas come with spicy sauce and alioli quite separately so you can decide your preferred proportions.  The other was Huevos Rotos - potatoes with fried eggs. It's supposed also to come with Mallorcan black pig sobrasada (sausage) but that's not in evidence.  The chicken and chorizo are great; the patatas bravas good, and the huevos rotos fine, but a step too far - we couldn't finish that.

After a decent pause, we decide against desserts in favour of the cheese plate. Two ewe's cheese, one goat's and a blue - not enough biscuits. 

Service has been good: attentive, not familiar, alert to our need for another bottle of wine. We manage 4 in all. So with the usual 12.5% service, the bill gets up to £210 for the 4 of us, which seems pretty fair.  Seems we have another Richmond favourite. 

Indian "tapas" in Twickenham

 It's Varsity match day - in April, a major change in tradition. None of the usual gang can make it, so B says she'll come with me - another break in tradition. This means that the normal all-day breakfast at the Wetherspoon's before the game won't hack it, so I research some other options. 

I was looking for tapas, but the only one I could find was Indian "tapas" at Tsaretta Spice at the far end of  chi-chi Church Street.  When we arrive at 1pm, we are the only ones in there - later two other tables arrive. I had expected them to busy on a match day, so was pleasantly surprised to be offered the choice of tables, including ones for four. 

We order a French Viognier at £26 and settle down to choose the dishes. There is a wide selection, tapas and mains. So in the end we settled on just having the chef's meat tapas tasting platter, with a few extra additions - scallops, pappadums, dhal makhani and garlic naan.  

The pappadums come first - smaller, curly ones - with three dips, which are all interesting and quite spicy.  Could happily just munch on those all day. The platter is four dishes - grilled tiger prawns, tilapia fish fingers, fried chicken pieces and lamb meatballs in a particularly spicy and gooey tomato sauce. The scallops are small queen scallops, but served nicely in a shell with garlic lemon and shallots. The dhal is good and thick and creamy, and the naan visibly and nasally very strong on the garlic. 

All very good and served in a good friendly style. It's a modern style place with big windows and it seemed that there would be tables outside in the summer. Modern inoffensive music at low volume.  There's just a 10% service charge, so with a second bottle of wine it comes to £115. Not cheap but worth it. If you were local, then this would be a regular haunt I imagine. 

Quirky, quality local

 No. 97 is just a short walk away, looks interesting and I've often thought we should give it a try. But when I've looked online at the menu, it always seemed rather limited and a bit odd, so we had never actually been there. Then our friend gave us a gift voucher for the place, so we decided it would be a good place to go with another friend D. 

After I've booked a table for three, D says she'd like to ask her friend C along. Naturally, we say fine, but then have to wait a week before C decides whether he is coming or not. But we assume upgrading a table for 3 to one for 4 should be easy enough.  On the day before the booking, we hear that yes he would like to come. I try to modify the booking on Open Table, but it only offers me ones "outside" and much later than our previous booking. I wait until the restaurant opens and ring them up. Indeed, they can't fit us in as a 4 in the restaurant, but can put us in the Conservatory - fully under cover and heated, we are assured. So we go for that. We wonder how tight a squeeze the table for 3 would have been.

Then on the day, C decides that he won't come after all! But we leave the booking as it is. When we go along, the restaurant does seem full and we are walked through, outside a little way and then into the Conservatory, where apparently we will be the only ones there. It has heaters blasting away. The waiter explains it had been cold earlier, but that if gets too much they can turn some off. 

We're a little concerned that being out on our own, the service might not be very good.  But the waiter returns quite quickly with complementary sparkling water, and we can order our wine - a South African Chenin Blanc at £34. This comes quickly too, followed shortly by focaccia slices with flavoured butters - smoked paprika (quite spicy) and caramelised garlic - when he then takes our food order. 

There is a set menu with only three choices per course (in the evening I think there are four choices). D chooses the Barbary duck. This comes as a pink piece of duck breast, together is a sort of croquette of duck leg. Not a large portion, but pretty rich and full of flavour. B has the kimchi cured salmon, with blackened sesame seeds. She is very impressed, and this is a good size too.  She remarks on it when the waiter clears the plates, and he says it's his favourite that had only just been put on the menu. I have the third option - curried sweet potato dhal. This too is full of flavour, with coriander and coconut and a warming lentil taste. I mop it up with the last piece of bread, so it's quite filling too.

One of the three choices for main is harissa aubergine, but that's not hacking it. D and B both have the katsu chicken. This also is pieces of breast together with a croquette, and is served on a bed of cauliflower rice, with pieces of cashew nut. The katsu sauce is a puddle on the side, rather than drenching the meat. B thinks the dish is very good, though she finds the sauce a little salty. I have the pollock topped with caviar, on tenderstem broccoli. The waiter suggested that I order potatoes with it, and he's right, the portion would have been a bit small on its own. The fish is delicate, but just right, the broccoli al dente, but the potatoes are on the soggy side. 

B is too full for dessert, and neither D not I fancy the rhubarb. So we both have the white chocolate with coconut and mango sorbet. The chocolate is OK, and the mango excellent. 

All the dishes have been very attractively presented - ideal for Instagram. The service continued to be good throughout, though for a while the waiter was replaced by a waitress - both were chatty and friendly. When the waiter returned, he explained he'd been called into the "most bizarre" 15 minute team meeting!

We had three bottles of wine, so the bill got up to £220 for the three of us (£27 for 2 courses, £32 for 3).  We have all enjoyed the meals, and they were definitely quality, and unusual. We'd happily go back, but wonder how often the limited menu changes.  The restaurant is part of a small group which includes Hideaway, a small riverside bar at the end of our road with a lovely terrace. That too has an odd menu - brunch dishes ("bennies") and more whipped avocado you would ever need at lunchtime, and a limited range of tapas (small plates) from 5.30pm.  It's also linked to the "Good Life" gin company (get it?) and has a gin bar.  

Definitely glad we got there in the end. 

High in the Sky

 Our friend S had commented that he thought the restaurant at the top of the Gherkin was pretty good, better value for money than the Oxo Tower Brasserie. So when it came to finding somewhere to go for 6 of us for my birthday, I thought it worth a try.  The restaurant is called Helix and is run by Searcey's. The nearest I could get a table was a few days before the actual day, and it then transpired the others couldn't make that date, so I changed it to just the two of us.

At the ground floor reception we have to go through an airport style security check, then take a lift to the 34th floor. There we are relieved of our coats, and take a second lift to the 39th floor. There is a bar on the floor above with a 360 degree view apparently, but we go straight to our table, a nice one by the window. Unfortunately the weather isn't very good, so the view is a bit limited - and the window isn't very clean either, which doesn't help. There are also quite a few tall buildings nearby. Nonetheless, we can see the top of Monument, some of the river and views down to the towers at Nine Elms, and in another direction the Barbican and St Pancras station.

Most of the tables by the window are for two people - there is one for 5. If there had been 6 of us we may have had to sit further inside with less of a view.  When we arrive only two of the other tables are occupied, but there is something about the music playing (upbeat 80's) and the hard surfaces that makes hearing difficult.  But surprisingly as it fills up that seems to improve. It does get very nearly completely full, with all the window tables and most of the second row taken. Many of these are people having afternoon tea and champagne. 

The friendly waiter takes our order for wine - the best I could find was a SA Chenin Blanc (Kleine Zalze) at £46!  He then brings some bread - two rolls, with butter on a slate.  The set menu options are very limited - just 4 dishes a course. So avoiding the heritage beetroot and pumpkin soup, we choose chicken liver parfait (me) and smoked salmon (B). The parfait is unremarkable, coming with "soldiers" of brioche, but B is more impressed with her salmon, which comes with a good sharp horseradish cream.

There's "heritage" on the main course options too - cauliflower with gnocchi. Instead I have the beef and oyster sauce, with some chips (triple cooked, obvs).  The sauce comes in a smart copper jug, with actual pieces of oyster.  There's a nice onion compote too. But the beef itself is seriously unimpressive. It's more like pulled beef or even a tin of braised beef. B has the Goosnargh chicken which comes with lentils and kale. The chicken is tasty and moist, with some good skin. It is however just a simple roast chicken, nothing special. 

So far, so disappointing. But things brighten up with the desserts. My chocolate and malt tart is lovely bitter chocolate on a crisp base, well supported by candied orange.  B eventually chooses the Black Forest pavlova, when she realises it isn't the gateau. This with its kirsch cream and cherries is also a success. 

The set menu is £54 a head (the sparkling afternoon tea is £56), so with a second bottle of wine, the chips and standard 12.5% that brings the bill to a whopping £230.  Staff have been friendly and fairly attentive (though this dropped off a bit as the place filled up - there seemed to be more supervisors than servers).  But overall not value for money I felt, despite the view, and I was glad in the end that it hadn't been the 6 of us.

 

French restaurant in Richmond

 We've been to Chez Lindsay with S&S a couple of times before, but this is our first  visit since before the pandemic.  When we'd booked online there was plenty of choice of dining times, but when we arrive at 1.45pm all the other tables were taken.  There's a nice warm feel, and a definite French atmosphere. Our table is in the middle of the restaurant, but that's fine as there aren't really any views from the windows. They still have the socially distancing screens around the tables, but this isn't an issue either.

We order the Viognier (£26) and ask for some water. The wine arrives promptly, but we have to ask three times for the water.  Very French waiting staff. 

One of the reasons for coming back is that S and B like the crab as a starter. This time everyone but for me orders it. They are seriously sizeable beasts, the body about as big as your hand. Nutcrackers and other tools provided.  All tasty as you'd expect, requiring time and concentration to get all the meat out. I have the fish soup, complete with croutons, rouille and cheese. This is warming and comforting, with a good peppery undertone.

S&B both have sea bass (bar) as main course, having chosen it filleted rather than on the bone. This comes with salad and new potatoes. Very nicely cooked. S2 has the calves liver and bacon with mash and seems very pleased with that. I've pushed the boat out and ordered Tournedos Rossini, the most expensive thing on the menu at £35. I've gone with the waiter's recommendation of "medium-rare", but when it comes I think it should have been more rare.  Still, it is a lovely piece of steak with a (politically incorrect, I know) good piece of foie gras, on toast (not really a crouton as advertised) and a rich but not cloying red wine sauce. Plus good chips. And a bottle of Cahors Malbec (£28) to go with it. We also have some spinach and tomato and onion salad to go with the mains.

We're all quite full, but tradition demands we order a crepes Suzettes to finish. Attractively presented, with flaming brandy poured over it at the table, it is a dramatic and tasty finale. 

The menu also covers lots of galettes and cidres so you don't have to go for the full meal.

The room is nothing special, but the sounds of everyone enjoying themselves and French exchanges between the waiters give a nice atmosphere, untroubled by music as far as I recall. With a second bottle of Viognier and two coffees, the bill comes to just shy of £300 for the 4 of us. Not cheap, and not up with Chez Bruce or TFT, but definitely a fair price for what we had. 

RETURN TO LOCAL CHINESE

 

It’s farmer’s market day and we’re considering where to go afterwards. The last few times at Gordon Bennett were a little disappointing, so it’s a change of scene. We think about Boat, a local Japanese, but we haven’t researched the menu enough to know whether that will suit. So we go to Naturally Chinese, on a corner nearby, where we had eaten only once before.

Now, I’m not against technology per se, though I have been falling behind a bit lately.  Here, they expect you to pull up the menu on your smartphone using a QR code. Well, that wasn’t going to happen. So they lend us a tablet to scroll through the menu – and then write down our order on a paper pad! Technology is fine if it improves the experience: ordering beer from an app in a crowded Twickenham pub was good as you avoided the scrum at the bar; a touch-screen table-top menu was less successful, as it had become greasy. Here, the menu is laid out well-enough, but unlike with a paper menu you couldn’t get a simple overview of what was on offer.

Anyway, we knew we wanted dim sum, which they advertise as a speciality. When we came before, the selection had seemed very limited, but now there is a good choice. We order two classic steamed dumplings - crabmeat and pumpkin, crystal prawn – and also steamed Shang Hai dumplings (pork in a “soup pocket”, with spoon provided). All fresh and interesting, not too much pumpkin. These were preceded by pork spring rolls in rice-paper – more like little sausages – and salt and chilli squid, good and crisp. We also had “thousand shreds” prawn – prawn wrapped in crispy kataifi patry, served with salad cream – which is impossible to eat politely, as you scatter pieces all across the table.

All the dim sum have been good, but we do feel we need a little more. So we decide on Singapore noodles and a beef dish (without looking again at the tablet). The friendly waitress talks us through the beef options, and we opt for ginger and spring onion. The noodles is a large portion, with plenty of chicken and shrimps, and a rather dominant curry flavour.   Beef rather ordinary.

We’ve had a couple of bottles of SA Chenin Blanc (£22.40 each), so the total has crept up to  £120 – a bit more than we’d normally pay for a dim sum lunch. But it has been enjoyable (attentive service, prompt arrival of dishes) so I’ve no doubt we’ll be back.