A tapas and an English

 We're going over to Teddington, so I do some research on restaurants there.  The Wharf looks likes it would be nice, overlooking the river. But it's closed on a Tuesday when we will be there. After looking at a few others, I decide on Bar Estilo, a tapas place, because the menu is very extensive.  

We arrive around 2pm - they are open all afternoon, though it closes at 7pm - and there are quite a few people in there, considering it's early in the week. You enter through a pair of heavy curtains, perhaps more French in style, into a large room, with several sections to it, including an empty smarter looking area and a bar.  There's a lot of wrought iron around and the feel is Moorish rather than Spanish. That's reflected in several of the dishes - lamb kofte mezze, and pinchos (skewers) in Moorish spices. Music is mainly a mix of Latin and Spanish (Santana and Rodriguez). 

We're welcomed by a cheeky young waiter who pretends they are fully booked. He keeps up the chatter throughout - saying he couldn't get the duck wrap to rap, only sing. More serious staff are around too.  We order the white Rioja (£26) and some garlic bread with cheese and chorizo to keep us going while we decide what to have.  It's suggested that we between us we order 2 dishes from each of the veggie, meat and fish columns, though the paella at a neighbouring table looks good too. In the end we are a bit more modest.

The bread is lovely. The melted cheese has loads of garlic in it, and a slice of chorizo on top - I'd expected it just to be small pieces mixed in.   Chicken livers is a sizeable dish in a piri-piri sauce, which has a nicely judged kick - clearly there, but too dominant. It's not densely reduced in sherry like the one in Mar y Terra, so is lighter, but it works well. Three lamb skewers are well-cooked through, though the "Moorish spices" aren't very evident.  Prawns pil-pil - always ordered if on the menu - come piping hot and sizzling. Lots of chilli, and garlic slices cooked to brown. The duck wrap is the least impressive - 4 pieces, but not very well filled and a somewhat heavy wrap. The accompanying sweet chilli sauce, however, is not the anonymous gloop you often get, but a good strong hit. We also have a very nice rocket and manchego salad. 

For us, this was plenty, though several other dishes were tempting too.  With a second bottle and a modest 10% service, this comes to just over £100, very good value. Definitely one to consider if you are in the area.

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Meeting up with old friend D at Hampton Court, she has suggested the Mute Swan. next to The Mitre. We have been there some years before, eating downstairs in the bar, but this time we are shown up the iron spiral staircase to a largely empty upstairs dining room. This means we get a choice of tables so can choose one by the window, with something of a view of the Palace. 

More people do arrive later, but it never gets busy and by the time we leave we are almost the only ones still there.  The waiter is attentive - he has nothing else to do - so we get our wine, a £25 Chilean SB quickly. 

B naturally has to have the scallops. Four large ones came with an interesting, slightly spicy sauce and chorizo pieces, which she thought was excellent. D has the chicken liver pate with four thick slices of toast, one of which I happily helped out with to soak up the butter with my garlic and chilli king prawns. All three starters resulted in clear plates. 

For main course, D has the fishcakes - two solid looking pieces with a mound of rocket. B's hake wrapped in proscuitto  is a little dry she says, but a good flavour. My choice of a "light bite" crispy beef salad with cashews is perhaps predictably less successful. There is nothing really wrong with the beef, other than you can't taste much meat in the crispy covering. But the salad is a mass of white cabbage and carrots, pretty tasteless even with a sort of soy sauce dressing and the nuts. It is filling though. We have sides of truffle and parmesan fries - nothing like as good as the Ivy - and a rocket and tomato salad that we don't really need. 

We share a single waffle, caramelised banana and ice cream pudding between us. With three bottles of wine and some water that brings the bill to just over £200 for three of us, including again a modest 10% service. It's been nice enough and fair value, but not somewhere I'd make a beeline for.

Busy week!

Monday would have been B's mother's 100th birthday so we are marking the occasion with a visit to The Ivy, the original one in West St opposite the Mousetrap. Apparently it has been on the same site since 1917; it has classic stained glass windows from the 1920s, art deco wall lights and a selection of very impressive modern art. It is famed for celebrity spotting, but there weren't any that I could see when we went, just some very earnest discussion between a creative-looking type and an unsmiling group of what I took to be lawyers. Low-volume "American songbook" music is playing in the background. 

Our table is down the far end of the restaurant - quite small, sitting "Greek style" - ie at right angles to each other. The waiter is cheerful and attentive, as we get to order our wine - as you'd expect the wine list is extensive and not cheap. There is a Trebbiano at £29, but otherwise everything is over £40. We order the French Viognier at £46. It arrives quickly, and throughout the waiter is attentive enough to keep our glasses topped up, ensuring we need a second bottle (as if there would be much doubt). 

The menu is quite wide-ranging, with lots of options in the starters that are appealing. It isn't ground-breaking or innovative, but full of classics. The bread - two styles, mini-baguette and a multi-seed roll - comes warm and tempting.  B chooses the ham hock and duck terrine to start, though she'd been thinking of the steak tartare. She's very pleased with that - the duck being a puddle in the middle. I struggled to choose, reluctantly passing on the tuna tartare, duck salad and tempura prawns in favour of bang bang chicken.  This is an excellent version, the peanut sauce with a good kick, the chicken itself juicy and tasty. 

The main course choices are more limited. B chooses the pan-seared halibut with white crab, chilli and lime.  This comes with carnaroli rice, not something we knew, but it turns out to be very creamy, a superior version of risotto arborio rice.  The dish looks very fresh and neat, two fillets of fish perching on top. The crab and chilli however are not very noticeable. She also has the minted peas and buttered broad beans, which are good. 

My choice was roasted Iberico pork chop, which came with chargrilled sweetcorn (not on the cob as advertised thankfully) and celeriac. I also ordered truffle and parmesan fries, which were excellent. The waiter had asked whether I wanted the pork well done, pausing before saying "or pink". I chose pink just as B asked what he recommended - pink. It did come lightly cooked, though not actually pink. Full of flavour with just the right amount of fat.

Although fairly full, we do decide to try desserts. B has the warm dark chocolate fondant with blood orange sorbet. The chocolate oozes beautifully, and the overall effect is very much chocolate orange.   I have to order the vanilla crème brûlée which comes, like at Chez Bruce, in a large flat dish rather than a ramekin, giving a better brûlée to crème ratio.  It's not as vanilla-ary as the CB one though, which remains my all-time favourite. 

We also fell for the truffles chocolates offer - a box of 9 for £18!

Naturally this wasn't cheap, and not helped by a 13.5% service charge. £260, though without the chocolates and with the cheaper wine it could have been a fair bit less. Hard to say whether that was "value for money", but it was all enjoyable and a pleasant experience all round.  It's one way to spend the inheritance. 

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Tuesday, by contrast, I'm meeting a dozen old Home Office colleagues at The Warwick, Pimlico. It calls itself a gastro-pub, but its special offer lunches are priced at £7.50, £11.50 with a pint of Doom Bar. I have the grilled halloumi salad, with a side order of fries (£4) - all the others have mini-fish and chips.

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Wednesday sees us meeting up with P&M back from South Africa, and another ex-BT friend S. We're at Da Mario, a cosy Italian near Covent Garden that we'd been to just once before, many years ago, though B couldn't remember it. Booking for 5 us meant having to pay a £10 a head deposit, but they bring a receipt for that at the start and need no prompting to take it off the bill at the end. The place is full, with a turnover of tables, decorated with photos of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sophia Loren playing with spaghetti, and Rat Pack music playing of the lively buzz of punters. No Chianti bottles with candles though. 

We order the Grillo at £32, ending up drinking 5 bottles plus one Barbera (£37.50). Two bottles of sparkling San Pelligrino.  The choice on the menu is remarkable and all four of us struggle to choose, changing our minds several times, and again when we realised there was a "Today's Specials" list on the last page. Unusually, the dishes are listed in price order. B and P have the scallops - four large ones with a slice of crispy bacon. S has deep-fried prawns, dry and crispy. while M and I have the mussels off the specials list - huge bowls, with light wine sauce and toast. 

P had decided in advance he wanted the tagliata - slices of sirloin medium rare, with rocket and parmesan, plus a side of chunky chips.  S has the veal chop, a plate sized slab of flattened and breaded meat - it's lightly cooked, but he says it doesn't have a lot of flavour. It comes with fried courgettes, and he orders a plate of roast potatoes and some mixed grilled vegetables. B has a main course spaghetti with prawns, another large portion, dripping in sauce. M and I have chosen the same again - saltimbocca a la romana from the specials list, with both of us choosing to have it with roast potatoes rather than the advertised mash. There is a load of potatoes - S didn't need to have ordered any himself. The veal is very tasty in a good sauce with ham. We also ordered a bowl of fried courgettes and a rocket and parmesan salad. Overall, a lot of food!

Despite that, B and P decide to have dessert. B has lemon sorbet, and P affogato (vanilla ice cream with coffee). It seems that there's been a mix-up and one of P's scoops is lemon, and one of B's vanilla. We also get complimentary limoncello or amaretto.  

The total is £510, quite a lot, though it did include all that wine. It's been a very pleasant - and filling - lunch but at over £100 a head it feels a little pricey. 

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Thursday evening we are at the Croydon Wine Club, upstairs at the Spreadeagle. Although still saying it is an "Ale and Pie House", the Fuller's pub no longer has pies on its main menu (there is one on the specials board). B has the haddock and chips, while I have scampi and chips. Too many chips! £26 a head including the wine (brought by the Club).