Return to Soho Vietnamese

 The plan is to meet E and her new squeeze before going to the theatre. But unfortunately he has to work late so it's just the three of us. As one of the options we suggested, E has booked us in quite early (5.30) for dinner at Cay Tre in Dean Street. We had been there some time ago with 131-ers and it's also a possibility for an upcoming reunion.

We arrive a bit early and are shown to our table, though we are warned the kitchen won't open for 10 minutes.  Before we are settled in, E joins us. It's a buzzy place and we are towards the back, where the group area would be. We order a bottle of Chilean SB at £32 and some sparkling water (£2). 

The menu is quite extensive, and includes many vegetarian dishes that will suit E. There's a whole page of pho. After a little discussion about a set seafood dish, we opt to stay with standard starters and mains. 

I have the crispy crab parcel to start. This is quite dense, including pork, prawn and mushrooms as well, but still tasting of crab. It's also very deep fried. B has the salt and pepper soft shell crab. This is a good size, recognisably crab-shaped. She is also impressed with the dressing that comes with it, fresh and bright. E chooses a mango salad with tofu. This seems quite small with not a lot of mango but she is happy with it. 

I'd been trying to decide between the chilli and lemongrass chicken and the "shaking" beef, and eventually settle on the latter. It comes as cubes of beef with fried peppers and onion, and a garlic sauce. The first few pieces are melt in the mouth, but a couple of the later ones had some gristle. B has "one bowl" vermicelli with prawns in chilli and garlic. There are plenty of prawns (shell on) and lots of flavour - she even eats lots of the vermicelli. E chooses the okra and aubergine curry, and we share some jasmine rice (which we don't really need). 

Service has been fine, they are used to rushing people through, so we get away in time for the show. It has been rather noisy, so not sure it's ideal for our group. Other tables have some huge bowls, much larger than B's, presumably the pho. With a second bottle of wine, the bill comes up just short of £180 (13% service again). It works as an interesting pre-theatre place, but not one for an intimate restful dinner.

Sardinian in Victoria

 We are meeting T&K for the first time this year, and as they had liked Olivomare previously they suggest we went to the parent place, Olivo, also in Victoria.  As before, we meet up in the Lord Lucan pub, Plumber's Arms then take the short stroll to Eccleston Street.

We had been there many, many years ago, when the decor featured an internal tent, pastel walls and stencils. Now it is super-modern: black and lumpy like Lego bricks.  It remains a small place, with perhaps 50 covers and is pretty much full when we arrive at 1.30pm. 

The menu has many overlaps with its fishy offspring, and the wine list is the same, so we choose the Sardinian white Karmis again - still the cheapest on the native list at £34.50, only £1 more than when we went two years ago. 

Bread arrives - a mix of the carta da musica and good baguette style.  The menu has a tempting mix of interesting starters, pastas and meat and fish.   K has the small linguine with suckling pig with garlic and chilli - a modest amount of pasta with what she says is a very tasty rich sauce. T has the octopus stew he had at the other restaurant, which he too is pleased with - spicy and tender.  B's starter is Sardinian prosciutto with lots of char-grilled fennel - really full flavoured meat. I choose the white crabmeat salad with spicy dressing - very fresh and light.

B and K have the same main course - veal escalope with sauteed spinach. The large pieces of meat are presented rolled up and standing vertically - quite dramatic. But B isn't impressed, finding it tough as shoe soles. She does manage to eat it all though. T has the sweetbreads ("animelle") with ham and green beans. He is very pleased with that, though it seems he doesn't like beans as he passes most of them to K. I have the most expensive thing on the menu, sliced beef entrecote with spicy broccoli, which is very good - served on the rare side of medium/rare the meat is melt in the mouth and flavourful, while the broccoli is al dente with a good chilli kick. We also have a portion of deep-fried courgettes which gets polished off rapidly.

B and I are tempted to have a dessert - "Sebada" - a traditional Sardinian dish of crunchy, crispy deeply fried pastry filled with cheese and dipped in honey - lovely, surprisingly light. T&K go with a chocolate cake that looks rather heavy.

Service has been friendly and efficient without being intrusive. When serving the second bottle, the waiter said he had better put a couple more in the fridge - quite right! (Though we only have three in fact). Service charge is a whopping 15% - £50 - taking the total to £390 for the four of us. That seems a lot - I had enjoyed it but B less so. 

Busy February

February was a very busy month for eating out, as we went to 10 different restaurants during the month. They were mostly old favourites that I’ve reviewed before, like Chez Bruce (featuring devilled lamb’s tongues), The French Table for Valentine’s Day and Italian Taste (mussels) in Surbiton, The Good Earth, Esher (sizzling lamb) and El Pirata tapas off Piccadilly (very tasty rib-eye).

First up was a fairly new branch of Sticks n Sushi in Kingston, though it has much the same menu as the others.  It is a big place, but was pretty full so we ended up with seats in the window, watching the world go by John Lewis. Wine service was a little slow because of that, though it hadn’t been rapid when we went last time. We had the spicy edamame beans while we considered the order – one of the better examples. Then we had salmon carpaccio (as opposed to tataki, quite thick, very tasty), hot and gooey crab croquettes, seaweed  salad, deep fried prawn bites and tuna tartare bites with avocado.  These were followed at a sensible pace by the iberico pork, duck meatball, and scallop and bacon sticks. Total bill including two bottles of SA Chenin Blanc (at £30) was £150 – pretty good value.

We planned to meet up with A, K and K’s new squeeze C. They suggested Café Rouge upstairs at Victoria station, so we trot along arriving as they do to find that Café Rouge no longer exists. In its place is a take-away with just a couple of basic tables. They negotiate a table and we were just getting our heads round the menu when it transpires they don’t serve alcohol!  So we head off to the Nova complex across the road and fetch up at RailHouse Cafe. The menu here is a little unusual – mainly bowls with add-on skewers plus a few “plates”. I have the chicken schnitzel with mushrooms – a good, sized piece, still moist inside – plus some chips. B has skewers: prawn and chicken skewers with a mixed salad. Our share of the bill was £140 – not cheap for what we had.

J,D and I had a bet on revolution in China – and I lost. So after buying them drinks in Wetherspoons, we head to a Uyghur restaurant for lunch - Karamay Uyghur near Fenchurch St station. It’s an odd little place upstairs, with a stage for a band – presumably a social space for the community. People were leaving as we arrived, so we ended up the only ones in there for most of the time. The dishes feature noodles – described as linguine or spaghetti – and several have serious chilli. I have lamb ribs with noodles and some grilled vegetable dumplings on the side. Very good slightly spicy; J has lamb skewers and D spicy (3 chilli) tenderloin. We each have a couple of bottles of the national beer – Wusu. All this comes to a very reasonable £44 a head.

Although we’ve been there a few times, I haven’t reviewed Giggling Squid in Kingston before. There are branches in Esher, Wimbledon and many others too. We’re meeting D and her new pal J. We order some Chenin Blanc – J is driving so doesn’t have anything – and some of their very good prawn crackers while we consider the menu. They specialise in Thai “tapas”, but we generally also order some dishes from the starters and mains lists too. D and J order curries which come with rice and salad. We have one bite salmon, pork dumplings duck spring rolls followed by soft shell prawns and caramelised pork with rice. Our share including wine comes to a very modest £100. Definitely on the regular visit list.  

Taking advantage of the leap day, we meet up with G at the Ivy City Garden, off Old Broad Street. It’s a huge place, and at 1.30pm is very busy (and noisy) with several work groups. There are loads of plants around and a very odd wall sculpture featuring a lizard eating its tail. We arrive first and order Chilean Viognier (£38). G arrives 5 minutes or so later – and we still haven’t got our wine. After quite a long chat a waiter arrives asking if we’re ready to order, so I ask about the wine and G orders a gin (Monkey 47) and tonic.

The menu has several sections to it – a February specials list, and also an Ivy Asia list, that I focus on. B’s starter is very dramatic: it’s a crab, brown shrimp and avocado tian from the specials list. It arrives served in a silver plated crab-shaped platter, complete with a spicy sauce poured over it, and for some reason a jug of dry ice!  It tastes good too. G has the cheese souffle off the “Ivy Classics” list served in a bronzed pan which she polishes off with relish. My starter is chicken skewers (three) with bang bang peanut sauce, which has loads of nuts and a good chilli kick (effectively an above average satay).

Topping us up with drinks has been erratic, with some empty glasses. But when we order the second bottle the senior waiter seems to get the idea. Or maybe it’s because now, around 2.30pm, the place is starting to thin out a bit.

For main course I have the Keralan duck curry with sweet potato. It’s quite a light, sweet curry, not that hot. But the duck is tasty. B has Mexican-style Flat-iron Chicken (again a February special). This comes with a nice salsa, and quite spicy guacamole.  This is a rather large portion. G simply has a Sirloin steak.

We don’t have room for dessert, finishing our wine while G has a cappuccino. The dessert list does look good though. Service charge is an annoying 13.5% taking the bill up to over £270.  That’s pretty pricey, but the food has been good.