FEBRUARY

 Though not quite as full-on as January, February was also a busy month, especially when you allow for us having a week away in France.

First up was a visit to the cinema in Esher, which entailed a lunch at the Giggling Squid. Like other branches, this is decorated over-the-top with artificial blossom. The Esher branch is fairly large, and as usual wasn't very busy.

We order the standard South African Chenin Blanc at £28, together with some of their Thai prawn crackers (so much better than Chinese ones). We have a range of small bites (the different menus can make this a little complicated, as some are smaller than others). These are "tall husband's favourite" (also known as one bite salmon), prawn and chicken dumplings (typical dim sum), a new favourite crispy mushrooms, chicken laab and beef laab (two dry spiced dishes). Then we have a seafood stew (squid, mussels, sea bass, prawns) with tom yum rice  (fried rice with galangal - not really worth it). 

All very enjoyable, and with an extra glass each comes in at £140.

A couple of days later we are meeting S and L. S chose a smart Italian place in a rather remote part of Belgravia - Il Pampero - because she had a voucher for 50% off food.  It's part of a hotel called The Hari, so we go to their cocktail bar first. 

Back down in the restaurant it's fairly quiet. The staff are quite attentive and bring our Chenin Blanc (£42) quite quickly. I start with the beef carpaccio, which is a good size and comes with parmesan slices. B simply has the padron peppers, which were a bit ordinary. I struggle to find something I want for main - seabass was a possibility - and end up with the fritto misto - whitebait, squid, prawns, courgettes. It's another large portion, but the problem with it all being deep-fried is that it all tastes the same, so I don't manage to finish it. B has the chicken Milanese which is, as so often, rather dry and uninteresting. Not good choices really. 

The 50% offer saves us over £90, but the total still comes to £345. That does include 3 bottles of wine,3 glasses of house white and 3 cocktails, as well as the now common 13.5% service. It amounts to £50 a head for food, which is not bad, but we won't be going back. 

The following Saturday we are out in the wilds of Essex at Finchingfield (look it up), where B's niece and partner have just bought a house. We go on out early evening to their local Italian, Zafra, more or less just across the road.  It's only a small place and it is very nearly full, but we manage to squeeze in. Front of house is very welcoming, and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. 

I start with the mussels - a sizeable bowl, with rough bread. They are in a good wine sauce, which I mop up with the bread. B doesn't have a starter. For main I order the venison marsala. This is a solid hunk of meat, with a strong flavour, cooked medium rare and covered in a good wine sauce. B has the linguine marinara - seabass, haddock, mussels, prawns, smoked salmon. It's a massive dish - tasty, light tomato sauce - and predictably B doesn't come close to finishing it. They are very happy to box it up for us to take it away. 

Three bottles of wine at a very reasonable £28, plus a modest 10%, means the bill comes to just shy of £200 - a remarkably good value, convenient place. We would be there every week. 

Later that week we are at our favourite place - Chez Bruce at Wandsworth Common - with M&G and C.  It's pretty busy for a Tuesday, but not full. We settle in with the parmesan biscuits, and find a reasonably priced bottle of French Vermintino at £45 from a scary wine list (though they do have a South African SB at £38 and a Viognier at £55).   

To start I have the lobster and prawn raviolo, which comes with brown shrimps and a bisque sauce. This is surprisingly light and clean, excellent. B's choice of tuna sashimi has passion fruit and avocado with jalapeno cutting through.  My main course is roast duck breast, supplemented by a duck pie. The flavours do contrast but it's maybe not the most inspired dish. B's roast cod is also fairly standard, though perfectly executed.  Desserts are a must, so I have my usual crème brûlée , to my mind the epitome of crème brûlées - a wide flat dish giving a better ratio of brûlée to creme; good vanilla in the creme.  B has a blood orange sorbet - light and sharp. Truffle chocolates also arrive. 

Not sure how many bottles or beers we got through but a total of £105 each including service was very good for such a meal. 

One Friday we are meeting up with "Safari" D, so are heading over to near her to the Mute Swan opposite Hampton Court. The restaurant is upstairs, up a spiral staircase, though there is a proper set of stairs at the back.  It's a Brunning and Price pub, so a bit better than the average.  There are only two other table in, one of which has a child that wants to run around, which is a bit annoying. We push the boat out and order the Viognier at £33, when there are cheaper Chilean SB and SA Chenin. 

 I start with garlic prawns, half-a-dozen with ciabatta, but not strongly garlic and no chilli. B has scallops (three), pan-seared with n'duja jam - very good. My main course is shredded duck ramen with gyoza,   The gyoza is good, but the duck doesn't have a lot of flavour, especially as it is dunked in the broth. B has the "light bite" crispy beef salad - in fact it's a large dish, that B enjoys and is last to finish.  D and I share a portion of waffle with honeycomb ice cream (and an extra scoop of ice cream). 

With three bottles, it's a bit over £90 a head - not expensive I suppose but not sure it was great value. 

Then the next week, as a deferred Valentine's Day treat, we get a taxi over to Teddington. The idea had been go to M&S food first, but as it's raining we head straight to Bar Estilo, a favourite tapas bar. We are seated towards the back at a nice table and good cushions. We order the white Rioja at £27, and some garlic bread with chorizo to keep us going while we decide. The bread is always good - a big round, thin slice of chorizo on each of two pieces of toast with plenty of garlic.

We quite fancy paella, so order a small portion of the house one, with chunky chorizo, chicken, prawns, several mussels and squid. In the same part of the menu, under "seasonal specials" there is an interesting sounding Persian chicken, with spice raisins and almonds, so we give that a go. It's different, but doesn't really excite. And of course inevitably the sizzling hot gambas pil-pil, and their nice baked mushrooms.  Unusually for us, we are tempted by the ice cream with Pedro Ximenez sherry - actually we order a full glass rather than just the shot.  

With a second bottle and service this comes to £121, very good value. Always a nice experience there. 

Before we go off on holiday, we decide to treat ourselves to a late lunch at Allegros.  Our regular wine here is a fairly standard Italian SB at £26.  I order bruschetta to start - two huge pieces of toast with loads of finely chopped topping - not a modest starter at all. B has the starter version of their king prawns with ginger, which also comes with a whopping piece of bread to soak the sauce up with. 

For main course, I order tuna steak off the specials board. Another large portion, nicely cooked, surrounded by far too much veg. B has the risotto pescatora (instead of her usual spaghetti marinara!) which also is good. 

After we finish off the second bottle and pay the very reasonable £128 bill, we are offered limoncello to finish - very good. 

Back from holiday, we decide to continue the vibe and go for a late lunch. Renas, a Turkish bar/restaurant has been open a little over a year, but B has resisted all my attempts to try it. Today for some reason she decides to give it a go. 

It's a big place with not many people in (perhaps not very surprising for 3pm). We are shown into the main restaurant room with a nice table by the window.  There is a Turkish feel to the place, but it's not over the top.  We start with a bottle of Viognier at £32 (though there are cheaper wines), then decide what to order. It's an extensive menu, including a lot of vegetarian. 

Passing over the long list of dips and salads, we opt for hot starters: spicy sausage (sucuk) and lamb liver (unusually foregoing the garlic prawns). The sausage is very interesting - big slices with big tomatoes. The lamb liver is fine, but not as sticky as you get in some tapas bars. 

We skip past the grills (kebabs and koftes) and the pasta (including seafood linguine) and turn to house specialities. Ginger chicken comes with a creamy sauce and rice and is really quite gingery. Lamb Tandir is chunks of tender lamb on a smear of garlicky aubergine sauce - also with rice. Good sized portions. There are stuffed pide breads, and fish and seafood too. 

It's been a very enjoyable meal - a new regular haunt probably, as it's nearer than some, it would suit a vegetarian and there's plenty of choice. Two bottles takes it to £139, but you could easily get away with less.  

A busy January

 We start off January with a trip back to Cafe Murano in Covent Garden, with the 131 gang, including K and E.  We are shown to a good-sized table for the 7 of us down the back of the restaurant. After a little delay, we manage to catch the waiter's eye for some wine, but they get the idea after that.

I have the rigatoni with fennel sausage to start - very full of flavour, and quite a good size. B has sea bream crudo, which she is very pleased with.  My main course chicken Milanese is typically large and despite the lemon, rather dry. B has halibut and beans, but she's not impressed with that.  

Service has been very good, affable. The bill including service comes to just over £600, including 5 bottles of wine. 

A few days later we are celebrating B's birthday, just the two of us in Kingston.  We had planned on going to Giggling Squid, but for some reason it was closed so we ended up at Sanxia again.  It's quite quiet today, with only one other table in, but they sit us quite close to them to create some atmosphere.

We have our usual seafood dim sum platter, with pork dumplings, and sesame wrapped prawns. Excellent as always. We follow up with "General Tso’s" chicken - quite spicy - plus asparagus and scallops (good al dente asparagus) and jasmine rice. With two bottles (though we take half of one away) this comes to £136. 

The following Saturday we meet up with E&J, M&L at Sushisamba in Covent Garden. It's a sumptuous venue, covered in both real and fake plants and an elaborate bar. Our table is fairly near the bar, so we are hopeful for good service. But it takes a while to order some wine. The wine list is a bit steep, the cheapest white on offer being a French Viognier at £53; the red from Duoro at £59.

The menu is unfamiliar to M&L, so they sensibly opt for the set menu at £90. Set menus are only available for 2 or more people; E wants the vegetarian version and this causes some discussion, but eventually they agree as M&L have a set as well. Both versions are very well received - lots of dishes, and not too much raw fish. 

B and I, and J share choices from the a la carte: edamame beans; samba roll - soft shell crab, rock shrimp tempura (vg), churrasco Rio Grande (fillet, chorizo, rib eye), black cod (also vg). With some beers, sake and probably four bottles, this all comes to £760.  Not cheap but very enjoyable even for those who wouldn't normally choose Japanese. 

The next week we are back at Cafe Murano again, this time with K&C and A. I have beef carpaccio to start, while B has sea bream crudo again.  I've chosen the rigatoni with fennel sausage again, but as a main course portion - too big really. B has calamari which she isn't impressed by. She also has a lemon polenta cake, as somewhere to put her birthday candle. Total this time is £487.

The following Saturday is a farmers' market day. Instead of our usual Japanese, we decide to return to Allegros, a basic Italian.  It's quite busy, but with a clear Surbiton demographic. The house Sauvignon is £28 and arrives promptly. 

For starters, B has the king prawns with ginger (good but messy!) and I have a huge bowl of mussels, done simply in white wine. I order the calves liver and bacon for main, but ask for it with sauteed potatoes instead of mash. This causes some confusion, because the mash comes with spinach, which I can't have with the saute - shame. Again a big portion, salty but tasty. B's main is her usual risotto pescatora, which she always enjoys. We also order the butterscotch sundae which B has had each time - very decadent. £130 with a second bottle.

The following week we are off to a show at the Palladium. I have a short list of places nearby, but we just go in to Aqua Nueva which is just opposite the theatre, along with its sister Japanese Aqua Kyoto. 

You enter into a dark, undecorated hall where a large guy mans an austere desk. He directs us to the lift to the 5th floor where the restaurants are. We're greeted up here and guided through the bar area of the Japanese down another dark corridor to the tapas bar. 

There's hardly anyone else in here (it is early I suppose), though a group of about 10 get shown to a private room. It's so dimly lit that it is hard to see anything, even when the waiter lights the slim and stylish, though largely ineffectual, electric candle. 

It's a complex wine list - we opt for CARE, a garnacha from from Aragon at £48. For tapas, first up is Iberian ham, which is very good, well dry and a Catalan cheese.  This comes on a trolley and is served up with some ceremony - topped with Almond praline, pine nuts, vanilla salt, and olive oil. But the cheese itself is lovely, soft and creamy, slightly sweet - it would make a good dessert.  Next come black seafood croquettes (just a vague fishy taste) and a very good spicy chorizo lollipop.

Then we have two slightly larger plates - a gambas al ajillo (6) and patcharan duck (less good). With a couple of glasses of Verdejo at £16 and a whopping 15% service charge, this takes the total to a little over £200. 

The following day we are up in Theydon Bois, then back again - a long day, so we head off to our local pub-restaurant, the Ferry/Gurkha Kitchen, a Nepalese place. We've been here so often that we pretty much know in advance what we are going to order.  

So we start with the pork momo (dumplings), followed up by the king prawn curry (not that spicy, quite gloopy), chilli chicken (quite hot and dry), garlic mushrooms, lemon rice. With two bottles of Australian Shiraz (delivered almost as soon as we walk in the door) this comes to £85, to which we add £10 service. 

Meeting up with S, we are going back to Sticky Mango in Waterloo, on the site of RSJ's where we used to go with him and H. It's a fabulously OTT place with masses of fake cherry blossom. We order a bottle of French Viognier/Chardonnay at £30 and some sparkling water.  We also order some prawn and sesame crackers, but these take ages to arrive.

For a starter, S orders the chicken and coconut soup with lemongrass - a huge steaming bowl, but he determinedly ploughs his way through it. B has the Vietnamese scallops, prettily displayed in their shells and tasting really good. I chose the Malaysian chicken curry puffs, which were surprisingly light. 

For main, S has the duck fried rice, with a duck egg, which looks rather brown; he has a bak choy along with that. He gets through this solidly too, despite the large starter. B chose the miso glazed black cod, which she enjoys though it is not as good as the Sushisamba one. My choice is gochujang pork belly which is a large portion of very glazed pork. We also have some jasmine rice. 

We have seen a fancy dessert at other tables, so ask for that. It turns out to be their signature dish - sticky mango. It comes with a sort of fluffed up topping which they pour a sauce over and it then collapses. Underneath is mango, mango ice cream and sticky black rice - very good. 

With two bottles of wine and a normal 12.5% we get up to £240, which is very reasonable for the three of us.

Finally at the end of the month, on my birthday, we go into Esher, to Starling a relatively new place. It got its Michelin star within about 6 months. It's a warm, dark-wood place, with tables quite close together. We are welcomed as a birthday group and shown to a table which has a Happy Birthday card on it. It's quite full and we have tables either side of us, but it's not not too loud. 

The wine list goes up sharply, so we just settle on the house Italian at £45 and also have some sparkling water. 

For starter, B has the steak tartare with deep fried boiled egg. It's a splendid dish, peppery and the egg is perfectly cooked. My starter is a crab tart - this has very cheesy pastry, good fresh crab and good decoration.

The main course choices are rather more limited - just three plus various steaks. I have Dover sole veronique which comes as three curls of fish and sauce together with a light sauce and peeled grapes - good but a simpler fillet might have been better. B chooses the pork tenderloin. The main meat is fairly ordinary, but the accompanying pork cheek is very good.

Finally, I have a creme brulee, hoping for a candle, that doesn't come. It is served in a wider bowl, so there is a good brulee to creme ratio. 

Service has been fairly slick (glasses topped up properly), and with a second bottle we get to £250 including 12.5% service charge. It's not a huge price for a very good meal, though the overall experience is not really one that leaves us feeling we need to rush back. 

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