COMPARING OUR TWO FAVOURITE FRENCH RESTAURANTS

 It’s sometimes difficult to compare places when there is a gap in time between visits,  but by chance we have booked into two of our favourite restaurants – Chez Bruce in Wandsworth Common and The French Table, locally here in Surbiton – so this a good opportunity. Both are very good so I’m looking at some fine distinctions here. Chez Bruce has a Michelin star; TFT regularly features in Opentable’s top 10 restaurants in London.

There are 6 of us booked in for Chez Bruce and 4 of us arrive together.  We’re shown the light, airy room to our “usual” table in a corner – out of the way but not isolated. The welcome is warm and friendly.  The signature parmesan biscuits arrive in little pots that are topped up as we get through them waiting for the others to arrive.  The selection of breads is a little ordinary.  The wine list is huge, but rapidly goes off the scale.  We order the Chilean Viognier from Tabali at £36, but are told as it arrives that this is the only bottle they have.  M has a G&T (good choice of gins) and G decides on a bottle of Wimbledon IPA.   G looks for a suitable red, but the equivalent Tabali Carmenere is £54, so he decides to stick to the beer. By the time the others arrive, we are selecting our next white – the cheapest other Viognier (French) is over £40, so we go for the South African Sauvignon Blanc – Southern Right – at £33.

At TFT (as it also calls itself) it’s just the 2 of us for our wedding anniversary. I’d told them about that when booking and when we arrive we find a personalised menu with “Happy Anniversary”. The table is covered in celebratory sprinkles, though bizarrely these say Happy Birthday instead! We have a table fairly near the window which is nice (the room is long and narrow, and some tables a bit squished in). TFT run a boulangerie/patisserie, The French Tarte, next door, so the bread is always good – I choose the walnut  but the chorizo bread is usually excellent.  We start with a kir royale each, while choosing our usual Pays D’Oc Viognier (£28) from the more modest (in both senses) wine list. 

The Chez Bruce set lunch offers a choice of at least 6 dishes for each course; at TFT we also choose the 3-course set lunch, rather than the 5-course tasting menu, but that has only 4 or 5 options per course.

For starters at Chez Bruce, I have the spiced fish samosa and B the tuna aioli wrap.  The samosa pastry is very crisp and the fish does have a good spicy kick. It comes with mussels -  far more than I was expecting - in a good broth with bok choi and coriander.  B is impressed with her tuna wrap dish, which also has slices of lightly grilled tuna steak. Others chose miso-glazed aubergine (very Instagrammable), the “special” lobster and scallop ravioli in a  bisque sauce, and fish soup with rouille. All plates cleared, the starters were voted a hit all round.

Over at TFT, there is also a “special” starter not on the menu (there generally is) – croustillade of pork, described to us as like a spring roll – which I decide to have.  Again the pastry is crisp and the pork roll comes sitting on a pool of creamed lentils. The pork is very flavourful, but by the end the dish has seemed a little salty.  B has the terrine: rabbit, ham hock, black pudding and pistachio – one of their regular dishes.  That’s good as usual, accompanied by pickled carrot.

Main courses at Chez Bruce were fillet of sea bream with brown shrimps for me and two of the others, roast cod with truffle mash for B, pig’s cheek for C and chicken breast with gnocchi and trompettes for G.   The sea bream was nicely cooked, but the shrimps came in a romescu sauce that rather swamped the dish. The green beans were perfectly done as you’d expect, and the samphire deep fried and fun. B’s cod came with chanterelles and leeks and was declared to be good. G’s chicken was interesting too.

At TFT, we both opted for cod, as the duck and pork belly options sounded rather heavy. The fish was roasted with a nice brown top, and accompanied by a lobster and sundried tomato risotto in a veloute, with some broccoli.  I thought the risotto was nice, but B thought it was a bit over-powering for the cod.

My dessert choice at Chez Bruce is always crème brulée. They serve it in a wide dish, quite thinly spread, so you get a high ratio of brulée to crème.  Also the vanilla seeds in it are lovely. B had the mango and lime sorbet, and raved over how sharp it was.  The spiced pineapple dish was a hit too.

TFT told us one of the dessert options was “off”, another was cheese, so we chose the other two. But then apparently they did in fact have one of the walnut and coffee tart, so B had that and I had the dark chocolate croquant. Both came served on plates with “Happy Anniversary” written in choclate.  Although the walnut tart came with dulce de leche, chocolate granache and chocolate ice cream, it wasn’t as terribly sweet as that sounds. But for a brilliant demonstration of their patisserie skills, my dessert outshone everything. It was a long slice with chocolate sides, piped Chantilly on top with pine-nut and pumpkin seed brittle.  The chocolate was so intense, the topping smooth and crunchy at the same time. It came with a dollop of ice cream sitting on dark red shreds – spicy! Googling afterwards I found that this Piment d’Espelette is a chilli from the French Basque region, so prized that it has its own AOC registration.  The dark chocolate and the spice was an amazing combination – the best dessert I have had in many years.

With 5 bottles of wine, 3 beers (£8 each), G&T, water and a couple of coffees, Chez Bruce cost £100 a head, the lunch being £50 a head. The French Table was £87 a head, including 2 bottles of wine and the kir royale  - set lunch £35. Both good value given the quality.

How to choose between them?  The French Table has the advantage of being just a few minutes’ walk from us; Wandsworth Common doesn’t have very frequent trains. Although TFT staff were pleasant  and they made a special effort for us, they were very busy, perhaps under-staffed; at Chez Bruce they were more relaxed, and M. Bruce put in an appearance as well.  Chez Bruce is lighter and airier too.   The menu there was more varied and more interesting than TFT (though the latter does have a tasting menu option), and dishes generally scored slightly higher – except for my dessert.  

Late January

We’re in Kingston, house-hunting, and I’ve found a tapas bar near where we’re looking. So we head down an unattractive road and find the Pottery Bar, well off the beaten track. Not somewhere people just happen upon. And as it’s a mid-week lunch, we’re not surprised to find that, apart from a business meeting going on, we are the only ones in there.

 The drinks list doesn’t include any Spanish wines, so we order the house white Trebbiano at £21.  The menu isn’t especially tapas either. We order steak salad off the specials board (bizarrely itemised as lamb shank on the bill) plus garlic prawns, and chorizo, chick peas and goats cheese, plus some bread with oil and balsamic to keep us going.

 Despite there being no-one else in the food – including the bread – takes an age to arrive.  When it comes the bread is lovely, slightly warm, crusty and a good sized portion, though rather they rather skimped on the oil and vinegar.   The prawns had a hit of chilli along with the garlic, and the chorizo/cheese combination worked well. The salad is a very large portion, with tender steak and nicely dressed leaves.

 The service is friendly, and we chat a bit – the waiter describes one of their dishes as “weird”. We have two more glasses of wine. The bill (with just 10% service) comes to £78. Nice enough place, but probably only if you are in the area - not worth the detour.

 With S&S we return to our favourite, Chez Bruce at Wandsworth Common. As usual, we meet in the nearby pub, The Hope, for a drink first.  Unusually, the pub is packed, with lots of family groups and kids – we don’t normally come on a Sunday. The pub menu looks quite good itself.

 Chez Bruce is busy too, but well-organised. We have a nice table in the window.  Friendly and efficient service as always, with their lovely parmesan biscuits and excellent bread to start.   The other three all have crispy, deep-fried poached egg to start – lovely. I have the trout ceviche, very fresh and clean

 For mains, two (including B of course) have duck breast with foie gras. S has roast cod with mushrooms. After asking about how it’s done, I decide to be adventurous and order the pig’s trotter, despite being a little alarmed at twice being told that the skin will be gelatinous!  It’s stuffed with chicken mousse and chopped sweetbreads – and really tasty. Luckily I start at the right end and don’t come to the tiny bones until the end.

 Desserts are ice cream (including salted caramel), pear, and yoghurt parfait that comes with something akin to polystyrene.

 We have three bottles of Chilean Viognier for £105, some water and a coffee.  The “3 course weekend lunch” is £48.50 – considerably more than what we usually pay mid-week.  But it remains undeniably good.  So the total comes to £340 for the four of us.

 Still house-hunting, but this time in Surbiton, we return to Hart’s Boatyard, our favourite pub by the river.  We get a nice table overlooking the river.  I fail to find our usual Rothschild Viognier on the wine list, so order a Gavi.  But when the waitress comes she has the Viognier – wrong, but right!   B has the steak salad – a regular choice – and I have the pork belly.  This is quite fatty, but it comes with a crispy bacon slice and some rather good pork cheeks. A second bottle of wine takes the bill to £76.

 Then for my birthday, we book a table for lunch at The French Table, also in Surbiton. We’d been once before and had a lovely 5-course set lunch.  We get as far as Clapham Junction to find all the trains from Waterloo cancelled.  We hang around for a bit, as the information board suggests there might soon be a train, but it gets later and later, so eventually we decide to go to Victoria, and I ring to cancel.  Apparently they’d had a lot of cancellations because of the trains – such a shame.

 At Victoria we decide to go the new(ish) branch of Sticks ‘n’ Sushi in the Nova complex. On arrival it doesn’t look very prepossessing, but we are shown upstairs where it is busier, buzzier and more attractive.  The tables are close together though, so we have to fight to hear each other over the job interview next door. We order the Chenin Blanc (£28) and some edamame beans while we work what to have.  We decide to order in two phases – sushi then sticks. So we begin with beef tataki, which comes with a good spicy dip,  crab croquettes that are hot and gooey, and  scallops kataifi topped with roe.  These are closely followed by duck in rice paper (with the same dip) and spicy tuna maki roll with ginger and wasabi.  All very tasty.  Then we order a second bottle and the sticks: scallop and bacon, spicy chicken, and lamb. Again all good - though the second bottle takes a while to arrive.   Good friendly service – the waiter chats to us a bit as we are the last ones in there at 3pm.  Total, including 12.5% service, is £135 – perhaps a bit much for what it was, but then it is my birthday.

Catching up since July

I’ve been a bit remiss these last months, but here is a quick summary of places visited in the second half of the year. I no longer have all the details of what everyone had, and not all the prices, but I still have the memories!

India Club, Strand:  threatened with closure because of re-development, this throw-back to the 60s/70s was granted a reprieve. It used to be a traditional haunt of our Varsity match group, so we went along to celebrate. The room is basic – though the tables are no longer secured to the floor.  Drinks are obtained from the bar on the floor below – don’t expect anything beyond a Kingfisher or gin. Starters are standards – samosa, onion bhaji, plus a remarkably dangerous chilli bhaji. Mains are also fairly standard - lamb, butter chicken, dhal, aloo sag - but with good portions of rice and breads.  At £30 a head, it’s great fun.

Mar I Terra describes itself as “contemporary Spanish tapas”.  We’ve been before in the evening, but on this lunchtime visit after the Picasso exhibition at the Tate, we sit outside in the garden which is very pleasant.  Chilli prawns, crab-stuffed peppers, chicken livers, chorizo and morcilla with beans, chick peas are all good. Bill (with probably two bottles) comes to £92. Excellent – definitely recommend it if you are in the area. On a second visit in the early evening a couple of months later we have garlic prawns, sardines, chicken livers, beef, beans and jambon, chick peas (£75).

Guiseppe’s in Borough High Street has become B’s “go-to” restaurant. We went just the two of us first to research it, then as a group of 6, and then B went again with 4 other ex-colleagues. It’s as  clichéd as an Italian can be, short of candles in Chianti bottles. There are specials on the blackboard and all the traditional dishes you can remember.  Starters have included bresaola, scallops, prawns, calamari. Mains, spaghetti “My Way” (under a photo of Frank), veal Holstein, chicken Milanese with penne arrabiatta.  Good choice of Italian wines; generally around £50-£70 a head. Fine, convenient, but not sophisticated.

Ivy Market Grill . There are loads of Ivy spin-off places now, some of which have had unflatteringly reviews, but I think this in Covent Garden may have been the first one when the original restaurant closed for refurbishment for a while.  We went one lunchtime with S&L, and were sat next to Nicholas Lyndhurst (though he did ask to be moved!).  I had steak tartare followed by sea bass fillets and the bill came to £105 for the two of us. A very good experience. B went back again and that was good too.

Babur Brasserie I have reviewed before, but it remains worth the visit to Honor Oak Park.  Regional dishes feature strongly – this is no ordinary curry house. My meal this time was prawns and gourd to start followed by rabbit. At £106 for two this is good value.

The Oxo Tower Brasserie is a good place for a celebration. This time it was J’s 30^th, and there were 16 of us, on two tables of 8 with good river views. It’s not cheap though, and the wine does make the bill mount up. I had grilled crispy squid followed by chicken breast in a herb sauce and a tart.

Sticks ‘n’ Sushi, Wimbledon has rather less charm than its Covent Garden sister, the room being bigger and more open, with several refectory style tables, but has the same interesting menu and would be a nice reliable place to have on your doorstep. After the usual spicy edamame beans, we had beef tataki, crab croquettes, crudities and miso. Then shrimp rolls, crispy chicken rolls, duck breast and scallop and bacon sticks. With two bottles this is good value for £109

Chez Bruce:   I’ve reported on it several times, but it is still a reliable favourite for a good lunch. The parmesan crisps are still gorgeous and the atmosphere and service top-class. This time I had fishcakes with boquerones, followed by calf’s liver and then a caramel crisp. The set lunch price means this comes to £150 with a good amount of wine (though you have to hunt through the wine list to keep the cost down).

A Wong in Victoria has been around for a while, but though we’ve tried a couple of times we’ve not been able to get into this Michelin starred Chinese. So with S&L we book one evening and take on the challenging menu. It’s hard to decide how much to order, and I think in the end we were a bit conservative  for 4 Choices between us were prawn cracker, crab and prawn fritter;  duck and pancakes, lamb slider; kung pao chicken with peanuts, waygu beef, pork belly, “gold fish” dumplings, abalone, rice. £150 for two with not a lot of wine. Not yet convinced, but worth another try.

Our local tapas bar has been closed for refurbishment, but its sister, Las Fuentes in Selsdon was P&M’s choice for a birthday celebration for around 16 people. B and I had wild boar skewer, kidneys, chorizo, gambas pil pil and mussels. As good as the Purley version, with similar ambience.

After wine tasting we need something to soak up the alcohol, so twice in quick succession we go with T&K to Dim T in Victoria.  Each time we begin with beef wontons, chicken gyoza, edamame beans and various dim sum. The first time we go round again on the dim sum, but on the second visit we move on to firecracker prawns, special chicken stir-fry, chilli beef, pad thai, and Singapore noodles. It’s a big place, so generally no need to book. Coincidentally it cost £80 each time.

My colleagues organise a “round the world” series of lunches and this time we are in Jamaica at Cotton’s, Curtain Rd.   It’s a fairly basic place (though another outlet in Vauxhall is rather smarter) and being a “rum shack” does a good line in cocktails. I have the trio of vegetarian fritters followed by a lunchtime special of oxtail and bean stew with boiled rice. With one cocktail and a modest amount of wine my bill was £25.

Imperial China in Chinatown has become a regular dim sum place. After a wine tasting over in the City, we fetch up and order soft-shell crab followed by steamed king prawns, fillet beef and Singapore noodles. All for £100.

Masala Zone, Covent Garden  is another good place for a celebration, with lots of space and side rooms,  so we fetch up there for our housemate Christmas gathering. The Rajasthani  puppets dangling from the ceiling give it a great atmosphere, and despite the time of year we get good service too. There are 12 of us – any more and you have to have the set menu, but we are allowed to order individually. I have Delhi samosa, followed by Coondapur Duck, black dhal, spinach and steamed rice. With a good amount of wine this is £100 for two.  It would be interesting to try as a couple.

 

Busy couple of weeks

It’s been a busy couple of weeks, with trips to several new places and some old favourites re-visited.  

IMPERIAL CHINA

G&S are down staying with us, so after the compulsory trip to our favourite local Vietnamese, Cat Ba Island, the next day we decide to go to Dishoom  in Upper St Martin’s Lane.   We’d tried to get in before but not been able to face the queue, so we think around 4pm on a Sunday afternoon should be OK.   I go ahead to grab a spot in the queue. As I approach it doesn’t look too bad, but when I ask the chap how long the wait will be, he says an hour! And 30 minutes before we even get inside to wait at the bar!! I don’t think so.

 So we decide on Chinatown for dim sum. Our previous favourite, Harbour City, has been taken over by New Loon Fung, but they too are full, with a half-hour wait. So we go round to Lisle street and into Imperial China.  This is an attractive place, tucked away in a courtyard, approached by a little bridge over a stream, by a waterfall and a pond full of huge koi carp. Chinese lanterns complete the look.

 The dim sum is a fairly standard selection of dumplings and rolls. But they are fresh, spicy and hot.  Service is friendly (for Chinatown!) and efficient. With three bottles of wine it comes to £180 for four.

 

CHEZ BRUCE

Next day the four of us went to Chez Bruce, probably our “go-to” favourite. The set lunch is £32 for 3 courses, which is very good value, though B was not impressed with a £6 supplement for the venison that both she and S had as main. The parmesan crisps were excellent as usual, and the service still very friendly and unstuffy, but we had a surprisingly long wait for our starters. My selection was duck tagliettelle (wonderful!) followed by  sea bream, and then their super vanilla créme brûlée . Wines at £26 for Viognier, £28 for Syrah (both Chilean). Total £287. Afterwards reflected on the fact that normally Michelin-starred places give you an amuse bouche, but apart from the parmesan crisps, there was nothing at Chez Bruce.  Still, it remains up there for us.

 

HOUSE OF Hô

B has booked us, with T&K,  into House of Hô after the Tesco wine tasting at Olympia. It’s only at the last minute we realise that it is not the place in Old Compton St we had been to before (which has now closed), but in Percy Street, Fitzrovia, on the site of Bam Bou, which we used to like.

There is an attractively priced set brunch menu available on a Saturday, but instead we decide to choose from the a la carte.  The menu is predominantly starters, sushi and sashimi, with just a few mains, so we treat it basically as dim sum.  The waiter explains that some of the dishes come with just three pieces, and offers us the chance to make them up to four to share.  I wonder if this is a sly trick to make more money, but to be fair when the bill comes the extra piece is charged pro rata. We have some edamame beans in chilli while we decide what to order.

First up come the skewered spicy prawns, and the chicken dumplings. The prawns have a good flavour, though are not that spicy, and the dumplings good but nothing special. Next come the duck spring roll (very good), and “imperial roll” (large) and some crab and prawn croquettes (excellent).  Then the Vietnamese scotch egg (interesting), duck and watermelon salad (quite large and tasty),  and spare ribs (falling off the bone) arrive.  We discuss whether we are full and decide we can manage some more. We order another duck spring roll and some prawn dumplings (good but more standard) for three of us, while K has a dessert – Asian banana crumble, which she says is wonderful.

Service has been good and attentive, and the place gradually filled up towards 4pm, giving it some atmosphere – the décor is not as dramatic as Bam Bou used to be.  Three bottles of Chilean SB at £28 each takes the bill up to just over £200 – given the quality of what we had, and how full we feel that seems pretty good.

 

THE CLOVE CLUB

M&G are generously taking us out for lunch, on behalf of M’s late mother, at the Michelin-starred Clove Club in Shoreditch – not an Indian as many people assumed.  We have a drink first in a quirky Shepherd Neame pub – the Prince Arthur – with a very chatty barman, who insists we look at the upstairs bar before we leave. There is a real fire, candles, and a strange mix of Regency cartoons and Gonzo prints on the walls.

Then on to the restaurant at Shoreditch Town Hall. It has a bar at the front but we get shown in to the main room at the back.  There is a huge brigade of staff, outnumbering the diners by two to one.  The chef featured recently as “young chef of the year” in the Observer food review – and looks about 14.

We opt for the five-course tasting menu at £65 (rather than the nine-course one!), with the complementary wine pairing at £50. But we start with some kir, champagne and a Bourbon cocktail.  We did though decide against the extra scallops course at £18.

The meal starts with a selection of “snacks” - iced beetroot with crème fraiche, crab tartlet (lovely), haggis balls (in a sweetish brioche-like bun, not as peppery as you might expect) and fried chicken in pine needles (“an up-market KFC” – much nicer).

The first course of the meal proper was tartare of hake which came with an Alsace Pinot from a magnum. The hake is an interesting idea but doesn’t taste of a great deal.  Next up is a soup course – three of us have opted out of the oysters.  Again, not that special.

The cod with beetroot and  fermented cabbage was more of a success - firm, tasty fish and some intriguing accompaniments.  I also liked the “main course” venison loin and venison sausage, though B was less impressed. 

We then opted for one portion of the extra cheese selection, which came with a Sauterne and a fino sherry.

Dessert courses were a delicate layered cream and ice cream pot,  and a rather sturdy tarte tatin – more of an English apple tart really, but good all the same.

Service was friendly and with such a big staff very efficient. The sommelier was chatty and knowledgeable.  Of the other customers, two were Silicon roundabout hipsters eating alone, four slightly older business types (still with beards), and a pair of elderly gentlemen.

As I said M&G were very generously treating us, so I don’t know the exact cost, but it must have been seriously expensive.  It had been a great experience, but at those prices I doubt we will rush back.

 

MARKET BRASSERIE

Meeting up with ex-BT colleagues, S and L, we decide to go to Shepherd Market for lunch.  Interesting French colonial African pictures on the walls.  Buzzy little place, with a strange porcelain head on one table – “watching over us” said the waiter.

L has the orecchiette with tomato and broccoli, and S the Atlantic cod (which looked like a small portion).  I go for the duck breast with Lyonnaise potatoes off the specials board – very good.  As S is off to a meeting we just have the one bottle of Chilean SB at £21.  Just under £30 a head in total including service. Not a “wow” place but pretty sound and handy to know of if you’re in the area (though of course there is plenty of choice around there).

 

DRAKE AND MORGAN, KING’S CROSS

K has stayed over with us after the party yesterday, so we go with her to King’s Cross to see her off back home. Pancras Square, round the back of the station, now has quite a range of eateries, but we settle on Drake and Morgan.

It turns out to be a huge place, done out in industrial chic, with exposed pipework.  It is pretty busy as we fetch up about 1.30pm on Sunday, but we have booked so that’s OK. We are shown to our table, miles away down the far end of the restaurant, overlooked by a huge picture of a grumpy cow.

Despite the waitress being attentive, our drinks take a while to arrive – Chenin Blanc (£18) and ginger smoothie for K.  For starters (which do arrive quickly) we have crispy squid (quite spicy) and ham croquettes (nice crispy exterior, but rather gooey insides). 

I had seen a Thai green coconut curry (with either chicken or prawns) on the website menu, but they’re not there on the day – maybe because it’s a Sunday, with roasts.  K orders the Waygu burger, but is told they’ve sold out, so she settles for a cheeseburger instead – very dense and filling. B has gone for a starter Cobb salad with chicken as main – specifically making it clear that she didn’t want a larger one. When it comes it is huge, but to be fair they only charge us for a small one - it would be far too much as a starter. I have the tuna with ginger and soy sauce, plus some chips – very good and pink, but a bit cold.

K has an espresso martini to follow, while we have a couple more glasses of wine.  £135 for three of us (2 bottles of wine) seems good value.

An "authentic" disaster and two old faithfuls

We’re off to see Eddie Izzard at the Palace Theatre, Cambridge Circus, and have decided we fancy trying somewhere new, preferably Chinese.  Ba Shan in Romilly Street has kept coming up on Opentable, with special offers of 25% off food, so we decide to give that a go.

We’re slightly late for our 6pm booking, and the place seems very busy pre-theatre on a Friday. After just a short wait, we’re taken through the maze-like arrangement of rooms to our table in a small room of just 12 covers.  Everyone else in there is Chinese, which makes us optimistic – one table has the remains of a huge fish which they had clearly enjoyed.

We’d read about the menu from the “Revolutionary Cookbook” and about the Hunanese cuisine of chillies, chillies and more chillies. So we’re less surprised to see photos of Chairman Mao adorning the walls, though other décor is attractively classical Chinese. His exhortations are scattered through the menu too, though there’s no sign of his Little Red Book. There’s a rough and ready feel to the place, but that’s fine for a quick meal.

We order food and a bottle of South African Chenin Blanc at £22.  Our “fish-fragrant prawns” arrives very promptly – slightly odd, flabby, possibly reconstituted, deep-fried prawns with a fiery chilli dipping sauce.  We’ve finished these before the pork dumplings arrive (having been sent back by the table next to us). This is a good portion of 8 or so dumplings, slippery and messy, but with a good herbal fragrance  - no chillies.

The range of choice of mains was impressive, if somewhat bizarre.  We have settled on “bamboo-fragrant chicken” and Dry-wok twice cooked pork, with some plain steamed rice.  It’s then that we realise that “authentic” is not a synonym for “good”.

The chicken dish arrives literally covered in dried red chillies. We’re OK with that, sifting through to find the meat, and burning our mouths only a little bit. But the chicken, when you got to it, was tough and chewy, very small pieces no doubt extracted from dubious regions of the bird. Revolutionary fervour would be needed to enjoy that one.

The pork dish had slightly fewer chillies, but was every bit as spicy. Another “authentic” dish of predominantly fat on thin slivers of tasteless pork. Nothing as bourgeois as edible meat.

We surrendered. The capitalist running dogs were defeated. Less resistance than even paper tigers.

OK, the Chinese punters seemed to be enjoying themselves, slurping their way through their even more strange-looking dishes and shouting orders to the waitresses in Mandarin (I’m guessing here). So it’s not without atmosphere.   The waitress has in fact been fairly attentive, given that half the time she wasn’t in the room.

The 25% off was duly administered without question (a saving of £10) and a standard 12.5% service charge applied, bringing the total (with two extra glasses of wine) to just £73.  You’d struggle to get a meal for that price elsewhere in this area – and boy did we struggle.

Two old favourites came up trumps however.  Friends took us back to Chez Bruce to celebrate B’s birthday – the lunchtime menu there is most impressive, a wide range of excellent dishes to choose from for each course, at a very modest price. And a manageable wine list too.  My selections were brill sashimi to start (brill indeed, fresh, light with a hit of wasabi on the side) and duck cassoulet for main course – deeply rich, warming mix of duck done three ways.  Thank you guys!

And for my birthday we returned to our local Brasserie Vacherin for a late lunch. Service here can be variable, but on this occasion it was fine, though we weren’t in any rush.  The “aromatic and luscious” Viognier from Languedoc was £24.50.  B had the Atlantic prawns smothered in garlic to start – a good sized portion, while I had tuna tartare. For mains we stayed with the fishy theme and had fillet of seabass (grilled, good and meaty) and supreme of hake with mussels in a very light tomato sauce (rich and flavoursome). And to celebrate we share a lovely crepe suzettes.  A second bottle, some sparkling water and chips, plus 12.5% service take the total to £117, so just over £50 for the food, very good value.

Belated catch-up - June and July

I’ve got behind on my Chompers blog recently so here is a quick catch-up. Sadly some of the details have now faded in my (fading) memory.

The Old Spot, Wells:  Our friend H lives in Wells, so when it came up in “1000 places to eat before you die”, we thought it was too good a thing to miss. With T&K we venture down to Somerset and head off out to the restaurant.  After a quick drink in a pub which used to be a prison, we head round to the restaurant.

The back garden is beautifully positioned with an excellent view of the Cathedral, but from inside there is practically none.  The main feature though, is a particularly grumpy Head of House, who clearly wishes she was somewhere else.  Service is slow and offhand, and we are unable to get a second bottle of Pinotage, going for a Malbec instead.

Which is a shame, because the food itself is not half bad.  Starters included a salmon roulade, feta salad, pork terrine and a salad. From the main menu two of us have the duck breast and three the lamb with hummus.  We also share a cheese plate.

At £205 (3 bottles of wine) it’s pretty good value, except that the service has left a very sour taste.

Percy and Founders  opened up on the site of the old Middlesex Hospital, off Mortimer Street , so is a convenient location from Oxford Street.  Six of us descend one lunchtime. It’s quite a large place, so they concentrate the few diners into one section of the restaurant, with a window through to the beautiful décor of the old hospital chapel.

Starters include a tuna tartare, “heritage” tomato and goat’s cheese and for me the speciality crab and lobster scotch egg (£12.50).  Coincidentally (or perhaps because of a limited menu), 3 of us order chicken salad, and 3 crab linguine – the latter is very good.  We also have desserts – crepe, ice cream and a stunning peanut butter parfait.

With three bottles of wine  - Picpoul  @ £23 and Poivre d’Ane @ £28 (we had two tee-totallers) and service, this comes to £260.

I’ve reviewed Chez Bruce before, but this is the first time I’ve been there with B – plus M&G and C.  Again there is the calm smooth service that makes you feel so relaxed, though this time perhaps a little jollier – maybe in response to a group rather than a couple.

I’m afraid I don’t recall the details of our meals – the bill simply records two 3 course lunches and three 2 course ones, plus a John Dory supplement (B). It also records 3 apple and elderflower G&T’s, a strawberry bellini, 3 bottles of Viognier, a half carafe of house red and a glass of muscat !  Not surprisingly perhaps I do recall a feeling of warm contentment!

The set meals are such good value at lunchtime (£29.50 for three courses, £24.50 for two), so a total of £335 for 5 (£67 a head) seems very reasonable.  Do go.

One of the extra benefits of Chez Bruce is a special offer of half price meals at its sister restaurant, the Glasshouse in Kew, also Michelin starred.  So B and I take ourselves off there a few weeks later.  Rather more beige than the Wandsworth place,  the Glasshouse still has a good relaxed feel. It’s surprisingly busy for a mid-week lunch, but the service remains unruffled.

Again my memory of the dishes has faded. The half-price £12.25 for 2 courses, £14.75 for three, though, clearly can’t be beaten. We have kirs to start, a bottle of white at £29 (that’s the challenge with offers like this) and two glasses of red to go with the cheese course, so the bill, with service, comes to £115.

I’ve also reviewed Babur Brasserie at Honor Oak Park before.  A bit off the beaten track, but “worth the detour”.  Six of us again arrive for their annual birthday event, to sample both their special menu and a very wide-ranging standard one.

Our starters included crab idli, cod cheeks, scallops, and some fiery goat patties.  Mains included special butter fish, goat curry, lamb back strap and (for me) Kalaunji prawns, which sadly were rather dry.  Sides of spinach, daal, and aurbergine were excellent.  But overall a good meal.

With four bottles of wine (Viognier and Carmenere), Cobra and coffee, we got up to £300 before service.  One of the best value up-market Indians around.

 

 

 

Michelin starred restaurant lives up to its reputation

I’m meeting C for lunch at Chez Bruce, the Michelin-starred restaurant by Wandsworth Common, looking forward to it immensely as I’ve always fancied going there. It’s a lovely sunny day, and the place looks a picture with its pretty window-boxes and elegant design.  Inside it is light and airy, less than half-full at 12.30 on a Thursday.


We order from the set menu (£27.50 for three courses), though with 7 or 8 choices per course, it feels more like a full a la carte.  C isn’t drinking so I go for a carafe of the house white, a Vermentino, from  Pays d’Oc,  which at £11.50 a half bottle is pretty reasonable. As you might expect the wine list goes up to some serious heights but it also has several wines at £30 or less, so your wallet is not necessarily that challenged.

We’re offered a parmesan crisp and then some lovely bread – we both have walnut. The service is alert and attentive, friendly without being intrusive – all it should be.

Starters arrive in decent time – though as we were chatting so much I may not have been paying full attention to the timing.  C has an asparagus and pea parcel with herb vinaigrette and mascarpone. This is deemed to be very good, very fresh and springlike, the parcel being a light pancake.  My salmon sashimi comes with a couple of prawn dim sum and ginger – bright, fresh, sharp.
The restaurant is filling up more now – a good mix of age ranges, a young family, middle-aged ladies who lunch, an older couple and some business types. All seem relaxed and enjoying themselves, as are we.

C’s main course is cod with truffle mash, cabbage, mushrooms and bacon. Perfectly cooked and attractively presented, this is another seasonally appropriate dish –and much approved of.  I’ve chosen the lamb tagine and kofta. The presentation of this is something of a surprise. The tagine is a ring of meat served with harissa aubergine (super) on the main plate; the kofta and bulgar wheat arrive in a separate dish for some reason.  But regardless of this idiosyncrasy, it all tastes wonderful, a mix of textures and flavours that makes each mouthful interesting.

As always when it’s available I choose the crème brûlée. I’m challenged to define what makes an excellent crème brûlée – this seems to be it. First it’s in a wide shallow dish, rather than a ramekin, making the ratio of brûlée to crème much better. Second it’s piping hot. And third it has a good hit of vanilla – and no messy fruit.
C’s dessert seems to be the one less than perfect note -  coconut panna cotta with mango salad, lychee sorbet and lime. It’s a bit of a mess, both of style and flavours, nothing individually wrong of course, but not a great synthesis.  So thank goodness there’s room for improvement!

It’s been a super lunch, and at less than £80 for two excellent value. It’s the sort of place that makes you feel at one with the world, so when back out in the sunshine I take a leisurely and relaxed stroll around the common, watching the ducks. Must go back soon.