Well-known Brasserie and venerable old Indian

 We were arranging to meet up with M&L in central London, but were met with a challenge - M wanted somewhere where they served draught lager. This turned out to be harder to find than I expected. Most places do bottled lager, but those that serve draught tend to call themselves "gastropubs" and have very limited and uninteresting menus. Something of a class thing going on here perhaps. 

Eventually, I found Tutton's, the well-known brasserie in Covent Garden, who offer a Staropramen, Czech lager.   It's a lovely sunny day, so there are many people sitting out on the terrace, but we have a table inside, in a corner near open windows, which was good. Less good was the time it took them to come across to take drinks orders. (Admittedly, after the first time, they got better).  As well as M's lager, we ordered a Cape Heights SA Sauvignon Blanc at £33. 

For starter's, both M and B had the crispy poached egg with mushrooms and peas. It's quite an impressive dish, runny inside but with a well-coloured batter outside. My beef carpaccio was OK, a little small, while L's warm beetroot salad was multi-coloured, but apparently not that special.

As we start the second course, we order another round of drinks. M's lager comes all fizzy and strange. It turns out it was the end of the barrel, so they do offer to change it, and it comes back later much better. The menu for mains was not extensive, but we each found something of interest. M had fish and chips (could have gone to a gastropub) and L had what she felt to be a disappointing pork belly, which had no crispy crackling. But B's seafood risotto was a full dish and my salmon trout nicely roasted. 

Ordering more drinks, the draught lager is now "off", so M resorts to bottled lager after all. We had told them that it was M's birthday so he got a free dessert, choosing salted caramel and dark chocolate tart. I keep him company with a mango and vanilla creme brulee. 

M generously offered to pay, so I don't know the exact bill, but I would imagine it would have been around £250.  For really very central London, not bad really, if hardly ground-breaking. There were a lot of Americans in, with their cruise ships numbers on their chests, so it's obviously on the well-known beaten track. After the initial lapse, the waitress was very smiley and helpful, and the atmosphere welcoming. A good place to take undemanding out-of-towners.  

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 There are some places which are just "institutions", having been around for so long. The India Club in Aldwych is one such. But sadly it closed its doors for the final time today, with re-development of the block finally having been approved. Apparently, early versions of the place have been going for 70 years as an outpost of the Indian High Commission and - it is claimed - hosting important visitors such as Nehru. Our ex-Home Office group used to make it a regular venue for a meal after the Varsity Match and we calculated that we must first have visited some 46 years ago. 

It's not what you would call salubrious or Michelin-quality. Its claim to fame was its authentic home-cooked Indian classics.  The restaurant is up a winding old staircase on the second floor, and features formica tables. It must have had an update over the years, because these are no longer screwed to the floor. The bar is one floor down (it used to be that you had to go down to order all your drinks, but now they do have drinks service at the table too). This has some lovely old prints and photos, but little in the way of plush furnishings. 

We visit in its final week, and the queue is amazing. You could only book for 6 or more, and sadly we are just 5, so we have to put our name on the list, notify them when we had all assembled, and just wait in the bar, drinking Cobra and Kingfisher. 

After about an hour and a half, we are finally summoned upstairs, to quite a good table by the window. Understandably, they are only doing the set menus, though we do manage to order extra chilli bhajis, one of our traditional favourites that blow your head off.  Otherwise it's standard fare of poppadums and pickles, onion bhaji, samosa, butter chicken, chana masala, dhal and mounds of rice. All for £22 including service - the beers were probably about the same. Pretty slick service meant that we were through our meal in an hour.

It is sad to see it go, though we were pleased to have stuck it out and managed to get in before the final close.  You can't recreate history like this.  

 

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).

 

 

February round-up

India Dining

It’s Valentine’s Day so of course we take our neighbour out for dinner.  We get a taxi over to Warlingham (about 20 mins), though parking is difficult and we have to jump out rapidly.  Naturally the place is festooned with red balloons, but we are offered a table where we can easily move them aside.


We’d heard of it some time ago as a place run by a chef who used to work at the Cinnamon Club. K&I next door had been before and liked it too, so we were definitely looking forward to it.
It’s quite busy, so it is hard to track down a specific server, but we get our wine (the house Merlot at £17.95) quickly enough. There are some more interesting/expensive wines on the list, but it’s not unreasonable.


There is a special Valentine’s Day 4-course menu on offer, but we decide to go a la carte, which they are OK with. We get some poppadums (with nice chutneys), then order. K passes on a starter, so we share the chilli squid (deep-fried, with a good hit of chilli) and the yellow fin tuna between the three of us. The tuna comes as slices of seared tuna, along with a few pieces of tuna tartar – the seared tuna is good, but I’m less enamoured with the tartar.
For main course, K goes with the mixed tandoori grill – chicken, lamb, prawn – with a stuffed paratha. She says that is very good. B orders the Goan prawns (or “Gowan” as the menu has it), which are excellent: good prawn flavour, soft but not cotton-wool, and a seriously spicy sauce. I choose “Nihari raan” – lamb shank in yoghurt and spice sauce. This is fine, the sauce is delicious and the meat comes away from the bone easily, but somehow the combination doesn’t really work.  We also order rice, dhal and a garlic spinach dish.


We indulge in a couple of desserts. K chooses the gulab jamun, the sticky milk balls dish, and B the pistachio kulfi. Both good.


Service has been very good despite the busy evening. At one point a senior waiter took mock offence when after asking “didn’t I take your order?”, I reply “no, a young man did!”.
The bill presented was £136 – 10% service, 2 bottles of wine and a couple of cokes. It sounded OK, so I didn’t check it until later. They had forgotten to charge us for the poppadums and starters, but had charged us for an extra side dish and coke – on balance we were ahead! 
Worth the visit if there are enough of you to justify the taxi fare.
 

Chez Lindsay

I’ve reviewed this charming French bistro before, and again we are there with S&S. It may be that is not as much on offer as you’d expect, but we end up ordering just two different starters and two different mains between us. S and B love the whole crab starter, which of course takes an age to eat. S and I go for the smoked duck salad – good, not special.


Unusually we have all gone for galettes as mains – B for the gambas, and the rest of us for the fruits de mer.  We also have a crème brulee and a crepes suzette for dessert.
£244 for the food plus four bottles of Viognier at £25 and some water.  Happy to recommend that.

Red Farm

We’d been looking for a good Chinese centrally so when we hear of this place by Covent Garden we have to give it a try. It’s a tight small space with a long central table and a few others around the side. We get seated at a two-some table in what feels like a cramped place near the bar – nowhere to put coats other than the floor. The place is fairly busy with lively young people so, once we get used to the table, the atmosphere is OK.


It’s tricky to work out what to order from the menu – what is starter or main. Some dishes seem seriously pricey and dim sum are £10 a shot. In the end we go for a selection of starters/dim sum. We choose just 4 to start with.


The “pac man” prawn dumplings are unique – there are four different flavour dumplings plus a “pac man” shaped shrimp/potato fritter.  The individual dumplings are excellent, but pac-man himself a little dull.  The other dim sum is beef dumplings – spicy and slippery. We also have “Dingley Dell” pork belly – soft and full of flavour; and lamb skewers with chilli and cumin.
To be fair the dishes have been a good size and very tasty. We order another portion of the “pac man” a chicken dumplings, with mushroom and a duck gyoza.


Service was very slow to begin with. The head waiter apologised for the delay due to a technical problem – just before we got irritated.  In recompense he provided a tray of three vegetables, which were very tasty and didn’t charge us for the gyoza.


Wine wasn’t cheap either - £29 for a standard Chenin Blanc. The total of £136 (incl 12.5% ) was more than you would expect for an average Chinese dim sum – but then it was definitely well above average.  OK for small groups – not really a party destination.

Busaba, KIngston

We’ve been to this Thai restaurant on the river in Kingston before – in the summer when you could sit outside. Despite this remarkable February weather, this time we are inside in a very busy space.  We are offered one table close to a group of little kids, so decide instead to sit between two other tables, both of which were finishing up anyway.


Although the restaurant is busy, the service is good enough to get a wine order (Chenin Blanc at £22) in quickly, along with some Thai prawn crackers – so much better than the Chinese ones.
We share a Thai calamari to start – their “signature” dish with ginger and green peppercorns. It is remarkable, nothing like I’ve had before. The calamari is cooked just short of rubbery (no batter), and the sauce a mouthful of flavour. The peppercorns are on little stalks, infusing the whole thing. Top marks.


There are several main courses that sound very interesting, but in the end we go with chilli prawns and tamarind duck (which comes with rice) plus a “sweet and sour” cucumber salad.  The prawns have a serious kick and good flavour. The duck (which requires proper sharp knives to deal with) is also an impressive dish.  The only low note is the salad, which has far more lettuce and leaves and not enough cucumber for our taste.


With the usual 12.5% service (pretty much deserved) and a second bottle of wine, the bill comes to £97 – I’m pleased with that, it’s very good value.

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.

 

Blind date Japanese

We’ve been reading the “Blind Date” column in the Graun again, and although the couple decided not to meet again, one did want to go back to the restaurant!  Jidori, near Covent Garden – there’s one in Kingsland Road too.   Apart from the karaoke evenings (which I’m pleased to say we avoided), this Japanese place’s claim to fame is that it showcases the whole chicken.

For a moment it seems like they only do beer and sake, but we do find a wine list and get the house white at £21.  The menu also looks a little complicated so we opt for the set meal, “Omakase”, at £30 a head – 13 dishes with pickles and two desserts.

It’s not all chicken. The first three dishes are a tuna sashimi, grilled peas (interesting) and mushrooms. Then, with the pickles we have chicken thighs and onions and minced chicken with egg yolk.  Followed by spicy chicken wings and the remarkable heart and bacon. Plus chicken livers and four dishes I can’t recall (the translations from the Japanese include scissors, peach and leather!!!).   All really good, including the heart, which I guess we wouldn’t have chosen ourselves.  Dessert is coconut water sorbet, which seems a little dull after all that excitement. 

Just up from Lion King, the place is pretty small, more like a café, though there is an upstairs we didn’t see. Service is very good and friendly, explaining the dishes well. Total with a second bottle comes straightforwardly to £102 – plus 12.5%.  Interesting experience, well worth a try, but not somewhere I’d rush back to.

January selection

M&S are over visiting as part of the Christmas festivities, and we’ve decided to go out to Obia, the smarter of our two fairly new local Italians. We invite K along as well. It describes itself as “Ristorante, Vinoteca, Bar”, but I think it’s unlikely you’d go in just for a drink, though there is an area with high stools.  There is a garden area too, where you can get snacks like arancini, but obviously we’re not going there on an early January evening.

It’s fairly busy when we get there at 7.30pm, with a couple of larger groups, as well as couples. Our table is near the main path through the restaurant, but as we are only 5, we can leave the most affected seat vacant.

The very friendly waiter/maitre d’ comes over and rattles off some of the specials, all of which sound nice. The menu is anyway pretty interesting.  I order the Soave at £19.50, though M has a Moretti on draught, and S a lime and soda.

Three of us have the grilled sardines and fennel off the specials list, while S has buffalo mozzarella. The sardines are very good, nicely marinated, and filleted.

For mains, between us, we have seabass fillets (specials), pan-fried cod with borlotti beans, lamb cutlets and I have pork belly; we also have zucchini fritti, steamed spinach and chips.  My pork belly portion is huge, and I’m not able to finish it, instead taking about half away. It was also a little on the dry side, making it harder to get through.  Others were very pleased with theirs, all with clean plates.

K orders the sorbet and gelati for dessert, and is offered the mince pie gelati as one of her three choices. It genuinely tasted of mince pie – very good. B has the semifreddo, which is covered in gooey toffee sauce and nuts – lovely.

The service has been very friendly and efficient throughout, despite it being quite busy. With a second bottle of Soave, the bill comes to £225 including service, pretty good value we felt. And the whole thing was rounded off with a complimentary glass of limoncello to send us away feeling very good about the place.

 

 

It’s B’s birthday, so first we do the cultural bit – Cezanne portraits at the NPG – and then on to lunch. She’s chosen a simple enough Thai place, actually from the same chain as we went to in Kingston: Busaba Eathai in Panton Street.

We finish the exhibition rather earlier than expected (it’s not that large), and so first repair

The Chandos in St Martin’s Lane. This Sam Smith’s pub has lots of character, with nice wood-panelled booths, and was surprisingly quiet for such a central location. And reasonably priced too.

Then off to lunch.  It’s pretty quiet in here too – there wasn’t really a need to book. The tables in the centre of the room are large (8-seater) sharing ones, but there are some 2’s and 3’s by the windows which is what we choose.

Service is attentive enough, and we have some edamame beans with our Viognier (French - £26) while we decide on the order. To start we have garlic and pepper chicken livers, which are excellent, and “son-in-law” eggs. These are boiled eggs with a coating and a little spice – fine, but not as interesting as they sounded.

Main courses are Asian salmon fillet – a nicely poached slab of fish with a spicy support – and jasmine beef rib – sturdy but comes away from the bone well. Supported by a “Som Tam” salad – seriously spicy.

With a couple of other glasses of wine and service  (JUST 10%!) the bill comes to a little over £100. The way prices go these days in central London that is probably fair, but at over £100 I start to feel the meal should be special, and this was only fine.

 

 

J&G are over from NZ, so we meet up for lunch with them and M&G at Mber in Pudding Lane. It describes itself as “Pan-Asian tapas”.  It’s down in a dark, seductive basement, with enormous metal stanchions. We have been a couple of times before, but after wine-tastings, so this is our first time sober!

We’re sat at a high table with stools in the middle of the restaurant. There are quite a few others in, but there’s no problem with the acoustics. The wine list shoots up pretty rapidly, but I do find a white Rioja at £35 which meets with approval – later we also have a Carignan red at £31.  The range of food choice is extensive, so with there being six of us, we decide to go for the set 6-dish lunch with a couple of add-ons.

First to arrive is the salmon salad – nicely smoked, poached salmon with cos lettuce and edamame beans.  Next the chorizo and prawn gyoza (ordered extra), which are lovely; and then the beef glass noodle salad, which was seriously spicy. These are followed by the satay chicken (vg), soft-shell crab tempura (also vg) and the cha sui pork doughnuts (nice pork but the doughnut is oddly sweet).  Finally the beef rendang curry with rice and pak choi.

That seems to have defeated most of us, but a couple of valiant souls move on to dessert. A Pannetone bread and butter pudding meets with G’s  approval; my peanut butter parfait also gets lots of takers.

In the end we have 4 bottles of the Rioja and 2 of the Carignan. That takes the bill, with 12.5% service, to over £500 for the 6 of us. Clearly, more abstemious people could have got away with less!  So very good value overall.

 

 

Meeting up with S and L, we head to The Escapologist near Seven Dials,  as the girls like to start the evening with a cocktail.  We’re there first and are surprised to find that it is 2-for-1 happy hour, even though it’s a Friday night. The place is busy, and it takes a while to take the order and bring our drinks, by which time S has arrived and can order hers. L arrives late, having got the time wrong, so just shares our drinks. Six cocktails for £35 is pretty good!

Then we’re off to Cinnamon Bazaar: in Maiden Lane. Last time we went the food was excellent, but the service shambolic, so we’re hoping for better this time.  The place is busy and buzzy, but we get help with ordering and our wine (white Rioja at £38 – the prices do go up quickly) quite quickly, so things are looking up.

For starters we share a crab bonda, watermelon chaat, dahi bhala chaat (lentil dumplings) and crisp whitebait. We’d had the crab (with beetroot) before, but today it seemed rather heavy. The watermelon was both refreshing and spicy. Lentil dumplings were also heavy, but the whitebait were indeed crisp with a good spicy powdered covering.

 Mains are served reasonably promptly despite the full house. We have Tandoori lamb fillet, pork belly with curried yoghurt, Tandoori king prawns, and haddock curry. The lamb was tender and the pork interesting, but the king prawns (though large) were rather ordinary, and the haddock curry not impressive. We had tried to order rice, but the dishes came with some, so we just had a garlic naan and a black dhal in support.

We share a couple of desserts – an excellent kulfi on a stick and chocolate golis, four different flavoured truffles, of which the dark chocolate with chilli was by far the best.

Service was much better than before: timely, cheerful and helpful – clearly the A-Team on tonight. With three bottles of wine the bill comes to a bit over £250 without tip - we left £30. £70 a head is perhaps a bit on the expensive side (to an extent due to the wine), as this time the food wasn’t stand out excellent, just good.

 

Cinnamon Bazaar - great foood, shambolic service

We’re meeting J&K to mark K’s birthday the next day.  Our first choice, House of Ho, is fully booked up – odd as it’s a big place.  Dishoom also can’t take the booking – not for the first time.  B finds an offer on Bookatable of 9 dishes and a cocktail at Cinnamon Bazaar, so goes ahead and books that. We’d been interested to try this latest incarnation of the Vivek Singh Cinnamon chain, because we have liked both the upmarket original Cinnamon Club, and the tapas-style Cinnamon Soho, and very recently enjoyed the “Desert Island dishes” (DIDs) at Cinnamon Kitchen.
After some drinks in Davy’s, we arrive at the restaurant a little later than originally planned. It’s a nice bright room with interesting streamer decorations around the high ceiling. We’re shown to a table by the rear fire exit – nice and light, but I doubt health and safety would have approved of B putting her coat on the steps! 

Menus are brought, but nothing said about the offer, so we ask. No, they’re not doing it. Not their fault if Bookatable got it wrong. No recognition that we might be disappointed. So, with no cocktails on their way, I quickly scan the wine list and choose a Macabeo at £25.  This takes an age to arrive, while the waiter is harassing us to choose our food – when we had been expecting to have a fixed menu.
We do then order starters and mains. The waiter says – “it will all come together” (ie “our convenience is more important than your enjoyment”).  I’m starting to sulk, but J goes off to sort him out.  

We’re enjoying our wine and conversation, but it does seem an age before any food arrives. I check my watch – it’s an hour since we arrived.  Eventually the four starters do arrive – J’s efforts paying off.  The Mirchi vada chaat (stuffed padron peppers) in yoghurt with pomegranate are super as the first dish I taste (and strangely not on website menu). The Kachori chaat (described as spiced onion dumplings, but actually much crispier) is also good. Crab bonda (crab in chickpea batter, similar to one of the DIDs) is full of crab flavour, and the shrimp dish drier and also very tasty. Portions were ample to share between four.
I’m beginning to feel they have redeemed themselves.  But another slow order of wine (regular readers will know that “quick wine” is important to us!), and an age for the mains  - presumably because they didn’t start on them straight away – makes me wonder again.  

When the mains do come, we’re presented with two cauliflower dishes instead of our order of one cauliflower and one aubergine.  We complain and they take one dish away, and return with the aubergine three-quarters of the way through our meal. They’ve also brought two pilau rice when we only ordered one. 

Once again, the quality of the food comes to the rescue. I’d chosen the cauliflower because Vivek Singh had given it us as an extra DID, and I’d been so impressed - it didn’t disappoint here either.  The aubergine when it comes is very good too.  Mains include lamb galauti, a very spicy burger-like patty on paratha, pepper fried shrimp which is sharp and dry, and a very rich and spicy mutton curry – all top favour dishes. We also have black dhal, B’s favourite.
Service is still slow and erratic, with no appreciation of the totality of the experience.  We do go for desserts – a mango brulee, chocolate golis (three elegantly flavoured pieces) and ice cream/espresso.  

The bill looks very reasonable, partly because it doesn’t include service. I would normally credit them for that approach, but unfortunately for them, because of the experience, I tip less than 10%.
Later when I look at the bill I’m a bit confused. Yes, they did charge us for two pilau rice when we’d only ordered one, but we had eaten them; and they charged us for two cauliflowers and no aubergine, but I imagine there would be little difference in that.  I seem to think we must have had a fourth main course that isn’t on the bill, but neither of us can remember what that might have been. And the mutton curry and the ice cream are listed at £0.00 – there may have been a set-price limit operating, but again it’s not clear from the website. No wonder the bill seemed reasonable.


So all in all?  Glad to have gone.  Food excellent.  Room and ambience fine.  Service all over the place, and insensitive.  Web presence (own website menus and link to Bookatable – which is still offering the 9 dish special offer) poor.