Smart fish restaurant in Richmond

 An offshoot of its parent in Mayfair, Scott's Richmond opened in September last year. We'd heard some good things about it, so decided to push the boat out and give it a try. 

As the weather was looking OK, I decided to book outdoors on the Terrace. The choice of times was very limited, nothing between 12.45 and 3.30, so I went for the earlier time. Conscious of their strict sounding late-arrival policy, I was glad our bus delivered us to Richmond in good time. Part of the restaurant's appeal was its view over the river, so we walked along the riverside path from the bridge - only to find ourselves far down river without having seen the restaurant. After some hasty discussions, we retraced our steps and found it on the corner near the main Riverside steps - it just didn't have a river-level frontage.

We are taken in, up four flights to the Terrace, to be given an excellent table by the veranda, directly overlooking the river. Down below are swans, geese and to our surprise two herons, which we spend a lot of our time watching. The weather is ideal - warm and sunny, but with a breeze and not too hot. They do have heaters and awnings so they can perhaps deal with less good weather too. A light background track of American songbook and other easy listening plays gently (thank goodness). 

B is fascinated by the staff's dress code. We'd been greeted at the door by a black guy in a cream suit with a Panama hat - very New Orleans jazz. The reception desk staff had boring green suits. Our waiter, Vinnie, wore a smart Burgundy waistcoat and bow tie, while over-seeing the proceedings was a head waiter looking like Lurch in a really odd Burgundy suit. There seemed to be other waiters in green waistcoats, and the minions (inevitably young women) delivering bread were in dull green tunics. The head honcho, dressed in a dark blue suit and pale pink tie, smarmed his way round some of the tables (not ours) looking more like a junior Tory minister.  But nonetheless Vinnie was welcoming, friendly and lightly amusing. The service even extended to providing some diners with sunglasses and sunscreen. 

Unsurprisingly, the wine list goes up quite quickly. There is an Argentinian Torrontes for £44 and a Spanish Macabeo for £36, but I select the Rioja Verdejo at £48. There were also French rosés at £48. 

The menu is pretty wide-ranging, and there is a selection of specials - halibut (£40), oysters and lobster roll (which was quite popular). I pass over the oysters and caviar quite quickly, and though B does suggest a couple of tempura fried oysters we just go straight to starters. B unusually decides against the scallops, and instead has baked spiced crab, presented attractively in the shell. From the first mouthful she is sold. It is indeed delicious, a good hit of chilli, but with the crab flavour coming through.  That allows me to choose the scallops, seared in their shell with Thai green butter. These are excellent too, though much less spicy than B's crab. 

For main course B has the char-griddled tiger prawns (which are also available as a starter). These are also spiced, coming with jalapeno and tamarind. Deemed very good but a bit "cotton-wool", suggesting they were frozen, all eight of them were nonetheless polished off without trouble. My fillet of hake, with romesco sauce and salsa verde, was excellently cooked with a crisp thin layer of skin and very flaky fish.  We had both been tempted by the monkfish and tiger prawn masala, but thought that the sauce might have been too overwhelming - it looked good on another table though.

We also had some very good fries (at Vinnie's prompting) and a tomato salad, which included some very sweet (in both senses) yellow tomatoes.  The fried aubergine with tamarind yoghurt at another table also looked amazing.

We opted not to have desserts. Cinnamon doughnuts appeared elsewhere and we quickly despatched. 

All the other tables on the Terrace had been occupied, some had a second sitting. One table moved inside for their dessert, maybe asked to do so as new people arrived soon after. There was no pressure on us to move though. So the booking window seemed justified, rather than perverse as it had seemed to me at the time.

After a second bottle, and two bottles of Eira sparkling water, I tried to guess what the bill would be. Inexpensive was not what I expected. And it wasn't. It did come in under £250, with 13.5% service which seems to be increasingly common. Scott's is part of the Caprice group, so I guess it's no surprise that it has the same service policy as the Ivy.

Value for money? Well it is a lot. The excellent table on the Terrace in good weather was a big plus - maybe without that we might not have felt so well-disposed. I did look in on the main dining room as we left - it was elegant and imposing, but few tables had a river view. So definitely one only for very special occasions - or when someone else is paying!

Kingston Thai and Sardinian fish place at Victoria

 After a shopping spree in John Lewis, we head to the river in Kingston for a late lunch. We decide on Busaba, a Thai place. We have been there before, but not recently.  There are workmen outside, and only a couple of other people in the place, so we get a seat at the window. 

From a short wine list we choose Cullinan View, a chenin from SA, at £27. The menu is quite interesting, but B spots that the single bowls are a lunchtime offer at £11 each so we decide to go for one of those each. B chooses chilli prawns with rice, coriander and Thai basil. I have Chicken Pad Thai. We also order edamame beans with chilli flakes and a som tam - green papaya, dried shrimp, cherry tomato, peanut and chilli.

B is really taken with her prawn dish. There are 6 good sized prawns, and the rice is good and spicy and flavourful. My Pad Thai is good too, less punchy, mainly soy sauce flavoured so a little salty, but plenty of chicken too. The salad could blow your head off - the waitress had warned us. 

With a couple more glasses of wine, the bill manages to get up to £87, despite service at only 10%. Service has been efficient and friendly, but it was quiet mid-afternoon. Very pleasant lunch.

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We have arranged to meet up with T&K, though decided to delay it a week because of rail strikes (even though they were in the end suspended). I'd been indecisive about where to go, offering them a choice of 9 places! Out of these, they went for Olivomare, a Sardinian fish restaurant just a stone's throw from Victoria station, which was one we had never visited. This is part of a small group of restaurants around Belgravia, headed by Olivo, that we went to many moons ago. It's interesting to note how coming out this side of the station puts you in a different world from the Vauxhall Bridge Road side. 

We meet first on the pub next door, The Plumber's Arms. Apparently, this is renowned for being the place Lord Lucan's wife ran into screaming and covered in blood, accusing him of trying to murder her and having killed the nanny.  A coincidence, as it had just been claimed that an AI facial recognition system had identified him in Australia.

The restaurant itself is bright and light, and pretty busy. We are offered a choice of tables, one isolated at the back, the other in the middle with others, so we chose that. There is a good buzz to the place, and the clientele fit a rather narrow well-heeled demographic - Prada handbags.

The wine list is pretty varied and quite expensive - house white is £30.50. There is a section on Sardinian wines, so I ask the waitress's help with choosing one of those. She suggests Karmis Vernaccia, at a reasonable £33.50, which is indeed very good. 

The menu is also impressive, with many dishes I would like to try. In the meantime, bread arrives - including the traditional Sardinian thin crispy "musica da carta" or "piano bread". Finally, we make our selections.

K starts with a crab salad - a bright light dish of white crabmeat with radicchio and celery. T's Sardinian baby octopus stew (moscardini) looks hot and steamy and very dense, that comes served with toast. B has steamed mussels with garlic and parsley - very good-sized mussels, "not messed about with", in just a little wine. My carpaccio of tuna, swordfish and small prawns is good, though rather all dominated by the lemon. 

For main course, K pushes the boat out with a lobster, chargrilled. It looks lovely, a very bright red, split open and well-presented - complete with crackers and utensils for the claws, and served with a green salad. T has fritto misto, a dish I rarely choose because it can be so disappointing. His looks excellent, lightly battered, good chunks of fish and prawns.  B chose the chargrilled monkfish fillet with courgettes - an elegantly dressed but smallish looking portion. Very good though.  I order orata - sea bream, because I remember having it in Sicily. They bring it whole to show me and ask whether I'd like it filleted or not - I do bottle out and ask them to do that. It looks like quite a small portion, but it takes me a while to work my way through as it is full of flavour.  

We also order some deep-fried courgettes - lovely little bites - and a tomato and basil salad - brilliant red cherry tomatoes, dressed with a little oil.

We decide against desserts, though I was tempted by the Sardinian cheese fritter drizzled with honey. Service has been very good, delivering what was needed without intruding.

Three bottles of wine, some water and a rather cheeky 15% service charge take the bill to just over £350. It's been a very good meal, up there with Michelin stars if you are a fish lover. But it's probably special occasions only.  

 

Two nights in Bristol

 I have to be in Bristol for some work on a Friday afternoon, so we decide to make a weekend of it. I have pre-booked for 3 of our 4 meal-times, in an area just 5-10 minutes from our hotel. 

So come Friday evening we make our way down by the harbourside to The Olive Shed. They make a great deal about their al fresco eating, but of course on a damp evening that's not for us. Downstairs there are just a few seats at the counter; we're shown upstairs to a cosy room with views over the harbour - though we don't get one of those tables, being given a large one near the stairs. It's not a big place - perhaps 40 covers - gently lit, and pretty full. Clearly a popular place, as there is also quite a turnover of tables.

The focus is on tapas, a relatively short list, though there are a couple of large plates - market fish, steak - on the menu too. We're told they have sold out of the fish.  There is a French SB at £26.50, which comes delivered fairly promptly. They seem to be obsessed with water though, as we get offered immediately, and twice more.

There's soft shell crab on the menu, so obviously that's B's first choice. Gambas pil pil is a no brainer too. Iberico bavette is on the specials board - the waiter declares it to be his favourite, so that's on the list; "croquette" (singular) is just £3, but we're assured there are two pieces - ham croquette today. Finally, we choose a sliced venison chorizo to round things off.

As often happens with tapas most of the dishes arrive at the same time, which means you tend to eat them rapidly while they are still hot. In fact, we could have been through in an hour.

The crab is a good enough size to be able to taste the meat rather than just batter. The prawns come in their shells and the meat doesn't come away very easily. They don't have a lot of flavour and the pil pil doesn't help much. The bavette comes sliced in a very nice jus and is indeed a good choice, tender and tasty. The croquettes are a reasonable size and very hot and gooey, also a good choice, and the venison chorizo quite good too.

We order a second bottle, have a bit of a pause, and then order more crab and croquettes. 

The staff have been busy scuttling up and down stairs all evening, but remain cheerful and friendly, despite the obsession with water. With service the total comes to £140, a fair price I'd say.

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After a visit to the SS Great Britain the following morning, we explore around the main harbour basin to find somewhere for lunch. Most of the places seem geared up for big groups and don't appeal much, but right at the end is moored a boat with what looks like an attractive dining room - Under the Stars. They say they are fully booked downstairs, but we can eat outdoors up top. The weather is quite bright, so we go for that. The menu is again tapas - or pizza. We have a bottle of Marlborough SB (£20), and then order food: hummus and bread, spiced lamb kofte and spider crab croquettes. B thought we'd agreed to have gambas as well, but I thought we'd said we wouldn't as we'd have prawns in the evening. So it ends up a modest lunch. The hummus was a little dry for B's taste, The kofte were really good, spicy with pine nuts and pickled red onion slices. The croquettes were pretty good too. Total £47.

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For the evening I have booked Salt and Malt, a fish restaurant in the collection of container sheds that is Wapping Wharf. There is a queue out of the door as we arrive, but it transpires this is for take-away fish and chips. The seating area is busy too, divided into smaller areas by strange screens. We get given what is a pretty rubbish table, where we can't see the rest of the restaurant. We can see the kitchen and chef though, and that becomes quite interesting. The menu has a good selection of starters, but fairly conventional fish and chips for mains. 

The wine list is short, so we opt for the cheapest, a Pecorino from Italy (£26). We have three starters. The scallop (just the one, but large) is attractively served on a shell, with a parsnip gratin - nicely cooked. Prawns pil pil are much better than the previous night, lots of kick to the sauce and fresh prawns. The Thai fishcakes with teriyaki sauce come more like croquettes, balls rather than cakes. But they are good and fishy too, decorated with a little chilli and garlic.  And from our table we had been able to watch the somewhat grumpy chef cook all these. The waiting staff were very pleasant though. 

For main, B had the haddock and chips, with crushed peas. It's a good sized portion, but as extreme as some cod and chips you get in pubs. It's a professional example of the dish - hot, good batter, firm fish. I have whole-tailed battered scampi, which also comes with crushed peas - they are rather good.  We order two glasses of wine, but they don't do the Pecorino by the glass, so we have Touraine Sauvignon at £8 each. B can't finish her fish so asks to take some away, which they are geared up to anyway. 

Total was £98, only 10% service. The poor table put a downer on things, though it was quite interesting watching our starters being cooked; the starters were good, but the mains not much more than average. Maybe a "tapas" selection of starters would have been a better choice. 

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Sunday lunchtime we are booked into another tapas place, again in Wapping Wharf, though upstairs - Gambas. This is apparently related to the Michelin star tapas, Paco Tapas. After last night's experience we approach with a due sense of dread. In fact, it is a very pleasant place, and we get a good central table, with a reasonable view down to the harbour. 

There are also outside tables. There's a nice warm buzz to the place, blackboards listing sherries, and a goodly number of staff. Again a short menu. 

We order the house wine, a Verdejo at £26. It's perfectly fine.  The dishes here arrive a little more spaced apart. First we get the bread and aioli, a luscious dip with serious garlic supporting half a loaf of tasty bread, and alongside it the cured trout ("fish of the day"), which is in a delicious green sauce. 

Shortly after come the calamares - hot, crispy; padron peppers - B gets a hot one first up; and the sausage croquettes (sobrasada). 

Finally the inevitable gambas pil pil - an easy to eat version with just the heads left on for decoration. We'd ordered an extra prawn to make it two each. And the Presa Iberica (pork shoulder), succulent slices in a tasty sauce, more mouth-melting than Friday's. 

All very pleasant, so I indulge in salted chocolate truffles as a dessert. £4 for 4, but they are excellent. 

With a second bottle of wine, this comes to £126, a better option than the Olive Shed. 

Southbourne fish restaurant

 We are down in Southbourne on the coast visiting our friends P&M. The focus of the visit is dinner at Sobo Fish, a favourite of theirs. The restaurant is at the edge of the main shopping area of Southbourne, on the main road into Bournemouth and so easily accessible by bus.

It's a hot evening when we visit. Our table is in the centre of the main room - not by the blackboard menu, where we are warned we might be photographed! - so not particularly airy, but overall it's not too hot. There are little hutches outside at the back, but we aren't offered one of those. 

There is a wine menu - we choose a Sauvignon/Gros Mansegn at £28, described as "semi-dry" - but otherwise you have to refer to the blackboards. The mains are on our side of the room, so P takes a photo of the starters/"table nibbles" menu on the other side.  B opts out of starters as she thinks here preferred main course could be very large, and I have crab cake with aioli from the "nibbles" list. This is just the one crabcake, but it is full of flavour. M has the tempura prawns while P does go for the full "starters" option of mussels in a Thai curry sauce - amusing as before going he'd said he fancied curried mussels. M's prawns looked as you'd expect, but P's mussels were certainly a good tasty dish.

The mains menu is priced at £15 including a side, but with supplements ranging from £2 to £10. In fact, all but one option includes a supplement, so they might as well have priced the items separately.  There is a very extensive choice of options. 

For mains, I have a skate wing. This is a good sized - that is, not too huge - portion, served with prawns, small clams and capers.  Nicely cooked with a crisp exterior and soft inside. I have the skinny fries with that. B's choice is the hot shellfish bowl - prawns, clams, mussels, razor clams, langoustine, in a light broth (£10 supplement). It's certainly a full-on dish, but the lightness of the broth means it is a manageable amount. Her "side" was a Caesar salad. 

P has the "flat fish of the day" - plaice - in Moroccan spices, which looks excellent. M has the duo of sea bream fillets. Between them they share new potatoes and roasted fennel. 

We have room so between us order a lemon roulade and a creme brulee. The roulade is remarkably light, as indeed is the brulee, which has a thin layer on top. 

Service from an all female crew, supervised by "Jackie", was a little mixed, in that there seemed to be a couple in training who were yet to get up to speed. The more experienced staff were very friendly and welcoming. 

The total is £190, before service, which is very good value for a well executed, fresh fish menu. And it's only the following day I learn that "SoBo" is chic slang for Southbourne! 

Some recent visits

 ESHER TAPAS BAR

We get the bus into Esher to visit Don Luis, a fairly new tapas bar. We have been there once before, but that was very early days. When we arrive at 2pm there is only one other table occupied. so we get a nice table by the window.

Wines are not cheap, so we go for the house white, Espeto Blanco, at £24.  As well as tapas, they do paella and steaks. We choose the paella mixta, but since this will take a while, precede it with a few tapas - sourdough with a really sharp ali-oli, squid tentacles, hot and crispy and a quite light chorizo tortilla. All very acceptable. The paella when it comes is a huge portion, mainly featuring chicken and mussels, though there are a couple of large prawns and a surprising amount of squid.  We fail to get through it, but they happily bring a pot for us to transfer the remains. 

Very chatty waiter - they're not busy. With second bottle this comes to £124 (including 12.5%). Worth a visit.

WARWICK

We have decided to break our journey to Wirral with the night in Warwick. We're staying at the Warwick Arms which is nice enough but nothing special.  It is central though, so it's easy for us to walk into the market square for a late lunch. We sit outside in the sun at the Tilted Wig. The menu looks interesting and we choose between the fish board or prawns, squid and ham croquettes, finally going for the latter.

I go in to order to find they don't have any more ham croquettes, so revert to the fish platter at £17. The Chilean SB is £17 too. We notice dishes coming out to other tables are quite large, and indeed our platter doesn't disappoint. There's chilli and garlic prawns, a pile of squid, a big dish full of whitebait, and several slices of smoked salmon.  These are accompanied by an interesting salad and several slices of attractive herby bread (which we don't touch as we're going out to dinner).  Very good value indeed.

I have booked us into 7 Square for dinner. We wander by to check on location and see it's attached to a wine bar - looks quite nice. We are shown in to a rather dull looking back room, with cheap looking tables. There's some interesting trompe d'oeil wall painting, merging into actual pictures. 

Looking at the menu, I wonder why on earth I'd booked here. It's a very limited choice of heavy-sauced French dishes. We choose a Muscat Viognier at £24, which is fine. B decides against a starter, and I have the goat's cheese bruschetta.  This is very good, with peppers, and excellent bread.

For main B has duck a l'orange. There are several slices of pink duck, but the sauce is too much. I order my rump steak medium-rare. It's a big thick chunk of steak, too tough to get through. So I ask for it to be cooked more, which does make it more tolerable, but again it is drenched in sauce - peppercorn.  Overall a disappointing experience for £100. 

BURNT TRUFFLE

We've been to the Burnt Truffle in Heswall before. It's a place for special occasions, so for this first meeting up with G&S since 2019 is a good place to go. 

It's quite a short menu, so it turns out that the girls order the same things, and G and I also have the same. 

Starters were a gorgeous terrine.

And a slightly more ordinary sea trout.

Mains were cod loin - excellent - and an equally good large portion of roast pork

Service is friendly and slick without being intrusive.  Total bill (several bottles of Viognier at £27) comes to a substantial £300 for 4, including tips, but it does feel like it was well worth it. 

PARKGATE

Lunch at The Ship in Parkgate is a last-minute decision. We'd gone in for a drink and to look at its refurbishment - including a lovely upstairs terrace.

Bur unfortunately it is a bit too chilly to sit up there. Instead we have a nice table in the window downstairs.  After last night's dinner we only want snacks so choose from the starters menu - potted salmon with sauce gribiche, and five spiced wild mushroom and water chestnut pancakes. Both VG. G&S have wild boar sausage roll and haddock arancini. 

Sea bass menu from Rick Stein

After the success of our French Table meals, we've decided to try out more of the restaurant delivery options. Rick Stein deliver anywhere in the country for around £8, and their three-course menus are a reasonable £50 - £60, so rather cheaper than TFT - the sea bass option was just £50.

The impressively packaged box duly arrived, and was unpacked with some ceremony. A couple of the sauces weren't labelled, so we had to work out which they were. It then dawned that this was more a load of ingredients and cooking instructions, rather than fully formed dishes just needing to be warmed up. The array of pans required was considerable too.

Anyway, B knuckled down and set to work. The first course was mussels with black beans, garlic and ginger.  We had the inevitable debate about what to do about open or closed mussel shells. On the mussel bag it said to "tap" the mussels to close them before cooking, but not to eat ones that didn't open afterwards - Rick's instructions said that didn't matter, and you could just prise them open. The sauce had to be fried briefly first, then the mussels and stock added and cooked for 3 minutes. Finally coriander and spring onion was added.  Luckily all the mussels opened so we didn't have to worry.  There was a whole kilo of mussels, so this made a substantial first course. The mussels were very sweet and tasty, and the sauce was interesting too. There wasn't as much stock as I might have expected, but mopping it with bread was very nice.

We took a little break before the main course. Again this was a good size portion - four large fillets of sea bass between us; two huge bok choy. That needed to be cooked first, while rice was cooked in the microwave.  It needed a very large frying pan to cook the fish, which was supposed to have a crispy skin - that proved difficult to achieve.  To accompany the fish there was a pre-prepared hot, sour and sweet sauce which just needed warming and pouring over, and a sprinkling of crisp shallots and cashew nuts. 

It was all very good indeed. The fish firm and full of flavour, with interesting toppings. Bok choy I can take or leave, but made the dish looked interesting. It was also very filling, so we decided to leave the dessert for another day. 

The dessert was pots of white chocolate topped with mango puree, and accompanied by cardamon shortbread. No cooking involved here. This was good, not as sickly sweet as it might sound. 

B told me to emphasise the amount of washing up that had to be done aftewards!  Overall it was a very good meal, though most of it you could do just by buying the ingredients and following a recipe. The pre-prepared sauces were something that would be harder to replicate, and you'd probably not bother with the fiddly shallots and nuts, which would be a shame as they did add texture. 

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.

JANUARY ROUND-UP

It was B’s birthday and we finally get around to going to see the Late Turner exhibition at the Tate. So for lunch we decided to try the Rex Whistler restaurant there.  Understated it isn’t.  The semi-underground room  is covered with murals – expedition in pursuit of rare meats – making it very dark and forbidding. The place is pretty much full, with the obvious demographic – we’re probably the youngest there.  

Our table is down at the back squeezed in near the server’s area, but it is at least near one of the small windows so we do get some natural light. The “award-winning”  wine list is extensive but naturally not cheap – we settle for the Klein Konstantia SB at £30. Not  “quick wine”  though, despite being near to the servers.

The set menu is £25 for two courses, £30 for three – plus a weird £1 per table suggested donation to the Tate!  To start I have the Dorset crab with brioche crumb – two small dollops of encrusted crabmeat. The sweet brioche works well with the crab, of which there is plenty, though the fragments of shell I could have done without.  B has the crispy duck egg with ham hock and green beans. The egg was cooked just right- slightly runny – and the ham hock a good salty accompaniment. 

For mains course I have the chicken breast with mushrooms - here’s not a great choice. That’s fine its way, just a little dry and with not a lot of flavour. B has the sea bass, again with green beans, which is a rather small fillet and again not with a great deal of flavour.  I’m tempted into the dessert by the coffee and hazelnut trifle, which comes with a huge layer of whipped cream and very stodgy coffee sponge – I don’t get close to finishing it.

Overall, at £133, not a great success, apart from marvelling at the décor.

 The following week, we’re off to Ronnie Scott’s, and decide to go try a place on Shaftesbury Avenue called The Noodle House beforehand. There’s an offer on to include a glass of Prosecco – fine if you like warm wine.  But the place is buzzy and interesting and the wine (a Tempranillo) reasonable at £19.  We start with some chilli ginger edamame beans, then have crispy calamari – very nicely done, melt in the mouth and light batter – and duck dumplings full of meat.  For main course we had black pepper beef with peppers and butter prawns (spicy) with jasmine rice ( no noodles despite the name). All very tasty and pretty good for £60.

G&S are down for a few days, performing at the Jermyn St theatre and then going to conferences etc. So after the show on the Sunday we aim for Cinnamon Soho – only to find it shut.  So we wander the nearby streets and happen upon a tapas place called Pix Bar (for pinxtos) in Ganton Street. Apparently there are branches in Bateman St, Covent Garden, Islington and Notting Hill too.  It’s just a small bar really, with the pinxtos dishes on the bar in true Basque style.  £1.95 for the ones with short sticks in, £2.95 for larger ones with long sticks.  The small ones a basically slices of bread with toppings; the larger ones more interesting, some kept warm in a cabinet, chorizo, ham.  Between us we manage 11 small ones and 14 larger ones! With a couple of bottles of Rioja at £21 and a whisky that comes to £126.  The service has been very friendly and the little place is quite full, including a couple of tables of Spanish people happily chatting to each other.  A find.

The next day (Monday) we’ve signed up for the 4 of us to go for a 10-plate dinner at Crazy Bear in Whitfield St, “Fitzrovia” (is that really a place?) at a special offer price of £29.95 (normally £39.95).  Crazy is the word for it!  The ground floor is not too extreme I guess, but downstairs is a louche bar, all dark and seductive. The loos are weird – you arrive at what seems to be a brick wall and wander up and down looking for door or sign. Eventually someone comes to help you and presses a magic brick and, “open sesame”, a door appears.  Inside the loo, it’s all black and sparkles. I give up trying to find the urinals (which I guess must be somewhere in the darkness) and use a cubicle which is at least visible. Washing your hands is an experience too  - as hands from the ladies suddenly appear the other side. Very odd!

This ten-plate dinner turns out be roughly three courses.  There’s a sushi course – salmon and tuna – then a dim sum course (har gau and pork dumplings), with some edamame beans appearing on the, and then for mains duck, seabass, beef curry, pak choi and rice.  It’s all very good indeed.

Wine is not cheap £27 for a Spanish white and £29 for a Malbec, but at £233 for 4 people overall it felt like good value.

Staying down in Hove with M&G, we go out for dinner at a lovely little fish restaurant – The Little Fish Market.  It is little – perhaps ten tables – and when we arrive there is one couple already there.  The waiter is absolutely charming and friendly and chats away with us throughout  - no sales pitch just a straightforward discussion.

The main topic of that conversation was why they moved from an a la carte menu to a five course set menu for £50 a head. Basically it came down to the fact that with just one chef and one front of house it was hard to sustain a full a la carte.

So we settle down to the meal - trout terrine with crispy quail’s egg to begin – excellent, full of flavour; butternut squash ravioli – not quite my thing; for the central course there is a choice: I have the beef short rib with cabbage - B has the lemon sole; this is followed by sea bass fillet with crab mousse; and then mango and chocolate with coconut.

For taste none of these courses could be faulted. But you would have thought that perhaps the central course might have been a bit more substantial – as it was it seemed like 5 amuse bouches. A quick kebab on the way home seemed an attractive prospect!

M&G generously treated us, so I don’t recall the wines we had or the total bill.  So would I recommend it?  If you’re not that hungry and want some great flavours, then yes; if you’re starving, try the local curry house.

The following day after a bracing walk along the seafront into Brighton, we head to M&G’s favourite lunch spot – Plateau, by the Town Hall. Another small, intimate and friendly place, this also has a limited menu. The eponymous platters – meat, fish or veggie – and a few specials on the board.  B and M share the meat platter – a fine selection of cold charcuterie, more than they could cope with; G has the special option of two small plates – a boudin noir and ox cheeks; I go for the bavette steak with fries and chimchurri – a seriously hot sauce.

With a couple bottles of wine this comes to just £140 for the 4 of us. Friendly service too. Go!

G&S are down again and have a late train back to the North on a Sunday.  So what better than a dim sum in Chinatown? Lots of options, but we settle on Harbour City, a slightly smarter than average place. It’s pretty busy so we get sent upstairs – this is busy too, so they give us a table for 8 by the window.  We order wine and tea, then settle down to examining the dim sum menu. We end up with Vietnamese spring rolls (good), paper wrapped prawn (excellent), prawn dumplings (two types, both OK), beef dumplings (so-so), prawn dumpling in spicy soup (certainly spicy), grilled dumplings (fine) followed by a half crispy duck and pancakes.  At £124 for 4 (only B and I were drinking) that was a pretty good deal.

Smart Italian in Red Lion Street

I’d been to Bacco before just for a glass of wine, when they had been very helpful and provided a basket of interesting bread. B had also been with other friends, so when looking for somewhere for lunch with M&G, we thought this would be a good choice. As we were celebrating their birthdays, we began with a bottle of Prosecco (£36), and then settled into examining the menu.

We wondered aloud what “slightly deep fried squid” might mean, and the waitress hearing us laughingly suggested in her seductive Italian accent it might be that they were still alive when pulled out!  That didn’t work for the similarly described brie though, so she asked her manager. He, also with a strong accent that had M wilting, described how this meant briefly fried in very hot oil.

I don’t know much about Italian grape varieties – they always seem so individualistic – so we settled on the house white, a Trebbiano del Rubicone, from Abruzzo  at a very reasonable £18.90 (the wine list does have plenty of options below£30).  This seemed to go down well so we stayed with it throughout.

M liked the look of the set menu, so began with the soup – an extremely thick mushroom with pesto - it was more like a puree than a soup, but apart from feeling full, M thought it was good. G had mussels – a huge plate in white wine with chickpea cream – also a hit.  B had to try the squid and it was a good as the descriptions had suggested.  My avocado and crabmeat with chilli was a little delayed in coming, and when it did it was on thin, crispy toast rather than the milk rolls advertised.  But it was worth waiting for, a great combination of flavours, and probably all the better for being on toast.

M’s set menu main course was billed as “Chicken Roulade filled w asparagus, four cheese fondue, basil potato mash, gravy”.  In practice the cheese was a background sauce, and the overall effect seemed a little dry, though M said the chicken itself was moist and tasty.  G’s main was the seafood pasta, which came with a surprisingly light but zingy tomato and chilli sauce: there was plenty of seafood, including more mussels.  B had the monk fish medallions cooked excellently and served in a very fresh herby sauce. My cod wrapped in pancetta with red lentils was also very good.

G has a taste for ice cream and sorbet, he chose a selection including some unusual flavours, so I had to keep him company with a tiramisu. Wow, this was so light and melting that it felt like it must be losing you weight!

We had been lingering over lunch, while other tables had come and gone. Bacco is a pretty popular place, so booking is probably a good idea. The whole atmosphere had been relaxed and gentle, with lots of happy and appreciative noises from nearby tables, and the service had been charming and efficient, a fairly uncommon combination.

This excellent meal came to a not insubstantial £250 including service (with 3 bottles of house white, some water and coffee), but for a special occasion represented very good value.

November catch-up

I’ve got a bit behind with my reviews so here are a few quick comments on recent places we’ve been.

Cay Tre, Vietnamese restaurant in Dean Street. A group of 8 of us descended on the interesting place recently. It’s lively and buzzy, maybe a bit canteen-like, more suited to a group than a couple. Lots of unusual dishes on the menu, especially starters. My choices perhaps weren’t the best – chicken and prawn pancake followed by a noodle bowl . But others’ dishes did taste good. Definitely worth a try at under £100 for 2.

Cape Town Fish Market in Argyll Street is ideally positioned for shopping or the Palladium. Part of a SA chain with a good reputation, this branch doesn’t quite hit the spot. It’s attractive enough with a big fish tank, but the service was poor, and the food unexceptional.  The salt and pepper squid was ordinary, though the queen scallops in the shell attractive and nicely cooked. Fish “potjie” (spicy pot dish) was bland and the salmon teriyaki ordinary. At £79 with a bottle of wine, it’s not expensive for where it is – but we won’t be rushing back.

PJ’s in Wellington Street is an old favourite, a warm welcoming straightforward brasserie in Covent Garden. There were 6 of us for dinner – I had duck spring roll “shots” – 3 spring rolls with different sauces served in shot glasses – very good. Other starters were Arbroath smokie, Gorgonzola and fig tart, scallops and pancetta, merguez sausage and lobster and crab pate.  My main course tuna loin was just the right shade of pink, while others enjoyed chicken cordon bleu, lamb tagine and tuna Nicoise salad. With 3 bottles of wine this came to £83 a couple, but there was a 50% off food offer (which they do quite often) which saved us £70 overall.

A weekend in Cardiff to watch Wales v Australia (enough said) started with dinner at Woods Brasserie in Cardiff Bay. Set in a lovely old building, this restaurant is quite stylish and modern. There was a limited choice on the set menu, but a la carte available as well, I had scallops followed by duck breast – very nice. B had venison carpaccio then fish and chips; others had game terrine (very meaty) and pulled pork.  With 2 bottles of wine and a couple of glasses this was £140 for 4. I was impressed; B less so.

Finding somewhere for lunch on match day was always going to be a challenge, but S remembered a tapas bar they’d been to before - Ten feet tall in Church St, off St Mary’s St. Remarkably this wasn’t very busy at all, though we did have to sit outside. Tapas were 3 for £10 or 6 for £18, so we had spare ribs, chilli prawns, chicken pesto, belly pork, Serrano ham, and meatballs.   There were 4 pieces of each but they were rather small. Tasty though.  With wine at £13 bottle, a useful place to know for a quick lunch.

We’d pre-booked Pica Pica in Westgate Street for after the match – just as well as not surprisingly it was heaving.  There was a set rugby tapas menu for 4 available at £25 a head. This included pizza tostadas and patatas bravas, potato wedges, grilled mushrooms, bread and taboulleh was so was high on the carbs. Dates in bacon (nice idea), lamb kofta, piri piri chicken, meze platter, whitebait and chicken wings were also included along with a bottle of wine.  Not as elegant as lunchtime, but tasty.  Somewhat disrupted by someone rushing in from the bar area and stealing a lamb kofta from my plate!!

Catching up - July

Hampton Court by the river

Back in the summer, we were off to the Hampton Court Flower Festival for their opening evening event.  So we stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at the Mitre Hotel by the bridge. It was a lovely day, so we were pleased to find there was still a table available outside on the terrace by the river, even one with an umbrella to shade us from the sun. It’s a gorgeous place to be, watching the ducks and the boats, and the occasional paddle steamer pottering around.

We started with (what else?) a bottle of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc (£22.50), and some sparkling water.  B wasn’t that hungry so we shared a starter of chilli salt and pepper squid, which came with a good cucumber and onion salsa. It was lightly battered and gently cooked, so avoided the rubbery texture, and would have been an ideal snack at any time. For main course B had the spicy garlic lime chicken breast, lightly fried with rocket & red onion salad. The lime did really shine through, so this was a very refreshing summer dish.  I had the “Oriental style” fish and chips, which was strips of salmon deep fried with chilli, chips and a soy dipping sauce. An unusual variation on the classic, this was also a good dish for a hot day.

Not everyone was enjoying their meal however. One lady complained that the fish in her (ordinary) fish and chips wasn’t fresh.  The manager responded quickly (though at first believing it was we who had complained) and tried to assure her that it had been freshly delivered. Unimpressed the customer chose to switch to a risotto. Perhaps this reinforces the general rule of not ordering fish on a Monday.

Service generally was a little brusque, though with a change of shift we did get a more charming waitress eventually. All in all a pleasant place to be on a nice day, and at £70 pretty reasonable.

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Brasserie Vacherin

Malcolm John’s Fish and Grill has been re-branded as Brasserie Vacherin to match his other restaurant in Sutton and Le Vacherin in Putney, so we had to go along to see what this meant for the menu.  We are again eating early, this time ahead of a comedy show at the Fairfield Halls, and so it’s fairly quiet on a Sunday afternoon.  After Kir Royales to get us going, we order the Viognier, from Languedoc, at £23 – full of fruity flavour.

My favourite tuna tartare is still on the menu, but B beats me to it. It’s a fresh and zingy creation, with chilli and ginger, and more substantial than it looks. I start with scallops, cooked just right, with black pudding and bacon to make it heartier.   B’s sea bass is also a standard from the old days, and is still a sound version of the dish, presented quite simply. My supreme of hake off the specials list is rather flavourless in comparison, but meaty enough, accompanied by chips in the signature tin can.

Unusually for us we decide to share a dessert – crepe suzette.  This is a very fine example, retaining a good degree of sharpness in amongst the melting sauce.  With a 12.5% service charge added, this lot comes to £95, much the same price as it used to be.

Just 3 weeks later we decide to visit again, on a Saturday night so we have booked. The place is virtually full, and we’re rather shocked as we’re  to our table to find a live singer belting out the classics directly at us. It’s so loud you can hardly hear yourself think, and the choice of songs so hackneyed it makes Radio 2 look cutting edge.  The ladies night out at the table alongside him are lapping it up though.

We have Kir Royales and Viognier again and this time I get the tuna tartare. B has prawns with garlic and parsley, three of them nicely grilled in their shells. My main course veal escalope is rich and oozing. B has the grilled crab, again with chilli and ginger, which is a bit of a battle to extract from its shell. And again we have the crepes suzette – nothing too adventurous!

The couple at the table next to us are sharing the chateaubrand which comes served on a stand complete with bone marrow and saucer sized mushrooms. Even at £50 this looks like an excellent option.

This time we’ve racked the bill up to £120, with a couple of extra glasses of Viognier. Still pretty good, though I’d avoid Saturday night next time.

Long weekend in New Forest and Bournemouth

We’re off to visit our friends P&M at their flat by the sea near Bournemouth, and plan to call in at B’s aunt and uncle’s in Lymington on the way back.  I decide to break our journey down with lunch in a pub in the New Forest, so after a bit of research in the Good Pub Guide, I settle on the Three Tuns in Bransgore.

Getting there however proves a bit more of a challenge. First we miss the turning off the A31, then nearly miss the next turning as well.  Approaching the village, we see signs for the Three Tuns Beer Festival which is on that weekend, but then encounter a Road Closed sign – looks like sewer works. So we turn round and follow the diversion signs, and come back into the village the other way – no sign of the pub. The Guide said the pub was opposite the church so we follow signs to a “Community church”, but that is clearly not the place, and then find ourselves on the wrong side of the roadworks again.

So putting pride aside, I wind down the window and ask a lady passing by – but she’s not a local and has no idea. Further on, I have to resort to getting out and asking a passing cyclist, and at last get some directions – “opposite the church”. Anyway we eventually find the place, an attractive thatched building, with a very full car-park. There are bouncy castles and slides outside but we go on  in to the bar. There is a restaurant area as well, serving more sophisticated dishes such as rabbit pie, pan-fried sea bass, and garlic prawns, but as we’re expecting to eat out in the evening, we settle for the bar menu.

The pub is pretty busy and the service at the bar very slow, but finally I get to order – venison pasty for me and chicken Caesar salad for B. There is a range of four local beers plus Doom Bar, but we have the Chilean Sauvignon Blanc and some water – that takes the bill to £37, so not a cheap place. The venison pasty is excellent – full of meat, and more like venison en croute. The accompanying chips though are only lukewarm, and the apple and shredded carrot garnish distinctly odd.  The Caesar salad is full of chicken, anchovies and fresh croutons, but the chicken itself lacking in flavour.

As the pub is “opposite the church” it fills up with guests for a wedding, including a giant of a man who fills the doorway and has to stoop under the low roof beams. The beer festival will feature various musicians, but there weren’t any there at the time. Outside the kids are playing happily, and a hog roast is doing good trade, as a steam traction engine pulls up. Clearly a fun place to be – once you find it.

That evening we are in Southbourne, and after a healthy walk along the promenade we head out to a little local Italian called Café Riva on Fisherman’s Walk, Boscombe overcliff.  The place is very simple, looking more like a beach café than a restaurant proper, but the menu is very varied, and the service prompt and friendly.  To start I have the beef carpaccio – a generous portion with rocket and onion garnish.  B has scallops and chorizo, which is excellent, coming with a tangy sauce. P goes for the mussels – a huge pot, in rich wine and cream sauce – while M decides she doesn’t want much, so chooses the melon and prosciutto, which nonetheless is also large.

For my main course I choose the fish of the day: brill. This turns out to be two large fillets, with green sauce, accompanied by excellent chips. Sadly I only manage to eat half, and although the waitress offers, we can’t really take the remainder away.  B orders the fillet steak, which comes a little more well done than the “rare” she ordered, but is still very good. P orders the extremely rich sounding chicken roulade – stuffed with spinach and cream cheese, in a creamy sauce – which he does manage to finish, but only just. M has the tagliatelle mediterrean – a vegetarian option, which she says is very good.   With three bottles of wine between us the bill is just under £130 for the 4 of us, excellent value for such good food served in unpretentious and friendly surroundings.

The next day we take a foot ferry across from Tuckton Bridge to Mudeford flats to see the £170,000 beach huts. Not for us I think. We arrive for an early lunch at the Beach House Cafe, another place that looks like a simple cafeteria. But in fact again the menu is interesting, and it is waiter service.  The starters look interesting (eg calamari) but we just have main courses.  I go for the fish of the day again – this time it’s hake on mushroom risotto. This is full of flavour, with the risotto an excellent support.  B has the mussels here, again in a creamy sauce, but not too rich. They’re tasty, but not as full and plump as she really likes them.  M has the fish pie which comes in a traditional steel dish, covered in thick golden topping with a huge prawn sticking out – seems like a fine example of the dish. P chooses the aubergine tian, which looks something of a mess on the plate. Lots of tomato sauce is topped with mushy looking aubergine and courgettes, but he seems to like it well enough.  B and I have a bottle of wine, while the others have a local cider – very pale looking, bringing the bill to about £75.

Day 3 and we head into Bournemouth and on the rich enclave of Sandbanks for a little nose around. Properties on offer at around £7 million, but there seem to be a lot for sale, so maybe you could drive a a hard bargain. From there we go into Poole, and choose the Banana Wharf,  overlooking the harbour for lunch. It’s a big place, but pretty quiet on a Monday lunchtime. The menu here is very extensive, so it takes us a while to choose. Eventually P decides on the marinara linguine, at which point the waitress points out there is a “two-for-one” offer on pasta and pizza. As M was going to choose pizza anyway, this is a good deal for us, but rubbish marketing, as there was no indication outside, and we’d been expecting to pay the full price.  The linguine is good, without masses of tomato sauce, and M’s pizza with tuna and anchovies, very thin and crispy.   B has the Eight King Prawns, hot in a garlic sauce – very good.  But the highlight in terms of presentation at least was the chicken fajitas I ordered. This arrives on a specially designed wooden tray, with the chicken (mounds of it) in a sizzling tray and the accompanying guacamole, soured cream, tomato relish and cheese in separate pots at the back, with the wraps folded in a rack on the side.  The wraps were a bit heavy, but the chicken really tasty. We have one bottle of wine (guess what, Chilean Sauvignon Blanc) while P&M have San Miguel.  This brings the bill to £66, again good value.

After lunch we say goodbye to P&M and head over to Lymington. J&E have booked us in for an early dinner at The Mill at Gordleton  just a short drive away. This is an almost ridiculously romantic setting, with a short walk from the car park over a little softly lit bridge across the mill stream to the hotel which is covered in creepers, with attractive steel sculptures spotlit in the garden.  There’s  a terrace area for summer meals, but this evening we are inside. We are first in, so get a lovely table by the window overlooking the garden, but the place does fill up pretty well for a Monday night.  Inside the décor is a combination of attractive paintings and some rather large and garish silk flowers, but the overall style is very polished – much more so than any of our other meals this weekend.

Three of us order from the set menu, but B chooses from “Signature” a la carte menu. She has the Asian spiced gravadlax of organic salmon with cucumber raita and chilli naan to start.  The salmon itself is nothing remarkable, but the accompaniments are good, and it is elegantly presented.  For main course she has the Devonshire duck breast in a cherry brandy sauce.  This is a large portion of beautifully pink duck, which comes with sweet potato fondant and  buttered greens. Definitely a good choice.  

Both J&E have the goats cheese starter, which is an ample portion, while I have the curried parsnip soup of the day – a rich warming broth. E and I then have the salmon and prawn “en pappiette”. This is a dramatic presentation of lightly charred parchment (not edible – we tried!) enfolding the fish, with potatoes and courgettes in a light sauce.  J orders the lamb, and asks for it not too pink, which is how it arrives. The main courses are accompanied by a dish of seasonal vegetables (ie nothing very interesting) nicely cooked al dente.

For dessert, I have the crème brulee – another large portion which I don’t finish – J has ice cream with ginger, and E a sorbet.

The wine list starts at £18 for the house wines (Pinot Grigio and Malbec), there are special offers on bin-ends, and a good range of wines by the glass. We chose an Argentinian Viognier (Alma Mora, San Juan 2009/10) at £22, and we also had two bottles of water and coffees.  

Several of the waiters were quite young and probably inexperienced, so were a little hesitant, but this didn’t really detract from a lovely evening. The owner was at one table with her daughter and friends, and happily chatting to the guests. And to top off the romantic style, as we were leaving we saw that one couple had been presented with a plate of chocolates, with “Happy Anniversary” written in chocolate around the edge.

The set menu was good value, so all this luxury came to just £174 for the 4 of us – you just need to find a romantic partner!

Return to the Fish and Grill

After the previous unhappy experience at the Fish & Grill in South Croydon, I wrote to complain, and got a very good reply from Malcolm John’s PA, with a welcome offer of a free bottle of champagne next time we visited. So as our friend H was visiting, we thought we’d share it with her.  The PA made the booking for us, and sure enough when we turned up the house champagne (normally £39) was on ice at the table.

It was a busy Friday evening, but the service was prompt and attentive with the bread basket (a very tasty selection) coming quickly, though the lead waitress still didn’t smile much.  The choice of starters is impressive, and mains live up to the restaurant’s name. In the end we had the scallops with pomegranate which were excellent, the yellow fin tuna tartare with ginger and white radish which is always very good and deep fried squid with courgettes and artichoke – OK but not so special.

The place was getting quite lively now, but the waiters were very good at keeping people happy and enjoying the evening, giving a nice feel to the place: smart but not formal.

The market fish of the day was Dover sole, which H went for.  It was a good sized fish, and came with a good pile of hot crisp chips. B’s choice was stir-fried Atlantic Prawns, also a good size, with plenty of depth of flavour. I had the seafood mixed grill – a fine selection of swordfish, sea bass, prawns and mussels – good but probably just the sum of its parts.  We washed this down with a couple of bottles of Argentinian Viognier at £23 each, bringing the total with service to £154 for a very pleasant evening.

So top marks to Malcolm John for handling our complaint well, and for another good meal.  The gesture won’t have cost them much, but has re-confirmed us as regulars there, and at his other restaurants.

Fish restaurant near Brentwood

Over in Essex, we go with M&S to Alec’s near Brentwood. It’s in a very pretty location opposite a cricket pitch and with good views down over the valley. And inside is very attractive too : elegantly laid table with plenty of space between them,  interesting picture of crustacean on the walls – for Alec’s specialises in fish and seafood.  It’s a Friday night so we’ve been told we have to book at 7pm and be prepared to hand the table back by 9pm – an arrangement I’ve never liked since Conran first started doing it.  So to be on the safe side,  we turn up at twenty to seven – to be told our table was booked for quarter past!  Anyway we sit down straight away, order some wine (NZ sauvignon blanc @ £18) and beer, and turn our attention to the menu.

There is a wide range of interesting sounding fish and seafood starters plus a crispy duck and an asparagus salad;  main courses include several different fish dishes (some quite expensive at £25 - Dover sole, wild seabass, turbot, lobster), plus a small number of meat dishes – steak, lamb, pork.  After ordering we get the bread (good), and some very large green olives.

M has grilled mussels and I have razor clams, which come with similar crusted toppings, mine with more chilli -  very good.   B has sashimi (tuna, salmon and cod) with pink ginger and wasabi – also very good. S has white crabmeat ravioli with asparagus and tomato, which she says is good, but looks a bit heavy to me.

The sun shining through the window makes the place look bright, and it fills up pretty quickly, with Essex’s great and good in their finery. One table of eight seems to have been allowed to book for 8pm, but otherwise it seems we are all eating against the clock.

Main courses are also impressive.   S’s roast cod is excellent – flaky, tasty with a good little crust on it. M’s battered cod and chips is more ordinary – but what do you expect?   B has grilled monkfish and king scallops with Atlantic prawns in a “lemon butter sauce” – it’s all tasty but the sauce is much richer than you would expect and she’s not able to finish it.  My hake with Asian fish sauce is delicate and tasty, very good value.  We also have some side dishes, but they are nothing special.

It’s now ten to nine, as we are presented with the dessert menu.  There are some interesting options, but we’re not up for it, so M and I order liqueur coffees.  We’re then asked to leave the table and go upstairs to their lounge to finish our wine and have the coffees.  As it happens that’s fine – but I wonder what would have happened had we ordered dessert. We hadn’t loitered over the food – the timing was all down to them.

Upstairs is nice too – rather modern seating, but comfortable enough, and a piano player being ignored by everyone –  a pretty thankless job.

Anyway it all comes to £211 for 4 before service- but that was with 4 bottles and the coffees.  Impressive food and location – but a shame about the booking policy.  Maybe going earlier in the week would be a more relaxing experience.

Lunch at Piccadilly

After 2 hours slogging round the Royal Academy looking at the Summer Exhibition, we needed some serious sustenance nearby. With our friends M&P we head to Swallow Street and Fishworks. There is a branch in Richmond that we’d been to before and liked, so we’re pretty hopeful about this one.

Fish is laid out on ice on the slab by the door, and the whole feel is of somewhere serious about its fish. It’s not too busy so we get a nice table easily enough. I order a Viognier off the “Reserve List”, only to be told they don’t have it, and am offered a more expensive one (£24) instead.

As well as an extensive range of choices on the menu - most mains at around £15, though some up at nearer £20 - there is a specials board with options at £24, and we are also shown some fish for sharing, including a huge sea bass.

But we stick with our standard selections. P has whitebait to start, which disappears without trace, so I assume they were good. M and I have the fish soup which I think is a bit disappointing – not peppery enough and the rouille doesn’t have any real kick; it also goes cold quickly.

For mains, M&P both have filleted sea bass which they say is very good, accompanied by a red onion salad and chips. B has yellow fin tuna with black pepper and a rocket salad, which is cooked beautifully rare, and is very tasty. I have the Dover ray with capers, which must originally have been a huge fish, as my sizeable portion looks to be about one tenth of the whole thing. It’s a little overcooked on the thin end, but the flavour of the thick side is very good.

Service is OK rather than anything special, but at a bit over £40 a head overall, it’s very good value – though you could easily be tempted into spending more.