A tapas and an English

 We're going over to Teddington, so I do some research on restaurants there.  The Wharf looks likes it would be nice, overlooking the river. But it's closed on a Tuesday when we will be there. After looking at a few others, I decide on Bar Estilo, a tapas place, because the menu is very extensive.  

We arrive around 2pm - they are open all afternoon, though it closes at 7pm - and there are quite a few people in there, considering it's early in the week. You enter through a pair of heavy curtains, perhaps more French in style, into a large room, with several sections to it, including an empty smarter looking area and a bar.  There's a lot of wrought iron around and the feel is Moorish rather than Spanish. That's reflected in several of the dishes - lamb kofte mezze, and pinchos (skewers) in Moorish spices. Music is mainly a mix of Latin and Spanish (Santana and Rodriguez). 

We're welcomed by a cheeky young waiter who pretends they are fully booked. He keeps up the chatter throughout - saying he couldn't get the duck wrap to rap, only sing. More serious staff are around too.  We order the white Rioja (£26) and some garlic bread with cheese and chorizo to keep us going while we decide what to have.  It's suggested that we between us we order 2 dishes from each of the veggie, meat and fish columns, though the paella at a neighbouring table looks good too. In the end we are a bit more modest.

The bread is lovely. The melted cheese has loads of garlic in it, and a slice of chorizo on top - I'd expected it just to be small pieces mixed in.   Chicken livers is a sizeable dish in a piri-piri sauce, which has a nicely judged kick - clearly there, but too dominant. It's not densely reduced in sherry like the one in Mar y Terra, so is lighter, but it works well. Three lamb skewers are well-cooked through, though the "Moorish spices" aren't very evident.  Prawns pil-pil - always ordered if on the menu - come piping hot and sizzling. Lots of chilli, and garlic slices cooked to brown. The duck wrap is the least impressive - 4 pieces, but not very well filled and a somewhat heavy wrap. The accompanying sweet chilli sauce, however, is not the anonymous gloop you often get, but a good strong hit. We also have a very nice rocket and manchego salad. 

For us, this was plenty, though several other dishes were tempting too.  With a second bottle and a modest 10% service, this comes to just over £100, very good value. Definitely one to consider if you are in the area.

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Meeting up with old friend D at Hampton Court, she has suggested the Mute Swan. next to The Mitre. We have been there some years before, eating downstairs in the bar, but this time we are shown up the iron spiral staircase to a largely empty upstairs dining room. This means we get a choice of tables so can choose one by the window, with something of a view of the Palace. 

More people do arrive later, but it never gets busy and by the time we leave we are almost the only ones still there.  The waiter is attentive - he has nothing else to do - so we get our wine, a £25 Chilean SB quickly. 

B naturally has to have the scallops. Four large ones came with an interesting, slightly spicy sauce and chorizo pieces, which she thought was excellent. D has the chicken liver pate with four thick slices of toast, one of which I happily helped out with to soak up the butter with my garlic and chilli king prawns. All three starters resulted in clear plates. 

For main course, D has the fishcakes - two solid looking pieces with a mound of rocket. B's hake wrapped in proscuitto  is a little dry she says, but a good flavour. My choice of a "light bite" crispy beef salad with cashews is perhaps predictably less successful. There is nothing really wrong with the beef, other than you can't taste much meat in the crispy covering. But the salad is a mass of white cabbage and carrots, pretty tasteless even with a sort of soy sauce dressing and the nuts. It is filling though. We have sides of truffle and parmesan fries - nothing like as good as the Ivy - and a rocket and tomato salad that we don't really need. 

We share a single waffle, caramelised banana and ice cream pudding between us. With three bottles of wine and some water that brings the bill to just over £200 for three of us, including again a modest 10% service. It's been nice enough and fair value, but not somewhere I'd make a beeline for.

Lovely spot by the river

 We're meeting up with D who lives in East Molesley, so we have booked into 1665 at the Mitre at Hampton Court. We had been due to go the previous week, but D had been "pinged" and had to self-isolate. No matter - the weather was better this week. We'd asked for a river view, and expected to be seated inside, but in fact we are taken outside right down to river-level. We'd read it had recently been refurbished, but seated outside we couldn't reach a judgement on that.  The sun is shining, the river is sparkling, geese are swimming around and various kayaks, sculls, launches etc pass by. There's even someone skimming along on a strange James Bond-like hydro-board. It is really a lovely spot. 

I order their South African Sauvignon Blanc at £32, but they have run out. Prices on the wine list escalate rapidly (there's a French SB at £53), so instead we just settle for the house white, an Italian Malvasia at £26. 

D arrives and we chat away. Service is attentive, but we have not decided what we want  until their third attempt to take our order.  There is a good range of choice, especially of starters, D has the roast duck with watermelon and cashew salad, which is a good sized portion. B's yellowfin tuna with pickled ginger and wasabi was more modest, but tasted very meaty. My crab "toastie" was full of flavour, and cumulatively the harissa sauce was quite a zing. 

The selection of main courses was a bit more ordinary, but did include special dishes such as a whole lobster or a rib of beef for 2. B was tempted by the crab and lobster tortellini with lobster bisque, but instead went for the pan-roasted trout with crab. This very red fillet of fish was also quite large - it must have been a monster catch. My chicken Milanese came with a deep yellow runny fried egg and "heritage" tomatoes, with which I'd also ordered truffle and parmesan fries. The meat was still juicy, the batter crisp and dry - and a size such that I struggled to finish it. D had the herb-crusted lamb fillet with "crushed" potatoes - another sizeable dish that she put away without difficulty!

We sit there for ages, enjoying the view and the wine (which is fine, if a little dull). Then D opts for the Chocolate Nemesis - gooey chocolate slice with honeycomb, marscapone ice cream and raspberries.  We did consider the flaming baked Alaska to share, but were really too full to do it justice.

With three bottles and a 500ml carafe the bill came to £250 including 12.5% service. To be fair the service had been very good, attentive and friendly. We'd had over three hours sitting chatting in a lovely sunny spot, eating and drinking well, so that seemed a pretty fair price.